By Nate Anderson: In a recent interview by writer Warren Tasker of the The Edmonton Journal at Canada.com, former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs), still appearing to be a little bitter over his 6th round stoppage at the hands of then WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, had this to say about the fight: “I really believe I would have knocked him out if the referee had let the fight continue.” At the time of the stoppage, in the sixth round, Vitali Klitschko’s face was a bloody mess with both his lip and his left eye torn to shreds by the huge right hands thrown by Lewis during the fight. It seems that Klitschko is thinking more from his heart than his head, for it looked like the wise thing for the referee to do in deciding to stop the fight.
The cut around Klitschko’s eye was particularly bad, with it almost down to the bone, and his mouth was ripped badly by a series of uppercuts that Vitali had been hit by in the final round of the fight. Indeed, Vitali looked out on his feet in the 6th after getting clubbed by a huge right hand uppercut from Lewis. Even before that, in the 5th round, Vitali was already fading, his mouth wide open, taking uppercuts to the head. It was ugly to look at because most people could see that Vitali was rapidly going downhill at the time, and it was somewhat sad because he had started out so well in the first four rounds of the fight.
Lewis, for his part, looked old, nothing like he had in previous years when he was in his prime. He didn’t appear to have trained hard for the fight, with noticeable fat on his usually lean frame, and yet Vitali still was struggling with him and unable to control the fight the way he should have been able to given his youth. By the 5th round, the fight began to turn around, as Lewis was told to start using his uppercut, which he did like a skilled surgeon, catching Vitali with it repeatedly during the round and snapping his head back violently.
All you could say for Vitali in the 5th round is that he showed a good chin, but not much besides that. Vitali was exhausted by this point and just taking punishment. For his part, Lewis was as well, but he was still able to throw devastating shots despite being tired, whereas with Vitali all he could muster up were harmless arm punches. In the 6th round, Lewis really began to step it up, nailing Vitali with huge shots repeatedly in the round. After one particularly hard uppercut which snapped Vitali’s head back, he grabbed a hold of Lewis to prevent from going down. Shortly after that, the round ended.
As you can see, I think Vitali’s memory is a little clouded by a tremendous amount of wishful thinking on his part. If there was going to be a knockout occurring in the next round or so, it was going to be Lewis who recorded it. He was the only one throwing hard shots at this stage of the fight and there was little chance that Vitali, who was completely exhausted, was going to be able to come up with enough power to stop Lewis.
I personally have no doubts that Lewis would have stopped him outright in the 7th, because Vitali was badly shaken in the 6th and looked in terrible shape by the end of the round after taking huge punishment from Lewis’ uppercuts. It’s too bad that Klitschko is still reliving this fight, because he should accept the defeat and move on. He needs to be concerned with his next fight, against WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter rather than thinking about Lewis. Peter has the kind of power to stop Vitali in short order, leaving no questions afterwards for which Vitali can speculate about.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 am
LEWIS WILL FOREVER BE A BITCH because of that fight! LEWIS LOST EVERY ROUND and had the nerve to say he won. Klitschko WOULD have KO’ed the RETARD (someone fire him from HBO commentating). Anyway Lewis was a POST MIKE TYSON champion anyway. NO ONE CARES about the heavyweights. When TYSON left boxing (heavyweight division) Apart of boxing left with him.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:03 am
all you ever hear is americans slating british boxers. american fighters are given the oppurtinitys rarely based on sheer skill, more to do with the numbers game, more people boxing, more good fighters, but lets face facts here, lewis was a great heavyweight, albeit in a poor era, but he beat everyone who was put infront of him besides mccall and rahman, but in the rahman fight where he lost, its a well known fact lewis left it too late to go over and didnt acclimatise and could barely breathe from very early. yet he avenged both of those defeats, which lets be honest, were both minor blips and he was never dominated. and as for the vitali fight, he punched a whole in the side of his face, it only takes ONE, and it was no lucky punch either. If lewis came back he kick seven bells of sh*t out of peter, maskaev and wladimir, he doesnt need to come back like your sad american old timers, going for one last bite of the cherry, always want that last payday, and ALWAYS think they have that one great fight left in them. Where are tyson and holyfield now? last i heard they were thinking of fighting each other again. what a joke, americans arent the be all and end all, its your sheer numbers that make you dominant not your american breed, you cannot handle someone from another country being the best, and thats what lewis was in HIS time, maybe before him there are fighters thatd have beaten him, but the era he’s in and the competition he faces isnt his fault, he was a great champion and should go down as such.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I think the authors memory is clouded.. If any one was out on his feet it was Lewis.. True they both seemed exausted by the pace of the fight, but Lennox looked the more tired of the two and could barely get off his stool to celebrate his gift of a win. Lewis would have lost and he knows it. That is why he chose to retire and stay that way, instead of face Klitschko again.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Klitschko was beating Lewis, and would have knocked him out if not for the cut. Lewis had luck on his side, nothing more. Also, it is Lewis who is the bitter one, as he cannot let it go. He knew he was losing and didn’t deserve the win, the crowd knew it, everyone knew it, that is why he quickly retired, and now EVERY single fight Vitali has, Lewis is in his opponent’s corner giving them tips on how to beat him. Lewis is an ass.