Lewis knew lightning wouldnt strike twice and that he would probably get murdered the 2nd time around.
:goodGreat post man!I hate seeing permanent damage done to fighters that hold on too long.I am not a Lewis fan(nor am I a Vitali fan),but I admire his decision to get out and enjoy his retirement.It's great to see a retired fighter with his mind intact and a whole lot of money in the bank:good
Lewis knew it was time to go.Why risk losing the rematch,he probably did not feel he could give the training his all and did the sensible thing.It is **** for Vitali but Lewis owed nobody anything.
Colonel Nathan R. Jessup has your answer. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! We watch a sport that has rules. Rules that apply to everyone. We follow rules or fighters bleed to death. We use words like unanimous decision, tko stoppage, knockout, you use them as a punch line. I've followed boxing for years. Doctors aren't good for boxing. I say what I want to say. You want me on them walls you need me on them walls. I have neither the time nor place to say Lennox clearly won. Should the fight have been stopped? I think that the fight SHOULD THE MOTHER****ING FIGHT HAVE BEEN STOPPED! Hell mother****ing No! I'm ordering article 7, and Boxing 101. The Vitali fan has rights. Judges? We rest your honor. I said it before and ill say it again. Vitali won fair and square. I'm going back to Europe and spread word that Lennox lost. You're not going anywhere. True boxing fans guard the idiot!
Klitschko fanboys never fail to make me laugh. Vitali had his chance against a 38 year old, out of shape, unmotivated Lennox Lewis whose best years were behind him. Vitali had the upper hand early in, and blew it when Lennox dug deep, and came back to maul him and stop him. One cut may be a fluke, 3 or 4 cuts is certainly not. In a rematch Lennox Lewis would have stopped Vitali, prime Lennox Lewis would have destroyed Vitali, no question. It's not Lennox's fault that Vitali doesn't have a legacy, and his best wins are Herbie Hide, Corrie Sanders and Sam Peter. The vast majority including myself really respect Vitali and are fans, but some like the OP of this thread are beyond belief. Lennox Lewis is far greater than the Klitschko's, just accept it.
He was out of shape and won by TKO imagine if he had trained ..Yeah Vitali is lucky he didn't get that rematch !
I'm not reading all the replies but I know the answer and it can from Vitali himself (just google it). He went to Lewis' house hoping to get a rematch, and Lewis was open to the idea but his mum and girlfriend (later his wife) were dead set against against it. Well V.K. left he was hoping Lewis would be able to change their minds, but it never happened. You can call him a mama's boy or whatever, but having been married now for 17 years and having a 13 year old daughter I can tell you, woman rule the world, it's just that some of us guys don't know it and strangely enough most of them are single and childless.
Wow-- I truly don't understand the drama that has taken place after this fight after all these years. It seems pretty clear to me--- 1. VK lost against the two best fighters he was in the ring against. One due to injury and the other due to cut(s). Both are legit wins. 2. It doesn't matter why Lewis didn't give the rematch. I can accept his wife and mother wanted him to call it quits. The man went out on top. 3. It doesn't matter who was ahead when those fights were stopped. I am sure there have been literally hundreds of fights where a guy was down on the cards only to pull out a win by TKO or KO. That is the beauty of this sport. A boxer can REMOVE the judges out of the picture. VK had his shot at Byrd and Lewis to take them out and he failed. Time to move on here--That stoppage was one of the most legit stoppages you will ever see in this sport. You can easily say VK was on his way to KOing Lewis, while other can just as easily say that VK was on his way to perm. and career ending eye injury. No one knows and the fight was right fully stopped.
Very correct and to compound this, The Klitschko brothers will not fight each other because it is the wishes of their Mother - Does that mean they are both ducking each other? Hardly. So why project it onto Lewis?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3L-Jx_GX4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3L-Jx_GX4[/ame] Risk and reward didn't meet. Or LL had some injury and didn't bring that up.
I also think that Lewis took the fight because it was something different like in the Rocky 4 movie. It would be cool to fight an East European like Drago in that movie, perhaps it would generate more public interest too, but he probably realised that this wasnt a Drago at all, but just another upcoming contender (albeit a pretty good one). I dont think he really wanted the first fight with Klitman, not in the real sense. He just felt this onesounded more exotic and different. NO way prime Klitman can beat prime Lewis, delusions aside.