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Lewis would have learned his lazy lesson for coming in like a fat slob in the first fight, he would have whipped his 38 year old body into the best shape he could, and he would---in typical vengeful Lennox fashion---have exacted a startlingly brutal revenge upon Klitschko that we would still be talking about today. That's how he did it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiTAN4UVXTc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP44XPLEsqs
You might be right blockbuster. But that begs the question then... Why didn't he?
Honestly I think prime 4 prime Vitali and Lewis are about equal, but I do think the best of Lennox would get the better of Vitali and I rate him above.
Then again I can fully appreciate the other side of the coin as well. Lennox fought a lot of his great fighters when they were not prime and he had some questionable struggles against pretty average opponents, not McCall and Rahman mind you, he had difficulties against an aged, drug addicted Tucker, Frank fucking Bruno (say no more!), luckily beat Ray Mercer, couldn't KO Mavrovic and on and on.
Vitali NEVER seemed to struggle with any opponent, even Lewis himself! As another man pointed out apart from the usual pro-Vitali stuff, body language told a lot, Lewis did not want no more, Vitali wanted more!
I rate Lennox Lewis as the #1 all time but I have no issue with anybody who regards a Klitschko there over Lewis, especially Vitali!
I feel at this time, Lewis would have trained and focussed harder but Vitali would have done the same and he was so confident and so hungry for Lewis I think Vitali would have beaten him. I think Lewis knew Vitali would have got him the next time round too and that's why he retired. Especially after seeing him harpoon Johnson like he did which nobody had ever done before. The man had fire in his eyes then and he wanted Lewis bad!
A wise choice for Lennox!
Vitali UD Lennox!
The Lennox that wasted Rahman a couple years earlier than hypothetical rematch, I would edge Lennox!
don't believe Lennox when he says he was out of shape... Lewis was training for a fight that fell through, he was in shape. We've seen Lennox out of shape, and he gets KO'ed on those days... he was I great shape to withstand what he took from Vitali.
In a re-match, Vitali all day. to this day, I think the punch that opened up Vitli is a thumb. I'm not sure why, but there's a few punches that land on Vitali with the edge of Lennox glove... was it on purpose? there's no telling what these guys train for.
did Lennox get away with holding and hitting..yes.. did he hold Vitali behind the head as well, yes. did the ref seem one sided..yes.
the eye was bad, but Vitali ABSOLUTELY wanted to go on...Lewis, he was happy is was stopped. Lewis jumped at a chance to fight Wlad, but when a rematch was asked, he retired...lol.
It would all depend on whether Lennox was actually capable of getting himself into better shape for a rematch. No doubt he was a better fighter than either Klitschko in my mind, at his best he would have smoked either.
no doubt Lennox is a better fighter? cuz his style is more conventional? Vitali has never been behind in a fight...EVER.
*his two losses should've prob been no contest.
*his KO ratio is one of the highest in boxing history.
*he's still fighting and dominating and looks like he could fight till 50 if he wanted too.
How can an argument be made that Lennox is a better fighter, ?
I'm sorry but I have to back my man stinkybug up on this. Lewis did in fact look great in that fight. He did not even LOOK too bad FOR tht fight. He came in only 5lbs heavier- FIVE than his usual weight and had been training for another tough opponent (Johnson) before taking the Vitali fight for which Vits only had 2 weeks to prepare as well! He fought better than he had on many occasions except he met very stiff resistance.
I also agree the cuts were caused by a lot of thumbing, side gloving, an elbow etc and certainly not from the force of Lewis's punches, all of which is common knowledge. I mean come on look at the gashes and get real! Those are tear wounds not blunt trauma injuries. A punch that hard would knock anybody out.
I really think Lennox and Vitali are more or less on equal footing prime for prime. I like Lewis and he looks smoother than the more robotic Vitali but Vitali moves with a surgical precision and is always more alert than show pony Lewis. Lewis definitely hits harder though and shows more variety
Lewis and V.Klitschko are both such tremendous giant technicians, boxer-punchers and dominant champions that neither of these guys deserved to be bashed in favour of the other. And both provoded us with some great battles and gun fights to maul over.
The argument for Lewis is that he beat the other candidates for GOAT HW of his generation in Holyfield and Tyson, was ducked by Riddick Bowe who he beat in Olympics anyway and defeated every other boxer he ever faced in arguably the strongest era in HW history.
There was no rematch because Lennox decided that was it, be was through hitting and being hit.
He had money, fame and chess. How can anyone question his choice?
I'm not questioning his choice. Good for Lennox, sincerely.
But he did want to fight and sign his legacy which lets face it was kind of dented by Vitali a little bit, then saw the demolition job on Johnson and thought fuck that!
I really think Vitali would have won a rematch at that stage of Lennox's career. And I think virtually every non-biased watcher did.
Lennox may have lost because he was old and did not have the desire to dig deep and train hard again after all the things he had achieved. Therefore he made the right decision. That also does not mean Vitali had a greater legacy than him.
So so true masterclass.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
Why bother with a rematch..look what happened the first time when lewis wasnt even botherered.
Vitali had lewis in trouble and lewis had vitali in trouble.
Vitali is 8 years younger and would have had all the advantages in the rematch but it never happened because lewis ultimately had nothing to prove..
For everyone that wants to pull the Lennox Lewis "Look at the state of his face" defense :rolleyes: I might remind you all that Quarry got a rematch with Ali when their first fight was stopped by cuts. If Ali was a good enough sport to do it why not Lennox?
....because Lennox knew his time was up. Yeah Lennox could have gotten better prepared but so could Vitali because he was set to fight Cedric Boswell. Yeah we all hear about how Lewis was supposed to fight Kirk Johnson which was a LAUGHABLE match to begin with but Vitali wasn't training to fight Lennox but he jumped in and gave Lennox a run for his money and Lennox is lucky as hell that cut happened because he was GASSED. Anyone who looks at the fight objectively knows that.
*if Lennox wants to retire, more power too him... but stop saying u would've done this or that cuz u had the chance and didn't do it. hey, he rematched everyone else that beat him..and the Vitali fight was surely one that needed a re-match. if it would be such an easy fight, then why not do it?
*Ive seen Lennox on an interview, a one on one thing..and man, he's such an arrogant dk.
*Lets be very clear... Lennox caught Vitali... but Vitali HURT Lennox more than once. I think it's the second round where Lennox held and would've gone down had he not held.
*Lennox style is prettier, but Vitali fights like an old style Russan..not pretty but effective.
*does Lennox hit harder? that's debateable. Vitali hit Lennox as hard as I've seen any heavyweight get hit... maybe Lennox didn't go down, but he never fought again.
*OR, he met his match.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
I dont know what you want to happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong
Its obvious vitali had lennox hurt in the fight and lewis had to dig deep but lets be clear that was the hardest fight vitali ever had.
Is it not fair to think that vitali at 8 years younger than lewis and with all lewis achievements it was the right move to call it a day.
I think its unfair to count out a much better, fitter version of lewis in a rematch to a version of vitali that would have fought exactly the same AND his greatest ever fight was against lewis.
I can clearly see that vitali was giving lewis some serious trouble and he was looking gassed but how many times in this great divison have you seen one shot change everything!
Lewis has never lost a decision and has never been beaten so badly the fight had to be stopped.
A heavyweight punch stopped lewis on two occasions in which he came back and rectified the situation in the rematch.
Why take a rematch with a guy 8 years younger than you that you already beat?
If vitali won, lewis would have rematched in a heartbeat but lewis done enough to achieve the result he wanted and i believe by the 5th round he probably decided in his mind that this was his last fight anyway with all the punishment they were both taking.