https://www.boxing247.com/boxing-ne...nnox-lewis-never-fought-again-until-now/97063 This appears to corroborate what was earlier said concerning Lewis' Mothers input.
I'm looking forward to this so called rematch. I wonder if this is just going to be exhibition style, or if these guys will start throwing with bad intentions. Vitali is the younger of the two, and appears fitter, from what I've seen of both of them being ringside at other major fights.
I imagine that the exhibition will be a fairly civilized display of the fistic arts. I doubt that Lewis would have agreed to it otherwise, given their respective times out of the ring.
I'd be amazed if it was anything more than an innocuous exhibition for charity , both are too classy for anything else.
There were a number of factors, but his Mother played a significant part in the decision-making process, I don't doubt. Lewis also had the woman he was going to marry, Violet Chang, waiting for Lennox to put Boxing behind him, I suspect.
Lewis is a bit overweight, but he still looks like he has plenty of muscle under there, kind of like old Foreman. (Foreman actually still looked huge as of just couple years ago): This content is protected I don't think this could possibly be taken seriously as even a semi-real fight, because not only is Vitali something like seven years younger, those years matter increasingly more past the age of forty. This isn't like a thirty-one year old fighting a thirty-eight year old.
The only problem with this is Lewis himself said he'd offer the re-match multiple times AND Lewis tried to make other matches post Vitali. ( Roy Jones, and Kirk Johnson ) If you believe his mother was the reason for his retirement, she obviously had ZERO input in the above actions. Maybe his mother did want him to retire, most mothers don't want to see their son's box, but to believe this was Lewis' primary reason is absolute BS. The real reason for Lewis retirement is the WBC ordered a re-match and was going to strip his lone belt if he refused. End of.
Lewis was seen with swelling in his face a few months after he retired, which suggests he was back in the gym, and admitted to talks post retirement about coming back. So much for using his mother as a primary reason! I do not think Lewis has been sparring for years Vitali is known to work out in boxing gyms every now and then. A pity they did not re-match in 2003 or 2004. This event, if it happens will be a tame event, but if Vitali wanted to I'm more than sure he'd put Lewis down for the count. Lewis ballooned to 300 pounds by my judgment during retirement. I'm not sure what his weight is now.