Lennox revising history re Vitali rematch

[Haka]

I don't have to prove it because we know he fought a month after Byrd and Wlad. That is a fact. Just like it's a fact Vits claimed injury to postpone the Rahman mandatory. When Rahman signed to fight Barrett he suddenly and miraculously healed enough to try and make a fight with Maskaev a month and a half later only to have the fight rejected by HBO. Seems to be a pattern, doesnt it? These facts are irrefutable. He could have made the Byrd rematch but avoided it, just like he did everything possible to avoid Rahman until he retired instead of getting stripped of his WBC trinket. All this and you guys want to blame Lewis for winning and retiring. And he stayed retired. Vits ducking is excused when he loses, but Lewis wins and you think he owed Vits a rematch. BRILLIANT!!! The double standards by the Klitschko nuthuggers are ridiculous!!

This theory depends on Vitali faking his injury which I don't buy into since he fought the most dangerous opponent of the era in Lennox. 6 weeks does not seem like a lot but it is a considerable amount of time in the healing trajectory of a rotator cuff injury which takes 6 months.

[Bennyleonard99]

He didn't tank, he quit. Not that I fault him for quitting with an injury, but i do fault him for never trying to avenge that loss. Your opinion though is nonsense with zero facts to back it up.

Not a hint of any pain or discomfort. No evidence of an injury during the fight or after, just his word. The guy later fought with his face falling off vs Lennox but couldnt box with one arm vs a softee like Byrd? I think he threw the fight, didn't demand the rematch, which set up his weaker brother with any easy title shot vs Byrd. Imagine how much the ukrainian mob could have made knowing Vitali was going to tank in the tenth round.

Vitali did not demand the rematch. That says it all.

[Bennyleonard99]

Vitali defended his WBO title against 2 against unranked opponents;
Mahone and Sullivan1999
He lost it to Byrd 2000 who was also unranked until after he beat Vitali .

Vitali won vacant WBC title in 2004 against Sanders .
Defended it against unranked Williams
Retired injured.
Came back in2008 beat Peter Ring ranked no 7 to win the WBC title
2009 Defended against
Gomez no9
Arreola no 6
KevinJohnson Unranked

2010 Defended against
Sosnowski Unranked
Briggs Unranked
2011Defended against
Solis May have been ranked no 10?
Adamek no4

2012 Defended against
Chisora Unranked
Charr Unranked

Retired
Twelve successful defences of two versions of titles, the WBO and the WBC.

Four possibly, five ranked challengers defended against, out of twelve .
Yeah he sure terrorized them ! lol

Vitali quit against Byrd after 9 rounds in a fight in which he was leading against a man 34lbs lighter and 5 inches smaller who took the fight on10 days notice,leading on points, he chose to quit rather than gut it out for the 3 more remaining rounds.
These are what are known as FACTS .

Champions can't defend titles against unranked fighters. They have to be ranked to get a shot. Where are you getting your suspect info?
To imply one of the HWT GOATS handpicked his way to a phony record is ridiculous. Vitali may have even been the goat at his peak. Like I said before, the Byrd fight was a tank job IMO. Fake injury to set up his brother with an easy title shot.

[Bronson66]

Champions can't defend titles against unranked fighters. They have to be ranked to get a shot. Where are you getting your suspect info?
To imply one of the HWT GOATS handpicked his way to a phony record is ridiculous. Vitali may have even been the goat at his peak. Like I said before, the Byrd fight was a tank job IMO. Fake injury to set up his brother with an easy title shot.

Your opening statement is total bollocks!
To say it tells us you dont know WTF you are talking about!

Here are some examples of Heavyweight champions defending against unranked challengers,

Joe Louis versus;

Thomas
Roper
McCoy
Musto
Dorazio

Patterson versus;
Rademacher


Frazier versus;
Stander
Daniels

Ali versus;
Dunn
Williams
Cooper

Holmes versus;
Ledoux
Frank
Rodriguez

You're just A FAN BOY! LOL

[Bronson66]

Not a hint of any pain or discomfort. No evidence of an injury during the fight or after, just his word. The guy later fought with his face falling off vs Lennox but couldnt box with one arm vs a softee like Byrd? I think he threw the fight, didn't demand the rematch, which set up his weaker brother with any easy title shot vs Byrd. Imagine how much the ukrainian mob could have made knowing Vitali was going to tank in the tenth round.

