Should Lewis have given Vitali a rematch?

[Sir_Jose]

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.

Huh??? Lewis could have lost to anyone anytime??

Its obvious your a Lewis hater. No winning on cuts is not a "technicality".

if that was an ordinary HW match, Lewis would have lost due to the cut he put on VK's eye. It would have gone to the cards, and he would have lost. The only thing that helped him win was the fact that in a Championship match...
or is that only with headbutts? now I think I'm confusing myself.. I think I remember the commentators talking about it after the fight. As far as I remember, a champion cannot loose a belt if the fight is forced to go to the cards, due to injury. But otherwise in a non-championship fight, it goes to the cards...

any boxing rules buffs out there care to clarify?

No he would not have lost under any situation. The rules state in ANY fight championship or not if a fighter cannot continue due to a cut that is cause by a punch that fighters loses by TKO

There is no rule what so ever that says if a fight goes to the cards the champion keeps his belt. If there was a rule what would be the point of going to cards?

[Toller]

Klitschko deserved a rematch if Lewis hadn't retired no doubt about that. But to say Lewis owed it to Klitschko to go through all the training and have another fight when he didn' really have the motivation isn't really fair.
Did Klitschko put Lewis into retirement? Yes I suppose he did - if Lewis had KO'd him in the first round then I don't think he'd have retired. I think it was more out of laziness and indifference on Lewis's part. That might be too lazy for some, but I can understand wanting an easier life after 20 years of boxing, and with all that cash in the bank & a v sexy girlfriend.

[Sir_Jose]

people ***** and complain that Holyfield is ruining himself by staying around to long, but then turn around and ***** and complain that the 39 year old Lewis should have fought on.

He's 39, has all his brain cells, a new wife, a new daughter, more money than he knows what to do with.

Olympic Gold Medal
3 Time Champion
16 Title defenses

he has nothing to prove to anyone.

[hollister]

Hozay, he's ****ing retired, so now you can officially retire as that *****'s main nutwarmer, ok?

[hollister]

Winning a fight on cuts is a technicality, as it is a win that is the result of the cut rule being enforced, and I especially consider it a technicality when the fighter that benifits from it was clearly on the losing end of the fight. I never said Lewis ****ing lost the fight, I said I can't stand people saying VK didn't deserve a ****ing rematch, like he got spanked or something, you just get your ****ing dander up every time you see a post about your hero, or is it just every time I post about him? And I never wished that he would retire, I did wish that he would lose, but not retire. Hell, 39? As slow as he fights, he should be able to fight until he's 55. I think he has the right to retire whenever he so chooses, but the way he closed his carreer reeks of cowardess.

[hollister]

And yes, he could have lost to anyone that was able to land a big shot on his chin. He can take tremendous punches to the head, as long as they don't land right on the chin, and he has proven that he can be hit, he wasn't the most hittable heavy, but he was hittable, and that plus a less than granite chin makes my statement true. I don't hate him, but I am dissapointed in the way he retired.

[ProBox1]

Anyone watching the fight with an unbiased head could easily see that Lewis was in control of the late part of the last round.

The same people who complain the fight was stopped on cuts are also the same to jump for joy when Wladimir's last fight was stopped due to cuts and Wlad won.

There was more then one cut on the face of Vitali and his mouth was bleeding heavily as well. I'm tired of the could of and should of...the bottom line is he didnt. Vitali got caught with clean punches to create the facial damage and had one of worst cuts I have ever seen on a fighter.

The doctor and the ref wanted to stop the fight much earlier but decided to let it go a few rounds in order to give Vitali a chance.

The bottom line in this fight is Lennox taking a fight with only two weeks to train for Vitali, came in out of shape and still won.

While some could say Vitali had only two weeks to train as well, Lennox busted up Vitali like no man has done before or after him. Being a person that has the entire career of Lewis on tape, I can't even recall any other fight where Lewis did the type of damage that he did.

Lennox won the fight clean, he was due to retire prior to even facing Vitali. Did he owe Vitali a rematch?...No

And I am a MUCH bigger fan of Vitali then I ever was of Lewis. The loss was Vitali's fault, he had no reason to turn the fight into a brawl and he did because he got gun happy when Lewis was rocked in round two. Vitali had little to no defense in the fight and allowed Lewis to land the shots.

[Clay AikSkins]

I think Lewis should have fought Vitali again. I don't think Vitali would have won....but if he had it would have legitimized him. I believe in providing lineage for the titles. Lewis owed the boxing fans that much at least.

[hollister]

Rick, You're only seeing what you want to see. There is no way you can say with a straight face that LL was in complete control of that fight, rounds 2 and 6 were his WORST rounds! When have you seen LL throw over, over, overhand rights that went above his own head? Those were "wishful thinking" punches, thrown by a struggling, desparate fighter. You can't seriously sit here and argue that LL was in control of the 6th round, he started out ok, but by the end of the round, he was surviving. Does he owe VK a rematch, no, of course not, but the way he retired, only after learning that doctors thought VK was ready to fight was out of fear, not of VK personally, but of losing his title, and having to try to get it back again. Face it, LL is a very arrogant man, and if he thought VK would be a cakewalk the second time around, he would have given VK the rematch.

[obaioghill]

I would have like to see the remach - but it is because I really never liked Lewis. I didn't like the way he fought Holy the first time - jab hug jab hug...not what you do to TAKE a champ's belt - I didn't like the way he fought Grant (punch to the back of the head...hold hit...hold rabbit punch). And YES he's a Brit (Ta se go hulk!) I don't hold it against any other people just the brits - not as individuals nessisarily, but definitley as a culture - sorry.
At the same time I think he was very good at using his size and he would fight the fights - although he was a once a year fighter. I really think that is tough on the Heavyweight division in general. Too few fights - I think they could fight at least twice a year. That was how Holmes did it and it killed heavyweight boxing in the early eighties. I think Lewis got bored and retired at a good time. If he would have went on he would have got caught again at some point - just the way it goes - I was just disapointed he didn't hang on till then - but again that was my own dislike for him - I do think he did the smart thing.