Why did lewis retire and not rematch vitali?

When Tyson lost to mcbride he said when you start losing to guys like this it's time to retire. Samething with Lewis. When you start going life and death with guys you know you should bury it's time to call it a career.

 

If your heart isn't in it 110% you need to go. Has off to him for knowing when to say when unlike 99% of boxers.

 

All that goes to prove is that even sub standard version of Lewis was too good for Vitali.

If that is your best comeback you're fighting a losing battle.
(Just like VK!)

 

How long have you been watching boxing??

There are rules to this sport in order to protect the long term health of the boxers. Vitali had one of the worst cuts on the underside of the eyebrow I have ever seen. It was a technical knock out by the rules of boxing. Lennox Lewis won fair and square.

If you don't like it, watch something else

 

i think it should have been good for the devision. if lewis had come back and KO's vitali what would people say if the devision now

 

Then explain why Lewis was willing to fight other fighters after his fight with Vitali.... he just wasn't willing to fight Vitali? It really doesn't make sense. People keep saying stuff like this, but it clearly wasn't the case. Lennox was actually suing Mike Tyson to force him back into the ring.

 

...and yet still took him out within the distance!

 

He obviously wasnt. He retired.

The Tyson fight would have been an easy night's work for a lot of money. Who could blame him?

 

Let's just say Lewis was looking forward to fighting a 195lbs, 5"11 Roy Jones Jr. after winning against Vitali. Lewis was on record saying he "still has a good year or so in front of him and wants to unify the belts again".

Then the WBC ordered him to rematch Vitali and suddenly Lewis went into hiding and realized that beating Vitali again wouldn't do much for his legacy.

But beating Jones Jr. would?

Lewis did the right thing but he was a bit of a hypocrite in the end. He pissed on us boxing fans and on his own legacy by behaving like a little fat, spoiled child that didn't want to let go of its prized belt.

 

Tyson is only half the truth. He wanted Jones Jr.:

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/article871930.ece

He said that 8 weeks before fighting Vitali. Then suddenly he changed his mind and realized he's not the man for the job anymore.

 

Exactly. He realised after fighting Klitschko that he didn't have as much left in the tank as he used to and bowed out.

...and in that state of decline still stopped Vitali!

 

Note: It was Steward who mentioned Jones; not Lewis himself. Steward was encouraging Lewis to fight on, after Tyson, and maintains to this day that Lewis still had a few fights left but, in reality, Lewis wanted out and the only thing keeping him interested was a big payday against Tyson, in a rematch.

Lewis thought the idea of a fight with Jones was ludicrous.

 

Good lord... I didn't realize that you obviously weren't following the sport at the time.