Watched Klitschko Lewis for the first time.

Well if you had it 5-1 I can only assume you've never watched much boxing and so your opinion of the rematch doesn't really matter. In fact the scorecard itself doesn't even matter, but of course you know that.

 

In more fights than just this one, it inflames people because it always appears that the fighter stopped can continue. He isn't hurt, on the canvas, or helpless on the ropes. He's bleeding. It just is this way, naturally to folks.

That, and when the guy stopped without being hurt in a knocked out or down sense is winning. Nobody cared because Quarry was being soundly outboxed.

You STILL see people bitching that Joe Frazier was stopped on his stool in Manila. The act of pulling a fighter out who is still capable of fighting but must be saved from himself is always controversial. If it was for the heavyweight title and the guy pulled out has fought great and/or is winning? Firestorm.


Frankly, I don't care-Lewis struggled mightily, won by cuts, and I wanted to see a rematch and am still disappointed I didn't see the rematch. Vitali took that on short notice, Lewis took him lightly, a rematch with both peaked out could have been a sight.

That said, Lewis had every right to retire. Any boxer at any time does, its a sport. I still would have loved to see it, and feel that just because Vitali got cut doesn't mean he should be discounted in other matchups.

 

Well let's look at it this way. Lewis cut Vitali not once, not twice, but three times. So obviously Lewis hits a little harder than most fighters, in fact he hits harder than damn near any fighter who ever fought. Secondly, when cuts heal, they never really heal, they tend to leave scar tissue, which makes it easier for them to open up again. But of course you know all this..so this is just basic review. Now my guess would be that Lewis would likely target that left eye of Vitali's were there ever to be a rematch. That's just the smart thing to do, and if nothing else, Lewis as ring smart. So I think if they fought again within a years time, there would be damn good chance of at least one or two of the cuts opening up again. And it's not unlikely that lewis creates a few more along the way. Lewis' punches obviously have some kind of ability to produce cuts on Vitali so it's probably more of a question of how many, not whether or not any will occur.

 

Great response. Sometimes, like in the Frazier- Ali III fight, fighters have to be protected against themselves. Certainly in Lewis - Vitali fight it was a legitimate stoppage and if the fight continued Vitali could very easily have suffered permanent eye damage. One would hope that Vitali fans would understand this and actually applaud the decision to stop that fight. Truth is it should have been stopped a couple of rounds earlier.

As for a rematch, what can I say, I'm a boxing fan, so it would have been nice to see. To me both those fighters fought their hearts out and it was an epic albeit somewhat sloppy fight. I remember Lederman saying it was "Gotti-Ward of the highest caliber" or something along those lines.

 

Lewis was sucking air much more than VK & the way LL crashed down onto his stool before the final round tells me HE's the one that woulda gotten KO'ed if it continued.

Get real...:deal

 

Niether of those fighters was going to quite that night, that's for damn sure. They both fought like warriors.

 

Lewis WAS motivated and in shape. Didn't train at all? You guys go so far overboard that it isn't funny. Lewis being in great shape is the only reason he was still on his feet after 6 rounds. NO MAN who is out of shape would have recovered from that 2nd round with Vitali.

 

Lewis only "recognized" that his time was over when he couldn't get Tyson or Roy Jones Jr in the ring... and was forced to either fight Vitali again or be stripped by the WBC.

 

Is that the only time that you have seen Vitali fight? He was leaning on Lewis making Lennox carry his weight. How on earth did Vitali stand on his own two feet directly afterward... and walk all the way across the ring to his corner if he was about to fall flat on his face? Use your head.

 

Lewis always allowed opponents into a false security then ko'd them. I don't see why this fight was any different.

 

Lewis may or may not have crashed onto his stool....but at least he knew where the **** his corner was at that point, unlike VITLAY :deal

Lewis wasn't the one staggering around like a drunk for most of the 6th round either.

 

You know I half started replying to this and then said screw it, it isn't worth my time.

 

The point everyone always misses, is Lewis is the only guy that's been consistently able to land on Vitali with good shots.

Lewis was big enough and strong enough to nullify Vitali's unorthodox "lean back" way of avoiding punches.

That was the reason he got cut, and that was why the rest of the left side of his face got torn up. Lewis is big, has a very long reach, and has power. He kept throwing right hands, and kept landing them.

All of the cuts occured after Steward told Lewis to forget boxing, and just fight rough.

IMO, Vitali should have won that in Round 2. He had Lewis in a fair bit of trouble, cut couldn't finish him. Lewis was fighting back, but in real trouble I think.

But by the end of the fight, Lewis was walking through anything Vitali threw at him. So either Lewis' chin somehow got a whole let better, or there was effectively not enough on Vitalis punches anymore to bother Lewis.

If you can't keep Lewis off you, how are you going to beat him?

 

... or got ko'd himself.

 

No... you replied to it.