What if Lewis had beaten Vitali by decision?

I don't think that it ever could have gone to the score cards.

Argue it whichever way you want, but something was going to give and soon.

 

Lennox had no legs left. Vitali pushed him from one side of the ring to the other and the bell rang. Lewis dropped on his stool. What other guy muscled Lewis backwards 10 steps? The Klitschko plan was to take the fight to the late rounds. Does anyone really think that was the Steward/Lewis plan for how they wanted the fight to transpire?

And what other heavies have lost their legs and cameback to win the fight?

 

Zadfrank nails it.

 

This would happen or the scorecards were biased, always some excuse

 

Umm well Lennox won for 1

and YEa thats why Vitali hadnt thrown a powerful shot since round 2 and was hanging on for dear life in the 6th. Lennox was past against a very good opponent but he won fair and square and was the won doing damage

 

Vitali did very well, but to me he had shot his bolt by the 6th. Actually, by about the 4th round.
It was clear to me Lewis was carrying the big artillery and he was beginning to land it. Still though, it's interesting to speculate on, since Lewis looked very tired by the end of the fight. Both did, but Lewis more so.

 

I might open a can of worms here, but Vitali always looks tired... even as early as the 2nd round. But he keeps going just the same. The same, to lesser degree, can be said about Lewis however.

 

Vitali has never shown tired legs in a fight though. And that was the first time I'd ever seen Lennox in there with bad legs. And bad tired legs in a heavyweight fight aren't on the guys that win.

And you're correct. Vitali always looks tired and always has. Hell, he looked gassed against Dickie Ryan and then the guy always recovers in that 1 minute rest time between rounds and goes out and throws 60 punches. But he has yet to show deterioration of the legs and if he does, he look like a newborn giraffe in there.

 

Vitali didn't throw a big shot the entire fight. The right hand he hit Lewis with in the 2nd round was just his typical right hand he throws. Nothing more and Lennox is fortunate it didn't land about 4 inches lower instead of the cheekbone ala Rahman punch placement.

When Vitali see's a guy is ready to be taken, that's the time he throws big shots in there. I don't know if you watched the guy's whole career or not, but he's done the same thing and the Ribalta/Billups/etc. is no different than Williams/Sanders/Johnson and so on.

The guy is a world class finisher though, and you have to wait for him to put it in 4th gear. Might be the second round or the 10th, but when a guy is ready to go, they go. Saad Muhammad did that also. The trick is to keep those kinds of fighters out that 4th gear & the only guy to negotiate thru vitali's top gear was Hoffman. And that guy was never the same fighter & he took some big big shots in there.

 

The hilarious hypocracy of the Klit fans as they like to shout:

1. Shout about officials scoring the fight 4-2 up until the - well it could easily by 3-3 for Lennox (3,5,6), but I suppose the officials had it in favour of

2. Complain about an official stopping the fight, despite them giving him 4rounds after the cut started

So they like the officials favourable scorecards but not the officials unfavourable stoppage, ironic?

 

It shocking how so much speculation is taken from a 6 round loss. It was six rounds! The fight was clearly starting to change to Lewis favor as well, so it just amazes me how much that fight did for Klit fans, but even Vitali himself. He bought into that hype too, and I think it mentally made him a better fighter.

 

1 call is a ref's call. The other is the judges call. 2 different things.

 

Regardless they jack off over the judges call and cry to the cows come home about the ref/doctors call either though both are equally controversal

 

You forgot the Klit-ites also defend VITLAY for wanting to go at the risk of his eyesight against an ATG heavy and in the next breath defend him for quitting against feather fist Byrd because 'to continue would have risked permanent damage'

Of course the truth is he didn't really want to continue against Lewis, the post fight hissy fit was all for the cameras - VITLAY knew that fight was going to be stopped if you ask me.

 

Can't really remember but it was the usual suspects, Widdow, Ruskull etc. Some combination thereof. There was a huge long thread-probably the longest thread ever on esb and it started out with one or several of those guys trying to prove it was a headbutt with screencaps, Radar made them look silly, then it switched to laces-again with pics, Radar made them look silly and finally it was only a little nick which Lewis turned into six or seven deep gashes by using his dreadlocks, which apparently are very sharp and rough. I presume Klitschko got Lewis' entire head inside his mouth at some point off-camera. I don't know how you might find the thread, other than just look for the one with the most replies. I went on for months