By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, promoter Don King is interested in bringing back former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis out of retirement to face new WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. According to news sources, King is willing to pay €35million to get Lewis and Vitali back in the ring for a rematch of their June 21st, 2003 bout, in which Lewis stopped Vitali on cuts. It’s been five years since that date, and Lewis retired shortly after that bout and hasn’t stepped foot in a ring since that date.
Through the past few years, Lewis has shown little interest in returning to the ring. However, with Vitali making a comeback after four years and defeating Samuel Peter last Saturday in a 8th round stoppage, Lewis may have a change of mind. Vitali looked good in beating Peter, but he didn’t look unbeatable, especially when it would come to a fighter with as much skills as Lewis. In their prior fight, Vitali fought well for the first four rounds, using his jab and short right hands to score points. He didn’t load up on his shots and instead looked to just connect to the head of Lewis. However, in the 5th round, Lewis started taking control of the fight, hammering Vitali with uppercuts.
This continued into the 6th round with Vitali getting hit with some big uppercuts and having to clinch at point after an especially huge uppercut from Lewis. Vitali’s left eye was cut badly, resulting in the fight being stopped after the 6th round. However, with the direction that the fight seemed to be going in at the time of the stoppage, it appeared that Lewis was taking control over the fight and may have only needed a round or two more in order to legitimately stop Vitali. Due to the stoppage on cuts, though, the boxing public was never able to find out conclusively who would have won the fight if the cut hadn’t occurred.
At 43, already rich from his long career in the ring and holding down a well paying job for HBO sports, it’s unknown whether Lewis would want to take a gamble and try to return to the ring. However, King will likely give it a good try in trying to get Lewis back for what would likely be a huge mega fight. As of now, Vitali is interested in facing Nikolay Valuev, the WBA heavyweight champion.
A bout with Lewis, though, would be much more appealing for Vitali as well as the larger boxing public. If Lewis were to comeback, he’d no doubt have to take off a considerable amount of weight before he does so, because on the HBO broadcasts, Lewis has started to look a little pudgy in the past year or so, looking as if he’s not missed out on too many meals. However, he still doesn’t look that much overweight in comparison to other fighters like Ricky Hatton, who routinely takes off a considerable amount of weight while training for his fights.
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