The fight was close to being made after Vitlai defeated Sanders. Lewis figured it was not worth the hit to his legacy. Deep down, in a place he chooses not to reveal, he knows he was very fortunate in the first match.
Lewis knew he was not going to go out a winner and he even said so in a later interview that it was better to go out on top than with a huge payday.
The more i think about it,the more it sounds like the risk factor was to great for Lewis.The risk of losing. But like i said before,Lewis losing possibly the last fight of his career realy dont hurt or cant hurt...and here comes the word i hate...his"LEGACY". As we all know,in the fight game,fighters get old and past the torch by possibly losing there final fight. I personaly wouldn't rank Lewis no higher or lower then i do right now if he would had fought the rematch and lost. Sh!t,if thats the case and Lennox did end up losing the rematch,they could have done a trilogy.There is always room for another great trilogy in boxing IMO. IMO there is not enough great trilogys. Gatti Ward anyone...
The first and last time either Klitschko fought someone who was not a bum, stiff or paper champ and he got his face ripped off trying. TKO6. These are the facts.
Every fight you take is a risk, anybody who lands a clean shot in the HW Divison can end the night. I Disagree regarding the out come being any different, Vitali would have more than likely faded as he was starting to anyways, those shots from Lewis bothered VK just as much. whats sad is to see all the Klitschko fans still crying about this fight when its a clear loss with in the rules, but they also cry about Lewis deciding not to fight on..and why should he have? he beat everybody he has ever faced dominated his own Era, fought VK who is clearly not of that era but of this one and he won there... I guess the way it looks, is that the Klitschko fans will never let this one sleep unitl VK has a W over Lewis no matter how old Lennox is... I mean after all on that same very card, the HBO team was also in discussion about Vitali wanting to help Big George acheive his dream in winning another HW title.....:hi:
...and... ...Truly, WiDDoW_MaKeR, that is the worst comeback from a Poster I have ever seen. I cannot decide whether it is more laughable than it is cringe-worthy. :roll: At no point have I suggested that Lewis never mentioned fighting Jones and, even if this were the case I was trying to argue, Id hardly post a quote from one of his biographies, within which Lewis himself is discussing Jones Jr., would I? atsch You have either, at best, become confused at some point during this discussion or, at worst, you have deliberately re-framed and reworded suggestions I've made, in order to hide your own failure in the debate, which is the height of ignorance on your part. :verysad I have even attempted to clarify what I believed to be your misunderstanding, in my post above, by including the article I was responding to when I posted this which, for the final time, was in direct response to this Your inability to accept explanations and facts, which do not lend themselves to your own thin line of argument, shows a distinct lack of education. Whilst you dismiss very relevant evidence as something that means nothing in this matter (or irrelevant) and fail to accept your error/s, then this can only lead me to consider you a stupid person, perhaps as stupid as the day is long too stupid to be reasoning with and unworthy of any further attention. :hi:
Lennox knew he would lose the rematch because Vitali was hungry for the title and Lennox was just collecting checks at that point.
As much as i didn't like Lewis, he was smart to retire while still on top. Even though he was past his prime.
There will always be 'one last time' He beat Vitali. End of. A 2 round lead after 6 rounds isnt that much anyway.
He was over 7 pounds heavier then the tyson figth a year earlier. FFS he was 3 pounds heavier then Lewis - Rahman I.
If he really wanted to he could of had a volutary defence or vacated and chose who he wanted. He didn't.