Vitali Klitschko: "I Would Have Knocked Lennox Lewis Out"

[edgarg]

Vitali Klitschko was a bloody Paper Champion!!!

The guy (avenging a beating taken by his little brother) defeated Corrie freakin' Sanders to win a vacated title and only defended it against Danny Williams... What a joke... I don't even consider Vitali Klitschko to be a true Heavyweight Champion. This guy ducked any real challenge to his paper title and then after all the excuses he walked away whining about his legacy, complaining he should have been given another gift in the actual fight versus Lewis... Damage causing a T.K.O. is a part of the rules; plain and simple and you'd think as a doctor Vitali would understand that he lost that fight according to the rules of the game, therefor fair and square.

On top of that Lewis was a minimum 10 pounds overweight and obviously under prepared to go the distance... Think Lewis was scared of Klitschko at any time, before or after his victory; I seriously doubt it... Lennox also avenged his only two loses of his career; (btw the McCall stoppage in their first fight was undoubtedly questionable to say the least, uhhumm Don King); and the second fight versus Rahman was something that real ring legends are made of... Lewis didn't just win that fight, he completely and utterly destroyed the man on every possible skill set imaginable to regain his thrown... You could even make the point that aside from the two questionable blemishes on his record, Lennox Lewis could have gone down in history as an Undefeated Champion had he taken the 1st Rahman fight more seriously and trained rather than posing for Hollywood... But like some people have already poinently stated, "if's" ain't worth anything in this world and are a dime a dozen; when it comes to comparing Heavyweight fighters to the all time greats, so are Klitschko's...

The Klitschko nut-huggers are a joke if they don't see that Vitali as an all time boxer couldn't tie Lennox's shoes... But just like Vitali, the Klitschko fan club on Boxingscene here seem to love whining and crying foul about an event in which there was no foul what so ever... Booo Hooo Hooo and who cares!!!! Had that fight gone on and Vitali lost an eye, boxing probably would have have taken a serious beating from the media and the public in general, and Vitali would have been remembered as the Rodney King of Boxing... So please enough of the Vitali would have won "if" bull****...

I do think that under Manny Steward Wlad has become a much better boxer than his older brother ever could have (which isn't really saying much), but he also wouldn't have had a hope in hell of beating a Prime, well prepared Lennox Lewis... Look who's already exposed Wlad; not exactly Evander Holyfield caliber competition. Not to mention that there's no comparison when you look at the long list of accomplished fighters Lennox wasted over the years. Lewis' record looks like a who's who list of Heavyweights for his era... Wlad on the other hand hasn't really beaten anyone who I can say will one day be in the Hall of Fame, and we all know he's earned his Champion status in a very weak era for boxing as far as Heavyweights go... Wlad Klitschko has accomplished nothing that earns him the right to be compared to any of the all time greats imo, and Lennox Lewis is undoubtedly an all time great!!!

You write a hell of a lot, but really say very little. I mean there are very few facts. Mainly opinion and speculation. It's long past time that this crap about "eye hanging out" should be put to rest. Klitschko's eye was NOT hanging out. It was NOT affected in the slightest.The eyebrow was badly cut, but not swollen, and the bleeding had been stopped by the 4th round, and had NO effect on his vision at all. NONE. It was the analysists weho were moaning about him doing so well, ..."and with only able to see from one eye too" they kept saying. HOW THE HELL DID THEY KNOW??? His EYE was not affected, nor damaged. He could open it WIDE, and his vision in BOTH eyes was perfect.

So cut the crap, and stop repeating the wild declarations of others, who are equally ignorant. If you play the video, you can see the facts for yourself.

K's eye looked messy because he had bits of LINT stuck all over it when the fight was over. BUT he could open it WIDE. Also he had 2 "paper" cuts under his eye, and a small blue mouse, all of which bled. So it LOOKED gory, but had NO EFFECT on his vision nor fighing cability. The bad tear over his eye was contained and had been no problem. Lewis barely made it to his stool, and the possibility of him being stopped in the next round was very high Klitschko was fit and trained to go 12 trounds. The stoppage because Klitschko "couldn't see" was WRONG. What more is to be said.

[Addition]

Thats a matter of your opinion. Probably from a long time Lewis Fan. Prime for Prime, in my opinion- Wlad would beat Lewis. Lennox gets hit by Wlad , thats just the way he fights. He may have got a few jabs in his face while doing it, but believe me: Wlad has a better jab and hits harder with the right hand.

Lewis may get hit but he has a better chin than Wlad and Wlad's chin is his achilles heel. So if Lewis catches Wlad - game over

[edgarg]

I was referring to edgarg's comment about Lewis retiring to run from Vitali with that post...

