Don King set to offer Lewis £25 MILLION to face Vitali

[Otley]

For Lewis it was always cementing his legacy. Lewis would never come back for all the money in china.

[BIG H]

What a decision to make. I.e what's more important to you, your legacy as an all time great or £25 Million. I can't see Lennox coming out of retirement. I don't think he had much left to give when he fought Klitchko, whereas Klitchko was probably at his peak. I haven't seen the fight from Saturday yet, but from what I hear it doesn't look like the lay off has hurt Klitchko too much. Too risky for Big Len

[Kev]

Why do people care about legacy anyways?

Everyone talks as if a loss on a record at the end of a career ruins all the previous acomplishments but it doesn't mean anything.


How as Ali's legacy diminished by his loss to Trevor Berbick?

Or Sugar Ray Robinson?

Or Jack Johnson?

When we look back at old greats nobody even brings these fights up.

Look at Holyfield, although most think its sad that he's still fighting on and risking his health only a moron would suggest that a loss to Sultan Ibragimov means that Holyfield wasn't as good as we all thought prior to the loss his acomplishments have already been created.

In no other sport does poorer performance late on in a career affect that sportsman's legacy so why does anyone care about legacy?

I mean I don't think boxers should hang around too long after their prime for health reasons, its a risky game to play, but if I was Lewis and got offered £25,000,000 to fight Vitali and the chance to be seen as the best heavyweight in the world again I would ask myself the following question 'Am I healthy enough and can I get back into a good enough shape to have a chance to win the fight?'

If I answered yes I would be out of retirement and making that fight.

The possibility of defeat affecting my 'legacy' wouldn't matter to me at all. My acomplishments already stand, I've been the undisputed and nobody can take that away. This is a new opportunity to carve a bigger legacy AND make an absolute crapload of money and be the talk of not just boxing, but world sport all over again. Hell Don where do I sign?.........

[smashup]

Agreed
F*ck "legacy" if someones dangling a £25 mil carrot in front of you...then theres merchandise,and a slice of the PPV...
SERIOUS money

[Kev]

What a decision to make. I.e what's more important to you, your legacy as an all time great or £25 Million. I can't see Lennox coming out of retirement. I don't think he had much left to give when he fought Klitchko, whereas Klitchko was probably at his peak. I haven't seen the fight from Saturday yet, but from what I hear it doesn't look like the lay off has hurt Klitchko too much. Too risky for Big Len

See my lenghty reply above but in a nutshell why would Lewis's legacy as an all time great be at all at risk if he came back? He's 43. B Hop has lost to Taylor twice and Calzaghe and will probably lose to Pavlik but none of these losses are to the detriment of his legacy, In some ways he's even enhanced it with these losses proving that even at 43 he is a force to be reckoned with.

Legacy is soooooooooooooooo overated. If Lewis loses to Vitali it doesn't diminish his legacy one bit, it just adds a loss to his record, at age 43 after 5 years out of the sport.

In exchange for £25,000,000.

Now that's a gamble I'd be more than happy to risk.

Furthermore his legacy is actually damaged if he doesn't take the fight anyway. Critics are always murmouring about how he got lucky against Vitali and then got run out of the sport by him. If he turns down a £25,000,000 offer to prove fight him now some could argue he's just a chicken shit.

At least if he came out of retirement he would be manning up.

[BIG H]

What a decision to make. I.e what's more important to you, your legacy as an all time great or £25 Million. I can't see Lennox coming out of retirement. I don't think he had much left to give when he fought Klitchko, whereas Klitchko was probably at his peak. I haven't seen the fight from Saturday yet, but from what I hear it doesn't look like the lay off has hurt Klitchko too much. Too risky for Big Len

See my lenghty reply above but in a nutshell why would Lewis's legacy as an all time great be at all at risk if he came back? He's 43. B Hop has lost to Taylor twice and Calzaghe and will probably lose to Pavlik but none of these losses are to the detriment of his legacy, In some ways he's even enhanced it with these losses proving that even at 43 he is a force to be reckoned with.

Legacy is soooooooooooooooo overated. If Lewis loses to Vitali it doesn't diminish his legacy one bit, it just adds a loss to his record, at age 43 after 5 years out of the sport.

In exchange for £25,000,000.

Now that's a gamble I'd be more than happy to risk.

Furthermore his legacy is actually damaged if he doesn't take the fight anyway. Critics are always murmouring about how he got lucky against Vitali and then got run out of the sport by him. If he turns down a £25,000,000 offer to prove fight him now some could argue he's just a chicken shit.

