Your thoughts on Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko?

[Gandalf]

Shite I love primates...sign me up.I think Vitali had Lewis if his face had not fallen apart.

I think so too. Lewis knew it was time to go after that scare. Not in as decent shape as he used to be and on the slide somewhat.

[HattonTheHammer]

really good fight that got going right from the 2nd round onwards

It wasnt the same lewis that had beat tyson 6months before. Klitschko landed big on lennox a number of times

But all this crap about the cut saved lewis is b*llocks. Lewis was just beggining to find his feet and the round before it got stopped he was teeing off on klitschko for fun

Such a shame lennox retired and we never got to see how the fight really would of ended!!

[BIG H]

My take on this fight has always been the same - Lewis did a job on him!! Agreed Vitali was 2 rounds ahead on the scorecards, but what does that really mean? It means at half way he was 'technically' slightly ahead, it doesn't say anything about what would've happend had the fight gone another 6 rounds. What we do know is that Lewis left horrendous damage on Vitali's face (all left by punches) damage so bad that the doctors had to stop the fight and Vitali needed plastic surgery and something like 50 sticthes to put his face back together. Nobody in all seriousness can say that Lewis didn't do what was required, you can't look at those 2 fighters at the end of the fight and think anything other than Lewis beat him. What is more impressive, being ahead on the techincal aspects of judges scorecards or hitting your opponent with such great punches that you leave him looking like a freak show?

Great job by a way past his best and arguably completely unprepared Lennox Lewis

[Nameless]

Very hard to say, Vitali was leading on cards and was doing quite well, he had good pressure on Lewis but he got badly cut and it ended up here for legit reasons; Vitali was able still to continue fighting but the cut looked kinda serious to me. What would happened next? Would have Vitali won by decision? Would have he knocked out Lewis? Would Lewis have cut him even worst? It is an interesting question but we can only quite speculate about this one, personally I think that VItali is too talented and too iron chinned to have lost that one and I could imagine him banging Lewis down in the later rounds but this is only my opinion and I wouldn't argue with those disagreeing as we are left in the meta-speculation in a division where one punch can turn the tables on a whim.

[jamiebhoy]

My take on this fight has always been the same - Lewis did a job on him!! Agreed Vitali was 2 rounds ahead on the scorecards, but what does that really mean? It means at half way he was 'technically' slightly ahead, it doesn't say anything about what would've happend had the fight gone another 6 rounds. What we do know is that Lewis left horrendous damage on Vitali's face (all left by punches) damage so bad that the doctors had to stop the fight and Vitali needed plastic surgery and something like 50 sticthes to put his face back together. Nobody in all seriousness can say that Lewis didn't do what was required, you can't look at those 2 fighters at the end of the fight and think anything other than Lewis beat him. What is more impressive, being ahead on the techincal aspects of judges scorecards or hitting your opponent with such great punches that you leave him looking like a freak show?

Great job by a way past his best and arguably completely unprepared Lennox Lewis

I agree, Lewis had more on him even though he was showing signs of not having trained properly, but mentally he had been there more often and I think if it kept going it would have been Lewis's fight even without the cuts. Too much made of stoppages on cuts, in particular for a fight like this where it was done by punches. I reckon Lewis had lost his love of the game at this point , if not he would have taken him out earlier or if he got the spark back he would have stopped him in a rematch.

[Taeth]

really good fight that got going right from the 2nd round onwards

It wasnt the same lewis that had beat tyson 6months before. Klitschko landed big on lennox a number of times

But all this crap about the cut saved lewis is b*llocks. Lewis was just beggining to find his feet and the round before it got stopped he was teeing off on klitschko for fun

Such a shame lennox retired and we never got to see how the fight really would of ended!!

Lennox is probably my favorite heavywieght ever, and he wasn't teeing off on Klitschko at any point, If he wasn't landing so much bigger punches he wouldn't ahve even won rounds 5 and 6, and he gasing badly, and the breaks were like a minute and 30 seconds because of all they were checking the cuts so much. I think Lennox in tip top shape beats Vitali in a close fight, but without those cuts on that night Vitali would have crushed Lennox going into the later rounds, I mean he couldn't even see out of that eye, and he was taking huge shots from Lennox way easier than I thought was humanly possible.