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Calzaghe beat Hopkins by a split decision. Most fans and journalists scored the fight for Calzaghe, but a significant minority scored it for Hopkins.
Lewis beat Vitali on cuts. Virtually everyone agrees that the cut was bad enough to warrant a stoppage, but that Vitali was winning the fight at the time it was stopped.
In my opinion the win over Hopkins is worth more. The fight went 12 rounds and at the end of it, most people felt that Calzaghe had proven himself the better man on the night. With Lennox's win, a cut stopped us from finding out who the better man on the night was. A victory on cuts is not worthless, and it takes ability to work a cut in order to make it bad enough to force a stoppage, however it is not the way to settle who better fighter is IMO, hence why such fights often lead to rematches.
The reason I bring it up is that a lot of people have suddenly started saying that Calzaghe's resume should suffer if he does not fight Hopkins again. This is despite the fact that hardly anyone was calling for the rematch in the months after the fight.
Those who watched boxing at the time will know that everyone wanted to see LL-VK 2 as soon as possible, with the only consideration being how long it would take for the cut to heal.
Before anyone assumes otherwise, my point is not that Calzaghe should be rated above Lewis, I am only comparing these two fights.
Lewis beat Vitali on cuts. Virtually everyone agrees that the cut was bad enough to warrant a stoppage, but that Vitali was winning the fight at the time it was stopped.
In my opinion the win over Hopkins is worth more. The fight went 12 rounds and at the end of it, most people felt that Calzaghe had proven himself the better man on the night. With Lennox's win, a cut stopped us from finding out who the better man on the night was. A victory on cuts is not worthless, and it takes ability to work a cut in order to make it bad enough to force a stoppage, however it is not the way to settle who better fighter is IMO, hence why such fights often lead to rematches.
The reason I bring it up is that a lot of people have suddenly started saying that Calzaghe's resume should suffer if he does not fight Hopkins again. This is despite the fact that hardly anyone was calling for the rematch in the months after the fight.
Those who watched boxing at the time will know that everyone wanted to see LL-VK 2 as soon as possible, with the only consideration being how long it would take for the cut to heal.
Before anyone assumes otherwise, my point is not that Calzaghe should be rated above Lewis, I am only comparing these two fights.
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