Just goes to show how deep your contacts are in this business...

YOU ARE RIGHT Johnny. I don't either. The progression to Lewis' retirement is clear for all with any intelligence and coherent minds, to follow.

1) Lewis was supremely confident in his day-before-the-fight interview. He referred to himself as a FIVE dimensional fighter, and paid himself other compliments which "make me as good as I am..THE BEST"..he said, amongst an unending stream of other similiar self-glorifying crap. "I'll eat one Klitschko for breakfast and the other one for lunch" he said.

2) AFTER the fight, he "stuck the knife in" as he gave a derogating and unsportsmanlike interview to Larry Merchant. One could see that he was still shaking, upset by the narrow escape he'd had. Dare I say.."miraculous" since the fight was stopped because Klitschko "couldn't see"....although he could clearly open BOTH eyes wide, and had NO vision obstruction. This can, I admit, be seen ONLY on the TV reproduction.

3) Then he "hmmed and hawwed" about a mid-December rematch (6 months later) which he'd already promised immediately after the fight. (It could be seen on camera that he was forced into this). He began to lay down conditions.

4) The main one was...that Klitschko's eye was so badly damaged, that he had to be assured that he [The Great Lewisino] would not be wasting his time fighting a blind man.
Although Klitschko had top cosmetic surgery, and 2 weeks after the fight there was not even a sign of a scar, Lewis insisted that he would NOT fight him in December until Klitschko was thoroughly inspected and "passed' by HIS [The Great Lewisino's) very own eye specialist all the way in London England, to whom Klitschko had to travel for an examination, evaluation and VERDICT. Klitschko did so and his eye was passed A1.

5] Lewis then refused to fight on the December date anyway.

6] There were many calls for him to fight or retire.This was a REAL boxing fan desired fight.

7] Klitschko fought in December nevertheless. He fought the once beaten Kirk Johnson-who was to have fought Lewis, but couldn't due to chest muscle injury and whose place Klitscko had taken, with the results we all know about. Johnson was basically undefeated, his one loss being a DQ (invisible-low-blow) to John Ruiz, who displayed great acting talent that night.

8] Klitschko tore Johnson to tiny shreds like a ferocious tiger. It took only a round-and-a half. Klitschko was supposed to have fought Lewis that night, and probably felt VERY frustrated. Undoubtedly Lewis watched that fight with keen interest [This doesn't take a rocket scientist to believe]. Maybe was at ringside??

9] Lewis messed around for the next 4 months or so blowing "hot-and-cold"......and finally announced his retirement, makingclear to everyone that it had nothing to do with Klitschko. Everybody.... breathed.... a...long... sigh... of... relief.

As we all know, Lewis took a "SPECIAL" interest in helping to advise every opponent of either Klitschko brother, from then on. His advice never worked................

So I hope Lewis' progression to retirement is as clear to you as it is to me. This is my intention in taking up your time in reading it.

[LOLORSKATES]

Coulda shoulda woulda.

If he hit Lewis harder, he could have knocked Lewis out. But he didn't. Move on.

[edgarg]

You acting like Vitali just steam rolled Lewis. I'll give him the first 3 rounds and dont act like Lewis wasnt landing anything on Vitali...You're telling me that I need to rewatch the fight...I can tell you the same thing my friend..Go back and look at the fight again and tell me if I'm wrong...Lennox was getting in some good, punishing shots on Vitali..Did you see at the end round 6 where both Vitali and Lewis were breathing very heavy?? Or did you just see Lennox breathing hard and ignore the fact that Vitali was fatigued himself. We can go on in a cirlce about this but the question is how many of those uppercuts and straight right hands would Vitali was going to eat.

Like I said in an earlier post we can all speculate this fight so how can you knock me for how I SAW the fight playing out??

This is just your own perception of my thoughts. I neither said nor implied any such thing. They both gave and received some hefty wallops, but Lewis took many more than Klitschko, and was on the verge of being KO'd at least 2-3 times in the second, and even later, when he'd particlly recovered his head. You could see him VISIBLY wearing down. At the end of the 6th he barely made it to his stool. Manny Steward continually gave him the advice to pressure klitschko, and though it worked eventually, it had unintended results too. Klitschko also outpunched Lewis in EVERY round.

