Should Lewis have given Vitali a rematch?

[onikami]

Man, this forum is full of jealous yanks who cannot accept the fact that a Brit was the heavyweight champ. Thats right, you heard right: A Brit. You yanks thing you got a God damn right to own the heavyweight division.

[paulmmv]

lewis should give vitali a rematch but he never will because he to old and hes afraid of him

[Marjoh]

Smart move for Lewis. But a lot thinks, or would think, that smart move is just a tamed heart. Though I do like to see him comeback just to see if he can put some light into the division. But if he can't, that's just fine with me. But I don't think him coming back just to lose won't really damage his rep (well, maybe just a little bit). Look at Holyfield. Fans won't remember him as the guy who was beat by John "The Most Hated" Ruiz and some other journeyman.

[Toller]

I don't think Lewis was scared of Klitschko at all. As far as I see it, Lewis wasn't really interested in fighting after the Tyson fight and the fact that he'd have to train his ass off for a rematch which he didn't need (for money or legacy), combined with the other things he wants out of life pushed him into retirement.

Lewis is an all time great, and anyone that argues otherwise is being biased IMO. I'd like to see a rematch, but what's the point for Lewis? At his best he would have beaten Klitschko convincingly, so it would just be a question of how far Lewis has slipped.

[twospeed99]

nothing to do with Yanks

Man, this forum is full of jealous yanks who cannot accept the fact that a Brit was the heavyweight champ. Thats right, you heard right: A Brit. You yanks thing you got a God damn right to own the heavyweight division.

What the hell does wishing your Brit would of gave a Ukrainian a rematch have to do with Yanks thinking they own the belt, and this is coming from a Canadian.Lewis chickened out and now even worse he's beaking off from the safety of a commentators chair with absolutly no guts to ever give Vitali a rematch.It will forever be a footnote to his so called legacy.

[Toller]

why? Because he's got the sense to call it a day when his skills are declining, his weight increasing and his motivation dwindling?

Do you think a fully motivated and prepared Lewis in his prime would lose to Klitschko?

[hollister]

A fully prepared Lewis could have lost to anyone, at anytime. He had alot of fights where he was rocked and beaten around the ring, and came back to win, which says alot for his will to win, but very little for his skills. After his carreer has ended, with him suffering one-punch knockout losses on two separate occasions, one could say that in those other fights, he was always one punch away from being knocked out. We all know he his big dream was to retire as champion, but after the narrow escape with the belts from the Klitschko fight, in which he was rocked and beaten up, and after two uppercuts in separate rounds that everyone seems so excited about, he spent the last minute of the sixth round on the ropes, with VK splitting his guard with jabs and right hands, he took the coward's way out. Tell me, if you are the champeon, and basically get your ass kicked in a title defense, but are able to win the fight on a technicality, and wanted to be recognized as an all time great, wouldn't it matter more that everyone knew that you retired with no question marks over your head, no unfinished bussiness, than just the fact that you were still champ when you retired? I mean, he was getting his ass beat in the last round of the fight, the note the fight ended on was him being hit repeatedly, up against the ropes, not punching back, how could anyone with any pride claim that as a win? It's simple, he wasn't sure he could beat VK, that's why he looked for excuses, made a big hoopla about VK's eye not being ready, and then retired when the doctors said it was OK.

[PBDS]

No. Lewis does not need to prove anything to anyone. Been there, done that. As he said himself.

...Yeah, but the "been there done that" comment was actually in the context of the question "Lennox, would you ever do gay **** and swallow another mans load"? HBO edited the crucial question right out of the interview and cut and pasted his comments. Damn you HBO!!!

[Toller]

Re: Hollister: Sorry but that's just wrong. I see what you're saying but that just isn't what happened in the fight - watch it again.

An accurate description of the last 20 seconds of the fight would be:
Grappling . . . Lewis right to the body, right to the head . . . Klitschko leans right into Lewis, onto ropes then onto Lewis again . . . . both stumble full length of the ring as Klitschko leans into Lewis . . . ref splits them . . . Jab by Lewis that half connects, followed by right uppercut by Lewis.

[hollister]

I can't remember if it was a full minute or not, but the last part of that round, Lewis was on the ropes, plain as day, getting hit. Yeah, I know it got real sloppy in the sixth round, but I can hardly see where Lewis did enough to justify all the Lewis fans saying he was going to knock VK out, he was clearly losing the fight at that point, and appeared to be going downhill. I can accept the fact that VK lost the fight, but some people are saying that VK doesn't deserve a rematch, like it was a shutout or something, to me that couldn't be farther from the truth. I'm sure I'm incorrect on how long he was on the ropes, but I've seen it too many times to be that far off on what actually happened. I mean, his carreer ended with him on the ropes, who would want it to end that way? And to shamelessly claim it as a real win in front of millions of people who all saw what happened, and basically "escape" with the belts, just for the sake of saying he retired as champ, that's just gay IMO.