Did anyone see the Lewis vs Klitchko match?

[GmanJoe]

[sp]Lewis nearly got owned. He\'s lucky he got Vitaly cut over the left eye or else he would have lossed by points or even knocked out. But despite his lackluster performance, he would NOT admit he was losing. Bleh....wouldn\'t give Vitali Klitchko props at all other than "European fighta\'s have a weird style. I was gonna knock him out anyway."

Round one : Both fighter are feeling for each other\'s style. Klitchko lands a right but did not have his weight or power behind it. Nontheless, it was enough to snap Lewis\' head.

Round two : Klitchko STAGGERS lewis with a HUGE right and Lewis holds for dear life. The next 30 seconds is Lewis holding. Lewis back pedals and wings wild punches and no more big connections for this round.

Round three : Klitchko gets a bad cut over the left eye in the opening round as Lewis grazes him with a straight right hand. Lewis comes to life but Klitchko still gives him fits.

Round four : Holding and lots of it. Both men are tired but Vitali and Lewis are connecting sloppily. Hard to say who won this round. Both are tired. Lewis is starting to use his upper cut.

ROund five : more of same but the cut is now a major factor. Klitchko can see but the cut has turned into a flap of flesh. Lewis connect with a huge upper cut but Klitchko keeps fighting and takes the punch rather well.

Round six : Both men are tired but Klitchko is connecting with jabs while Lewis is trying to land a big upper cut. Both men connect with upper cuts.

Fight is stopped before ROund 7 could start. Klitchko is going ballistic but the crowd supports him as he raises his hands. They boo Lewis. During the interview, Lewis doesn\'t think the crowd was booing him.
[/sp]

[Cerberus]

You cannot blame Lewis for being declared the winner, no more than you can blame Klitschko for losing, if anything, it was the referee\'s fault for calling it to a halt. But, having said that, and looking back at the fight in slow motion, it is now obvious that the cut over the eye WAS caused by a punch, and NOT by headbut, and due to the fact that it was getting worse and worse by each passing round, the referee was totally justified in calling it to a halt and awarding the win to Lewis. Lewis did NOT deserve to be booed by the crowd like that, he won by TKO, even though he was 2 rounds behind. Sure, it was an unconvincing win, but it was a win non-the-less, and a fair one at that.

Lewis\' problem for this fight, was more to do with him being unprepared for it, and not so much to do with his age. His physical condition was even worse than when he fought Rahman for the first time, and we all know what happened there, don\'t we? When the rematch happens, and there SHOULD be a rematch, Klitschko deserves that much, I can see Lewis busting a gut to get into tip top physical condition for it. He will come back and blow the Ukrainian away, because in my view, he isn\'t in the same league as Lennox. His swansong was originally going to be a fight against Jones jnr, I think he will now forget about that, and use a rematch with Vitali to end his career.

But for a minute, I want to go back to last nights fight, I think Lennox would have won it eventually anyway, the signs were there that he was starting to find a few uppercuts that were clearly starting to drain energy from Klitschko, a few more of them, and I get the feeling that he would have been on his way out, sure Lewis was getting caught too, but he seemed to be able to absorb them better.

My prediction would be that either he knocks Klitschko out inside 9 rounds, or Vitali would quit inside 10, he doesn\'t have the heart, he quits too easily.

The only gripe I have about Lewis, apart from his condition last night, was his behaviour AFTER the fight, when talking to the ring interviewer, he somewhat lost his trademark coolness when his performance was questioned, and that was wrong, plain and simple.

My prediction for the rematch....

Lewis will come back in top mint condition, and will destroy Vitlai within 6 rounds, he won\'t get a lookin, he will be stunned by the power of an in shape Lennox Lewis, just like Tyson did, just like Rahman did, just like Grant did, just like Botha did........ I could go on.............

[Kurt Angle]

Lewis should fight Audley Harrison and knock him out.

[Cerberus]

Originally posted by Kurt Angle
Lewis should fight Audley Harrison and knock him out.

He\'ll have to get at the back of the queue, my mums fighting him first, then that old lady from across the road, then Frank Bruno..

