Lennox Lewis: Could Lewis Still Dominate The Heavyweight Division?

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Originally Posted by ICE COLD BOXING

if lewis would of fought byrd and retired people would be saying now that lewis ducked vitali ;)

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Thats the thing though, Lewis only retired after fighting vitali because the fight told him he was finished, he wasnt planning it as his last fight, plus he also knew that if he had carried on the outcry for a rematch between thye Two would have meant going through with it and I dont think he had enough to beat vitali

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Originally Posted by ross

I dont think he had enough to beat vitali

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Enough what, though?

Desire, hunger ... I agree. Without those all the other skills become "maybe not enough."

But given desire and hunger, Lewis' other skills would be enough. He'd have beaten Vitali had he come ready.

I just think he lost the will to come ready. It's a lot of work. Maybe his fight with Vitali helped to clarify for him that he didn't want to work as hard as he'd have to in order to put up a good fight against someone like Vitali.

But ... that's not the same as saying Vitali chased him out of his boxing career. I think he formulated his decision to retire based on what he wanted to do - not on what he was afraid he might not be able to do.

Could he have gotten himself in shape and come back to beat Vitali convincingly? I think so.
Could he dominate the HW division at this moment were he in mental and physical readiness? I think so again.

Is he too old to do so? No ...
Is he too comfortable to do so? Probably ...

So is this conversation a waste of time? Maybe ...

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Originally Posted by ross

Lewis avoided Chris Byrd for F*** sakes he said "who wants to see a lion fight a bird" ::** F****** pathetic

Who really wanted to see the heavyweight champion of the world fight a "white Buffalo" The guy is so contrived

The only "dangerous" fight lewis took was Tua and Tua wasnt even unbeaten, holyfields best win was the rematch with Moorer but we were later to find out that Moorer wasnt that good anyway, Tyson wasnt there since 90.

Akinwande dropped Lewis and got disqualified for holding when lwis was doing at least 50% of it himself after feeling some power, Mavrovitch bullied Lewis against the ropes the entire fight and was unlucky not to get the decision, same with mercer.

Lewis had only a couple of weeks to prepare for Klitschko, well same can be said for Vitali, he took the fight at short notice, he was the one who offered himself as an opponent after johnson dropped out, they had both been training the same for their bouts and Vitali was the fitter in the fight, what would it have been like if Vitali had a decent amount of time to prepare for Lennox, not much different because both were as fit as they were gonna be really, as they were already fighting that night, Lewis did well to cut Vitali but had he not, Lewis had always had stamina problems and the last round we saw was probably his last round of effort, he slumped in to his stool at the end of the round because there was no strength left in him

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Well put and fact based.

I agree with everything you said.

Ever since this thread started I've been watching clips of various Lewis fights and I realize that he was probably more chinny than any other heavy I can remember. The guy was wobbled more times than a one-legged hooker.
He made a name for himself be fighting a worn out Holy and a shot-past-his prime, in-it-for-the -money Mike Tyson.

Given Lewis the time to prepare for the style of Vitali I think Manny would have prepared him to beat him. If anything, Vitali had seen Lennox since his brother had always been touted to fight him. And Lennox probably payed no attention to Vitali whatsoever, but eventually he figured out that style. And Lewis was slumping in his corner but it wasn't like Vitali was really pressuring him enough before hand to do something about it imo.

And since when was Stamina an issue for Lewis except for about 4 fights ???

I just think that you can't take anything away from either guy they were both very good fighters....Yes Lewis has the better legacy but Vitali was damn good

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Originally Posted by Lyle

I just think that you can't take anything away from either guy they were both very good fighters....Yes Lewis has the better legacy but Vitali was damn good

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Wish we could have seen him be good against a heavyweight actually in the top 10 other then Lewis.

Sure, he had a strong showing against Lewis but he still lost. What else has he done?

Well he KO'd all but 3 people in his career...too bad injuries shortened his career. I would favor him over anyone in the division right now

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Originally Posted by Lyle

Well he KO'd all but 3 people in his career...too bad injuries shortened his career. I would favor him over anyone in the division right now

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Again, I would have too. But it's always "what if" with Vitali and what he "Could" have done. But he never showed it against top opposition besides Lewis.

...he did a lot better than Valuev did vs Larry Donald...I mean he CLEARLY won.

But he never got a real shot vs anyone who is considered "top 10"...he fought guys who were on the rise at the time and he totally beat the shit out of them.

Danny Williams
Corrie Sanders
Kirk Johnson

He fought 37 times in just 8 years which is about 4 and a half times a year......and he KO'd 33 of those 37 guys.

I think much like Riddick Bowe, Vitali's name will not be mentioned AS great but with the greats in terms of top performances. He was big he had a decent jab a HUGE right cross...he could throw combinations, he paced himself, he was smart....the list goes on. His style was awkward but it helped a bunch, he was a beast and he acted like it in every fight he had

...I'm not doubting that he didn't beat any top "10 heavyweights"...Sanders was ok...he was popular at the time, he just beat Wlad...Williams beat Tyson...Johnson was supposed to fight Lewis...etc.

Now a rematch with Byrd would have been good, Maskaev and Vitali met in the amateurs, Valuev vs Vitali would have been AWESOME Giant vs Giant and by God Vitali would have knocked that big ape out so fast Don King wouldn't know what hit him

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Originally Posted by Lyle

...I'm not doubting that he didn't beat any top "10 heavyweights"...Sanders was ok...he was popular at the time, he just beat Wlad...Williams beat Tyson...Johnson was supposed to fight Lewis...etc.

Now a rematch with Byrd would have been good, Maskaev and Vitali met in the amateurs, Valuev vs Vitali would have been AWESOME Giant vs Giant and by God Vitali would have knocked that big ape out so fast Don King wouldn't know what hit him

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We never know that we can only speculate. I get your point that Vitali could have looked good if he fought the top 10 class. But why didn't he? I seriously think that since he was cleared to fight even if the knee brace didn't feel comfortable on him that he still could have beat Rahman.

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Originally Posted by Lyle

I just think that you can't take anything away from either guy they were both very good fighters....Yes Lewis has the better legacy but Vitali was damn good

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Agreed ;)

yes. i would agree with those predictions. i think lennox could still domonate the division and become champion of the world again. there is no one in the heavyweight division at the moment and i think we need a young hungry fighter like the prime mike tyson or david tua and lighten things back up again. the best boxers in the division today are wlad klitschko and nicolay valuev.