Lennox Lewis takes another shot at the Klitschko’s

By Boxing News - 03/21/2012 - Comments

Image: Lennox Lewis takes another shot at the Klitschko’sBy John F. McKenna (McJack): In what has been all too common of late, former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis has decided to take another shot the Klitschko brothers. WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO and The Ring heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) and his brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO’s) presently hold all the heavyweight title belts after Wladimir scored a unanimous twelve round decision victory over former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-2, 23 KO’s) in July 2011.

Lewis in this writers view is one of the great heavyweight champions in boxing history. He lost only two fights in his illustrious career one was a TKO loss to Oliver McCall in 1994 and the other a KO at the hands of Hasim Rahman in 2001. Both of Lewis’ losses were avenged in convincing fashion.

In one of the best heavyweight battles of the last twenty years, Lennox scored a TKO victory in the 6th round over present WBC title holder Vitali Klitschko; in 2003. “Dr. Ironfist” was leading on all scorecards when the fight had to be stopped due to a horrific cut over his eye.

At the time Lewis promised to give Vitali a rematch, but Lewis chose to retire rather than fight Klitschko again. In all fairness to Lennox he was 37 ½ years old when he fought Vitali. In another attempt to get Lewis back into the ring, Klitschko met with him at his residence. Lennox’ mother was present at the meeting and after sizing up the huge Ukrainain she nixed the idea of another Lewis – Klitschko fight.

Of course the story leaked out about Lewis’ Mum squashing a 2nd Lewis – Klitschko fight. In retrospect in releasing the details of the meeting Klitschko may have been attempting to embarrass Lewis into accepting another match with him. In any case Vitali is now three years older then Lennox was when he retired.

To be quite fair there is always a little bit of rivalry between the champions of today vs the champions of yesteryear. It is only natural to think that the era in which you competed was the best ever.

In Lennox taking swipes at the Klitschko’s, Vitali in particular, there is a sense of a small amount of envy on the part of Lewis. And while Wlad and Vitali are not household names in the west, they certainly are to the millions of boxing fans in Eastern Europe and Germany. Greatness, just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Klitschko’s never fail to pack the stadiums in Germany.

As far as the Klitschko’s not fighting top notch opponents, Lennox knows full well that all the viable contenders bailed out of a potential fight with Wladimir in his last fight. His next fight with Tony Thompson in the summer is his mandatory challenger. Lennox above all other people knows how the game is played in boxing. Perhaps after Thompson Klitschko will be able to take a match on with a fighter of his choosing.



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