By Brent Matteo Alderson

When a fighter beats another fighter and that fighter goes on to greater success, it adds something to their conqueror’s legacy. Salvador Sanchez is a prime example of this phenomenon. 

In his last fight, Salvador stopped Azumah Nelson in a hotly contested title bout and two years later Azumah won the WBC 126-pound championship and didn’t lose his last world title until 1997.  Even though Sanchez died at the tender age of 23 in 1982, Nelson’s success in the eighties and early nineties continued to add luster to Salvador Sanchez’s legacy.  Well Vitali Klitchko’s dominant victory over Samuel Peter last weekend is doing the same thing to Lennox Lewis’s legacy. 

Think about it, that night in June when Lennox fought Vitali at the Staples Center ,Lewis hadn’t fought in a year and came in at a career high 256 pounds.  Lennox didn’t even train that hard for the fight because he was supposed to fight Kirk Johnson, a heavyweight who couldn’t even beat John Ruiz for a vacant title and had a no-contest with Javier Mora. 

So Lewis’s overall preparation was lackluster because after making an estimated forty-million dollars with Mike Tyson in a mega pay-per-view event, his fight with Kirk Johnson was suppose to be a “gimme” title defense on free HBO.  Well Johnson got hurt and HBO ponied up some extra-doe so Lennox would fight Klitschko. 

Now Vitali was in the best shape of his life because he was still in the process of recovering from his loss to Chris Byrd.  Vitali had taken a lot of heat for quitting due to a shoulder injury and was still trying to re-establish his reputation.  He was the number one contender and had been scheduled to fight on the undercard in a bout that was designed to spice up a December showdown with Lewis. The Ukrainian giant was in tip top shape and intent on putting on an impressive performance and earning the opportunity to vindicate himself in a fight for the heavyweight championship.   

When Kirk Johnson got injured, the associated parties worked together to make Lewis-Klitschko a reality six-months earlier than anticipated. Thus in a rare moment, the champion agreed to fight a substitute that was far superior to the original opponent and the fight became an instant classic.  The two heavyweights battled toe to toe the entire way and Klitschko staggered Lewis in the second and was ahead on the cards when the bout was stopped.  Still after being stunned early Lennox turned up the heat, made Klitschko look like Henry Cooper and was declared a TKO victor. 

Just think, Lewis hadn’t fought in a year, came in at his career high, and wasn’t even in the best of shape and still scored a knockout over Vitali. 

In retrospect the win is even more impressive because within a year after the fight, Vitali established himself as the world’s premiere heavyweight before retiring due to a variety of injuries.   Then last weekend, he came back following a four year lay-off at the age of 37 with a grey head of hair, and completely dissected a fighter that was widely recognized as the second best fighter in the division and it's most feared puncher. 

It was just an amazing performance and Vitali looked like the closest thing there has ever been to a Slavic Muhammad Ali and made Samuel look like he was a 100-dollar an hour sparring partner. The win re-established Vitali as one of the top two heavyweights in the world, along the side of his brother and his virtuoso performance was a kind of pugilistic tribute to Lennox Lewis and his greatness.

Notes:

Thompson Boxing has another live boxing card at the Double Tree Hotel in Ontario, California on Friday, October 24.  Former amateur standout Luis Ramos Jr. is scheduled to fight.  Luis is 7-0 (5) and looks like a promising young prospect and is managed by Frank Espinoza, the manager of Israel Vasquez. For tickets go to www.Thompsonboxing.com.  

When I was a young lad, I used to semi-regularly attend the Forum boxing cards on Monday nights.  I saw Mark Johnson and Marco Antonio Barrera fight there in 1994 when they were coming up the ranks, but was disappointed when Forum boxing closed it’s doors and stopped putting on regular fight cards.  Toney Curtis and Mr. Jackson had a real eye for talent, signing up Juan Manuel Marquez, Barrera, and Too Sharp when the big promoters weren’t interested.  In a way Thompson boxing has picked up the slack and filled the void left by the departure of Forum Boxing.

Not to disrespect Antonio Tarver, but his wife Denise is probably the prettiest lady in boxing and I’m not the only one who thinks that.  Ring Magazine scribe William Dettloff also made a reference in his column regarding Tarver’s wife.   

Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”  Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com