Would Vitali have beaten Lennox?

When a guy retires and stays retired it can't be called a duck.
If the argument is "Lewis retired because he didn't fancy fighting Vitali again" or "didn't believe he could win again" .... sounds like a good f*cking reason to retire.

 

Bah, this has gotten way out of hand.

A man has a right to retire or do whatever he wants. I don't appreciate me or the majority who were disappointed by Lewis' retirement being protrayed as blood thirsty savages that wanted to see the man killed in the ring, frankly I expected better. Talk about hyperbole. Nobody is saying Lewis should be forced to fight until the day that he is murdered in the ring.

Lewis/Vitali II was shaping up to be an historical HW fight clash, it was highly anticipated. There was no communication to us, the public, that Lewis' health was in danger, he would have been favored most likely. Lewis retiring after promising this fight for half a year was very disappointing. To state we should just be for happy for the man is a dishonesty, in retrospect why not, but at the time...we wanted this promised Super Fight, end of the story.

 

But would that disappointment have been eliminated had he announced his retirement before leaving the ring after the Vitali fight rather than talking about a rematch for 6 months? If so would people still be harping on him for the fact that he didn't give one? Would it have hurt his credibility?

 

- You can't have it both ways. Spinks ducked a mandatory and relinquished a title to take on a low risk high reward opponent, which you've just deemed as ok.

But according to you, Lewis fighting Tyson instead of Byrd or Ruiz, or passing up a Klit rematch to fight Sanders or more eminently retire was unacceptable.

That's contradiction at its finest. .[/quote]

No, don't get me wrong, Spinks ducked Tucker and I'm not giving him a pass. I was just pointing out why I disagreed with the analogy.

Lewis was right to fight Grant instead of Ruiz. Lewis did not fight Tyson instead of Byrd, that's a misconception. He was given permission, time, and means to meet both men...but he went back on his word. I explained all this in the other thread.

It would be if it were true.

 

In a fantasy scenario, it would have looked better.

Certainly not the reality where he said something to the effect "I'll smash him again, I'll smash both brothers on the same night. You got your rematch" Than "fight Kirk Johnson first"...which was fair, I think. But than..."****, its been a long career, happy trails. Sorry for getting everybody's hopes up"

 

And Lewis may very well have had legitmate reasons for retiring other than Vitali. Maybe Vitali wasn't the reason at all? Maybe he had a health issue that was kept private, noticed something wrong in the gym, maybe his wife said she wouldn't **** him anymore if he kept fighting..who knows!

But as an outsider, we can only work with with what we have, and give our opinion of it. Again, the timing of his announcement gives the impression he would have wanted to continue fighting if someone like Johnson would have been acceptable opponent for him. Johnson beating Vitali to become his mandatory would have made him very acceptable.

Vitali/Lewis II wasn't just a fight demanded by a fringe corner of hardcore Klitschko fans or some lunatics that want to see Lewis beaten to death, no idea why that would be implied. It was a huge deal in 2003 and maybe the last time the division had any type of serious mainstream coverage and attention in this country.

 

I was around at the time. And I couldn't have given a f*ck.

I would have thought boxing fans shouldn't need official "communication" that heavyweight boxing is a health danger.
I find it hard to believe anyone was surprised by Lewis's decision. He'd been around years. He'd been talking about Tyson and retirement ever since he eliminated Holyfield.
I certainly wasn't disappointed ..... but then I found him rather dull to begin with.

 

To be honest over at the Scene or one of those old boards, I made a sarcastic post after the first fight. "Watch Lewis will retire now and say there are no more challenges left."

 

I agree that he ducked Ruiz and Byrd. It's a matter of record.
But he beat Vitali, on short notice, and that was his last fight, he retired.

There's absolutely no way of knowing all the different things that went on inside Lewis's head, and all the thought processes involved, between the June 2003 fight and his retirement announcement in February 2004. It could be a whole load of stuff. It doesn't matter. An old champion retired.

 

I think there was no one left to get him motivated.
There was some money, and some big dangerous guy he'd already beat.

 

I don't think it was a case of motivation but this is speculative mattr of opinion.

 

I never claimed he was 39. Now who is showing their illiteracy?

 

No it isn't. Its a matter of lies spread by anti Lewis shitheads.

In 1999 in order to get the rematch with Holyfield after the judges screwed him in the 1st fight. Lewis had to sign to say he would fight the WBA mandatory challenger, or leading available contender.

At that time the mandatory was Akinwande who had already been thrown out against Lewis for cowardice in 97. It was discovered he had hepatitis and couldn't fight, so the WBA just moved Ruiz into that position, and Holyfield who had drawn and lost to Lewis into the 2nd slot.

Meanwhile Lewis had agreed to fight Michael Grant in early 2000, with the endorsement of the WBA provided he fight Ruiz next. However the whole mess ended up in the Southern District Court ( at the behest of the lowlife King ) of New York before a judge Lewis Kaplan who ordered Lewis to surrender his WBA belt in order to fight Grant, even though Lewis offered to fight Ruiz in July 2000.

And who was the cheerleader in the court advocating Lewis get stripped? That holier than thou hypocritical twat with all the ******* kids from Atlanta.

So that he got the fight with Ruiz in the August of 2000. Just another way for the Yanks to get a belt from Lewis when they had no one good enough to take it from him in the ring.

When people talk about ducking they ought to get their facts straight. When Tyson and Bowe both surrendered their belts rather than face Lewis they DUCKED him. They didn't ask to fight their mandatories first then Lewis. They simply gave up their respective belts.

Big difference.

 

What exactly was hypocritical?
Why bring someone's kids into it?