Vitali did not demand the rematch. That says it all.

So,according to you, Vitali faked an injury and lost his title to Byrd so that his Brother could then win it?

How could he be certain Wlad would get that title shot,and why not just keep the title himself?
Leaving aside the total absence of proof of your theory ,where is a the logic to it?

What advantage was gained?

[Willow The Wisp]

Lennox Lewis explains why he didn’t take the Vitali Klitschko rematch back in the day.
Lewis said: “Let me clear this up for you. Vitali was always supposed to be my last fight. I took it on 10 days notice.
No champ has ever taken on a number 1 contender on such short notice. I looked forward to the moment of starting a family and no more camps. I seriously considered a rematch, but in the end, decided to go with the original plan.
Vitali went on to be a great champion in his own right. I also knew that Father Time was not in my corner.”
“But I’ve always said, I had him figured out by the time the fight was stopped. I took this fight on 10 day notice. On ten days notice it was very hard to get sparring partners that tall with good skills. Most of what I had to learn about Vitaly I had to do so during the fight.
He did well early on because I had to solve the puzzle. Once I did, I was able to get to him more. Unfortunately, his face just couldn’t hold up. I would have preferred to stop him so there wouldn’t be any speculation, but it was not my call. For his safety, the ref stopped the fight.”

I have the HBO vhs tape of the Lennox vs Vitali fight and before the fight there is an interview with Lennox and he says nothing about it being his final fight,in fact he even mentions having more fights after he expected to beat Vitali.

This fabrication by Lennox shows he is still insecure about the Vitali fight even though he won it, it was an incredibly gutsy win, he still feels some guilt and perhaps shame or regret for not taking the rematch. He is still hounded by this by boxing fans. And so now he's trying to change history by saying Vitali was always going to be his last fight. The HBO telecast tape proves otherwise.

The world is full of fighters who regretted hanging on too long, paying a terrible price.

Lennox born September 1965, Vitali born July 1971. There is no more to it than that.

Vitali shows his moxie and his quality. Lennox showed he was the superior fighter, even at his advanced age. A full level or two above.

[JAB5239]

Not a hint of any pain or discomfort. No evidence of an injury during the fight or after, just his word. The guy later fought with his face falling off vs Lennox but couldnt box with one arm vs a softee like Byrd? I think he threw the fight, didn't demand the rematch, which set up his weaker brother with any easy title shot vs Byrd. Imagine how much the ukrainian mob could have made knowing Vitali was going to tank in the tenth round.

Vitali did not demand the rematch. That says it all.

What it says is the youre and utter and complete buffoon.

[Willow The Wisp]

What it says is the youre and utter and complete buffoon.

Laughed out loud .

[Bennyleonard99]

What it says is the youre and utter and complete buffoon.

With zero hint of any pain or injury, Vitali was totally dominating and then intentionally threw the fight to Byrd and then didn't care about avenging the loss or redeeming himself.

But then he wanted to continue to fight Lewis for the WBC title despite half his face falling off.

Who benefited the most from the fix? Brother Wladimir became mandatory challenger for the weakest champ in hwt history. It's pretty obvious if one can think for himself and see beneath the surface.

[IronDanHamza]

With zero hint of any pain or injury, Vitali was totally dominating and then intentionally threw the fight to Byrd and then didn't care about avenging the loss or redeeming himself.

But then he wanted to continue to fight Lewis for the WBC title despite half his face falling off.

Who benefited the most from the fix? Brother Wladimir became mandatory challenger for the weakest champ in hwt history. It's pretty obvious if one can think for himself and see beneath the surface.

I’ve heard some comical takes in my time, but this one is certainly up there.