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.
In the first rounds, Vitali had given Lewis all kinds of trouble, hitting him with his long jab, short right hands and left hooks. Other than the one big right hand that Vitali had hurt Lewis within the 2nd rounds, most of Vitali’s shots were the weaker variety, the type meant just to keep Lewis at a distance. However, instead of finishing Lewis off when he had the opportunity, Vitali, already looking tired, was content to just land small shots. It’s unfortunate, because in the 3rd round Lewis opened up a big cut over Klitschko’s eye, which seemed immediately clear that the fight would be stopped soon unless Vitali could somehow score a knockout.
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.
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