Klitschko, on the other hand, could ALWAYS go 12 rounds with anyone. He was breathing hard, because he'd been in a tough fight and was asked to speak, but he wasn't fatigued like Lewis was. (he was also the very same in his subsequent fights no matter the intensity nor duration). Yes, and he had an obvious swollen lip which kept his mouth partially open. He always seems to fight with his mouth open, which originally surprised me. Lewis, on the other hand, was obviously physically drained, and could hardly move, quite different from Klitschko, who, although breathing with his mouth open, was full of energy. This was remarked on by the analysts........

The recovery time is what's important in physical sports. I mean the pulse and breathing time. A well trained athlete's pulse rate can go down from 100 to 60 in about 30 seconds. And a temporarily winded boxer can be completely refreshed during the minute break, by taking just a few deep breaths to reoxegenate. You've seen them doing it yourself, I'm sure. BUT...when a fighter is physically at his limit, drained, as Lewis was, it's only determination and willpower which can keep him going, more sluggish and slower and slower, like a battery running down, like the TV advert. That's the way it was with Lewis. Whereas Klitschko was full of fight and rarin' to go. I'm not saying that Klitschko is the superman of the era or anything, just dealing with a particular, specific event.

[edgarg]

Vitali will you please shut up? Lennox had your face badly cut up at the end of his career. You got Technically Knocked Out. Get over it. Go some where and sit down.

BIG POPPA- In that newspaper article excerpt, the reason given is that the severity of the cuts forced the stoppage. But even this is not true. We KNOW that the fight was stopped because the ring doctor supposed that Klitschko was unable to see because of his eyebrow cut. [we can all see in the video that he could actually open his eye fully, with no problem]. As you also undoubtedly know, there were several learned articles later, quoting various doctors who speculated that if the cut worsened the nerves controlling his eyelid might be severed whilst others asserted that the muscles might be damaged. Other doctors traced the paths of the nerves and muscles, and disputed it................ [The eyebrow cut path looked to be somewhere in between, avoiding both hazards].

[edgarg]

Computer problem

Sorry folks, the last letter was meant to attach to BIG POPPA'S newspaper extract. Computer jumping around again.

[J Mac]

blah blah blah half ur face got split open i would have loved to have seen how he would have coped had the fight continued........but still GET OVER IT U LOST

[squealpiggy]

I would've totally nailed this chick last night but I had to go to home to see to my nan.

[Johnny Blayzz]

Edgarg... Your intelligent and coherent mind obviously didn't understand that whatever you heard on TV or read somewhere about Lennox Lewis even considering fighting after the first Klitschko fight is way off... Everyone who knew Lennox, from his family to one of his old sparring partners Eggy Marcus to I'm sure anyone who Lennox spoke to candidly, knew Lennox WAS NOT INTERESTED IN BOXING ANY LONGER AND NOTHING WAS GOING TO CHANGE THAT, not Kiltschko's moaning nor any promoters money regardless of the amount... He took the Klitschko fight with little notice which is true, and was totally out of shape. Lennox obviously wasn't worried about that and took the fight anyways, and like every Great Champion in history Lennox truly felt he would destroy his opponent (had it been in his prime we wouldn't even be having this conversation, no doubt).. But other than what you've written here Edgarg, which will disappear shortly, all the important media regarding that fight reads Lennox Lewis wins over Vitali Klitschko by TKO in the 6th... PERIOD... No "if's", "ands" or "buts" about it...and that's real fact, not speculation... LMAO

The doctor hired that evening by the promoter to protect the fighter's safety and the promoters against any lawsuits etc. decided they weren't taking any more chances on Vitali for medical reasons and stopped the contest. Vitali was indeed winning the fight on the cards, that was evident, as was the fact the doctor was watching how the "cuts" were progressing. But rules are rules man, and you cannot hold Lennox Lewis responsible for a decision that is completely outside of his control ... Who knows what coulda happened, history tends to only record what really happened...

FYI Kirk Johnson from Nova Scotia was another boxer who was notorious for under preparing for fights and was generally considered at least healthy when he was under 230lbs. He weighed a whopping 260lbs in the Klitschko fight, so again Vitali had no bearing in Lennox's thought process regarding retiring and neither did that fight...

Truth is Vitali is whining because he needed Lennox Lewis. Win or lose that was his Big Pay Day and his only shot at really ever being remembered for actually accomplishing something other than his "PAPER CHAMPIONSHIP", (which you still haven't responded to Edgarg)... Lennox Lewis didn't need Klitshcko at all. He himself was already an established great "Pugilist Specialist" who already knew that he wanted to retire from the sport that the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion had already put so much into... He earned that right, and Lewis also earned the right to be called the Heavyweight Champion 3 times; whereas Vitali didn't even really earn the right to be called a Champ at all did he...? Easy to figure out who'd be the one doing all the whinning...