Was Lewis-McCall I stopped prematurely?

Well, the referee was the one who had Lennox's gloves, could feel how steady he was, all that.

Lewis wasn't stumbling around but he seemed pretty out there.

 

The ref saw a Don King fighter with a sniff of glory. Tell me, another heavyweight champ that's been stopped so prematurely?*






* Yeah, Mike Weaver of course. Bingo! :good

 

Lewis fell into the ref's chest a second before the ref waived it off. He was without balance, and IMO would have gone down and out if the ref had not called it off.

Still I wish Lewis had a 2nd chance. But mentally maybe it was better that he didn’t, as he convinced himself it was just a lucky punch and quick stoppage. If the match had gone on, and Lewis went down again and out, it would have been much harder for him mentally to come back.

 

Yeah, good point, I've never really thought of it like that before. I suppose that's why i've always felt Frazier's loss to Foreman was the worst from any reigning heavyweight champion. He'd have probably been better being sparked, as he may have believed he could beat George again, when, in reality, him getting knocked down again & again so easily must have embarrassed him for a good while and totally destroyed his belief he could beat Foreman.

 

I'm one of the few Lewis fans who thought the stoppage was fine. Lewis was hurt the ref stopped the fight..end of story. It would have been unlikely that Lewis would have recovered from that and it was more likely than not that he would have been KO'd. As a general rule I'm not a big fan of questioning the ref's and second guessing their decisions when safety is an issue.

 

I don't actually think the stoppage was that bad, it's just that I've never seen a heavyweight champ not given another chance like that.

 

no..............lennox stumbled towards the ref.....he was done:smoke:smoke

 

A knocked down fighter has until a count of 9 to be back on his feet and convince the ref that he is able to continue.

As I recall, Lewis got up from the knockdown and held his gloves to his chin as the ref continued counting. When the ref reached "9" he asked Lewis a question and then told Lewis to walk towards him (the ref) Lewis took a step and staggered backwards/sideways.

Lewis clearly wasn't fully composed yet. The ref couldn't really give him a standing 8 count right away. I think he did the right thing, as the rules dictate.

 

Holmes was in worse condition and was allowed to carry on, modern referees would have waved him off.

Heres Larry getting a gift.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_LijnCa33Uw


The refs count is slow and by 10 Holmes is staggering away from him but he lets it go and he staggers badly.

The worst ref today is Cortez who let Holyfield get up at 9 and three quarters and a fully 19 seconds before he wave dthe fight to continue against Bowe only for him to fall down again without another punch landing.

 

The rules are not clear at all on that. One referee may literally count twice as fast than an other.

All we can do is look at similar circumstances of fights around that time.

And that shows that this fight was stopped faster than nearly any other fight, especially considering it was a title fight (and he was champion).

Some other fights that come to mind:


Golota-Lewis: Golota wobbled all over the ring (literally); much worse than Lewis did. He was allowed to continue.
Holmes - Snipes: Holmes crashed into the ringpost, got up wobbly and slow yet was allowed to continue.
Holmes - Shavers II: Holmes could hardly walk, had to use the ropes to get up.
Bob Foster vs Joe Frazier 1st knockdown: Down on the canvas really long, got up with buckling knees and staggered into the referee. This fight was two decades ago though.
Holyfield vs Bowe III: Holyfield lay on the canvas motionless like a corpse for a full five or so seconds, then got up really slowly, staggered up and in total was given 15 seconds to recover while hardly responding to the referee. And he wasn't champ like Lewis was.

And there are many more.


The only one that was stopped equally premature, in my opinion, is Tyson-Carl Williams. I thought he should've been given the chance to continue, even though he'd probably be left-hooked unconscious within seconds.




But as others said, in the end it may have been good for Lewis. Even if he survived and came back to win, if he wouldn't have hired Steward, he would've probably lost more in the future.

 

I think the stoppage was okay, but it's true that other heavyweight titlists have been allowed to carry on under similar scenario.

Lewis probably made the mistake of getting too close to the referee (to the point of almost falling on top of him). Larry Holmes always had that instinct to walk away from the referee, but in a way as if he's obviously readying to continue.

Of course, the DK factor is plausible.

 

Golota was in a similar state against Lewis. When he got up from the first onslaught which resulted in a knockdown, he was very unsteady while trying to clear his head. However, Cortez let him continue. Many other referees would have halted proceedings.

Lewis never quite showed the alarming signs of discomfort the way Golota did, but he was stopped. Another night, another referee, and Lewis may well have been allowed to go on.

 

I don't agree at all. Lewis showed he had the mental toughness to come back after a delibitating stoppage when absolutely destroying Rahman in the rematch. Some can, some can't, Lewis and Hearns are two who could among others. Literally hundreds did back in the 40's era and around it.

 

Absolutely That was a bull**** stoppage!!:fire