They prolly won\'t even have a rematch, because Lewis is now looking at fighting Roy Jones Jr.  Personally, I\'d love to watch that fight, just to see Lewis lose it.  If Roy Jones Jr. can somehow beat him, and unify the heavyweight belts in doing so, I don\'t know how you can claim he isn\'t one of the greatest, pound for pound, not only now, but ever.

[Living-In-Clip]

I like both Lewis and Jones, but Lewis would end up killin\' Jones.

Too true, Lewis isn\'t as good as he was but would still kill him.

[GmanJoe]

As I predicted to my friends, Lewis would get roughed up and lose but a the cut spoiled my nearly correct prediction.

I think in the next fight, Lewis will lose. Vitali Klitchko showed a lot of heart last night. Don\'t let your affinity to your fellow countrymen stand in the way. Lewis showed little class in acknowledging that he was getting beaten last night.

[Cerberus]

Originally posted by shockwaves
They prolly won\'t even have a rematch, because Lewis is now looking at fighting Roy Jones Jr.  Personally, I\'d love to watch that fight, just to see Lewis lose it.  If Roy Jones Jr. can somehow beat him, and unify the heavyweight belts in doing so, I don\'t know how you can claim he isn\'t one of the greatest, pound for pound, not only now, but ever.

Nah, he will HAVE to go up against Klitschko again in a rematch, if only to salvage his reputation as one of the best boxers of all time. He will have noticed the crown booing him unjustly as he left the arena. That will be sticking in his mind even as I am typing this. The only way he can lay the ghosts of saturday night to rest, is with a rematch.
When (notice how I said "when", and not "if"?) the rematch happens, you can bet your last penny that Lewis will be ready and in tip top shape for it, that is what was lacking on saturday night. He will discipline himself into training as hard, if not harder, than he did for Rahman and Tyson. He\'ll enter the ring, and will be chewing at the bit.

His performance was not due to age, but just plain and simply put, he was out of shape.

An out of shape Lewis would struggle against EITHER Klitschko for a few rounds, but would ultimately stop both with devastating jabs, followed up by crushing hooks, I belive this would have happened on saturday had it not finished the way it did.

An in shape Lewis will absolutely destroy the Klitschko\'s, regardless of his age, he will knock them into the third row of the audience.

Then, and only then, will he think about taking Roy Jones Jnr on, and if he\'s in mint shape for that fight, he will kick Roys arse as well. Jones will have the speed advantage, but what he has in speed, Lewis has in raw power, as soon as he lands, he will hurt Roy.

Then he will retire and bask in the glory of his successes.

/me takes a big intake of air, just before collapsing on the floor.

[nO-One]

Lewis probly would have won in the end, the other guy was getting  tired but he was winning on points. Lewis was lucky the doc called it quits and he was an arrogant prick about it afterwards.

But the thing I didn\'t get was, Klitchko had a translator to translate the questions but he answered them himself, no doubt a small doubt of eastern European accent is cool but nobody understood the guy, he should have just answered in russian and let the translator do the rest.

[GmanJoe]

I saw it as Lewis getting tired as much as Vitali but Lewis was still reeling from the punches. Lewis was not throwing as many combos whereas Vitali had his punches together.

And I hate it when Lewis holds so damn much! I know he was hurt but damn...quite wrestling!

The Lewis Jones fight is already being looked into.  Lewis would want this over a rematch because it would be a much bigger money fight.

Jones would be giving up size, but the man is quicker than anyone else in his sport, and that can go a long way in a match. Lewis is a weak pewny little snobbish bitch IMO, he gave no props to the other fighter that is true asshole. But also that is like anyother boxer that just won. It looked as if it wasn\'t necessarily the punch that busted his eye, but the end part of the glove that caught and tore the skin above his eye, but thats how I saw it. Did I mention I hate Lewis!!!

I honestly don\'t think Jones would be able to beat Lewis.  That\'s what would make that fight sad.  He\'d just be giving up too much weight.  However, if he did win, that would be something absolutely amazing.