Lennox Lewis says he’s not returning to the ring

By Boxing News - 10/10/2013 - Comments

lewis4By Scott Gilfoid: In response to the silly rumors about him coming back for $100 million to fight Wladimir Klitschko, former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KO’s) said today that he has no plans at all in making a comeback. It makes sense because Lewis is nearly 50-years-old, and he wouldn’t stand a chance at Wladimir or his 42-year-old brother Vitali Klitschko.

Lewis said on his twitter “A hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question does NOT equal reality. N ocomeback. Ridiculous. I’m not stepping back in the ring but I AM looking for the next crop of new talent.”

I don’t know who on earth would pay Lewis $50 million to $100 million to fight one of the Klitschkos. That’s the kind of money that Floyd Mayweather Jr. makes, and a Klitschko-Lewis wouldn’t bring in that kind of money. For that to happen, Lewis would still have to be an active fighter and it would need to be pay-per-view in the United States, as well as in the UK.

There’s no problem with it being a PPV fight over there, but in the U.S, you couldn’t see Klitschko vs. Lewis on PPV. Lewis has been out of the sport for too many years, and the younger fans don’t have clue one who the guy is, other than someone that used to work for HBO as an analyst. The only way I see Lewis getting huge cash to fight one of the Klitschkos is if a billionaire bankrolled the fight and wanted to make the fight happen just for the heck of it regardless of how much money he lost.

I’m not sure how accurate it it but Celebrity Net worth has Lewis’ net worth at $60 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if he does have that much cash because he made a lot of green in his career, especially at the tail end in his fights against Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson.

Lewis hasn’t fought since stopping Vitali in the 6th round 10 years ago in 2003. Lewis was getting dominated in the fight in the first 4 rounds, but then he cut Vitali and was able to land some big upper cuts in the 5th and 6th rounds. At the end of the fight, Lewis looked exhausted and I doubt that he would have been able to make it the full 12 rounds had the referee not pulled the plug on the fight. Vitali was clearly the better fighter and looked like he was on his way to victory.

Lewis royally blew it by retiring after his fight with Vitali in 2003. The boxing really wanted to see a rematch between the two, as well as a fight between Lewis and Wladimir. But instead of sticking around and fighting both of the Klitschkos, Lewis chose to retire. I guess he has his reasons for not wanting to fight Vitali again, and for not fighting Wladimir. I know a lot of the fans think Lewis was afraid to get back in the ring with the big 6’7″ Vitali and the 6’6″ Wladimir. All I know is Lewis walked away from a ton of cash by choosing to retire rather than facing Vitali one more time and Wladimir. They could have turned their fights into a trilogy and they would have made big bank.



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