At least if he came out of retirement he would be manning up.

But people will undoubtedly say and probably believe that Klitchko was better than Lewis prime for prime (if Len lost)

[Otley]

What a decision to make. I.e what's more important to you, your legacy as an all time great or £25 Million. I can't see Lennox coming out of retirement. I don't think he had much left to give when he fought Klitchko, whereas Klitchko was probably at his peak. I haven't seen the fight from Saturday yet, but from what I hear it doesn't look like the lay off has hurt Klitchko too much. Too risky for Big Len

See my lenghty reply above but in a nutshell why would Lewis's legacy as an all time great be at all at risk if he came back? He's 43. B Hop has lost to Taylor twice and Calzaghe and will probably lose to Pavlik but none of these losses are to the detriment of his legacy, In some ways he's even enhanced it with these losses proving that even at 43 he is a force to be reckoned with.

Legacy is soooooooooooooooo overated. If Lewis loses to Vitali it doesn't diminish his legacy one bit, it just adds a loss to his record, at age 43 after 5 years out of the sport.

In exchange for £25,000,000.

Now that's a gamble I'd be more than happy to risk.

Furthermore his legacy is actually damaged if he doesn't take the fight anyway. Critics are always murmouring about how he got lucky against Vitali and then got run out of the sport by him. If he turns down a £25,000,000 offer to prove fight him now some could argue he's just a chicken shit.

At least if he came out of retirement he would be manning up.

Its not about the money for Lewis, he achieved his goals made a shed full of money and beat the best around at the time. So why would he want to come back.....thats the bottom line. Personnally I would love Lewis to come back but I don't think it will happen because Lewis is happily retired knowing the fact he is mega rich and his legacy is intact.

[Fenster]

I honestly don't understand why people want a fighter LIGHT-YEARS past his best coming out of retirement?

Lewis retired undisputed champ. He beat everyone he faced. He finished healthy and loaded. That is a GREAT boxing success story.

The only people that say Vitali retired Lewis are the idiots that want Lewis back to see him LOSE.

[littlebif]

Vitali should just let it rest and be man enough to say i lost to the best heavyweight in the world.Why does he want to fight a 43 year old Lewis that has been retired for 5 years?

[Fenster]

Vitali should just let it rest and be man enough to say i lost to the best heavyweight in the world.Why does he want to fight a 43 year old Lewis that has been retired for 5 years?

To be fair, I don't think Vitali even mentioned Lewis this time, it's the usual "Lennox out of retirmenT" story that follows every heavyweight fight.

Vitali said he wants Valuev.

[El Kabong]

I would rather Vitali fight Valuev at this point....#1 it would be the two biggest guys fighting for the championship in the history of boxing and #2 Lewis has been out of boxing a lot longer than Vitali and it would bring more confusion to the division if Lewis was able to win because what would he do after that He could fight Wlad but I doubt that would happen. And who would Manny train


Vitali-Valuev....I want to see Valuev knocked the funk out!!!!!

[Trainer Monkey]

What a decision to make. I.e what's more important to you, your legacy as an all time great or £25 Million. I can't see Lennox coming out of retirement. I don't think he had much left to give when he fought Klitchko, whereas Klitchko was probably at his peak. I haven't seen the fight from Saturday yet, but from what I hear it doesn't look like the lay off has hurt Klitchko too much. Too risky for Big Len

See my lenghty reply above but in a nutshell why would Lewis's legacy as an all time great be at all at risk if he came back? He's 43. B Hop has lost to Taylor twice and Calzaghe and will probably lose to Pavlik but none of these losses are to the detriment of his legacy, In some ways he's even enhanced it with these losses proving that even at 43 he is a force to be reckoned with.

Legacy is soooooooooooooooo overated. If Lewis loses to Vitali it doesn't diminish his legacy one bit, it just adds a loss to his record, at age 43 after 5 years out of the sport.

In exchange for £25,000,000.

Now that's a gamble I'd be more than happy to risk.

Furthermore his legacy is actually damaged if he doesn't take the fight anyway. Critics are always murmouring about how he got lucky against Vitali and then got run out of the sport by him. If he turns down a £25,000,000 offer to prove fight him now some could argue he's just a chicken shit.

At least if he came out of retirement he would be manning up.

I would disagree,in many other sports guys have stuck around one year to long and it left a bad taste in peoples mouths
Willie Mays not being able to catch up to a fly ball playing with the Mets
Steve Carlton getting cut by 3 teams in one year
Joe Namath playing for the Rams
And yeah Ali-Berbick
Youve got to know when to fold em