His night in the ring was long since over, and Lennox Lewis and his people were still working hard. Vitali Klitschko was tough enough, but now there was some serious explaining to do.
Lewis was still the heavyweight champion, but that and another $10- million or so in his bank account were the only things he could feel good about on Saturday night.
No matter how hard the Lewis camp tried to spin it, a couple of truths were evident after the bloody brawl that ended prematurely at the Staples Center. One, Lewis was lucky to keep his heavyweight title against a surprisingly effective and tough Klitschko.
Two, perhaps at the age of 37 Lewis should take notice of his increasingly wobbly legs and weak chin and finally decide it might be a good time to hang up the gloves.
”There isn’t anything else for me to prove,” Lewis said. ”I’m going to go back, talk to my colleagues, look at the tape and decide from there.”
What he sees on the tape may frighten him.
Klitschko, who many believed wasn’t even the best fighter in his family, rocked Lewis early and often before the ring doctor finally stopped the fight after six rounds because of bad cuts to Klitschko’s left eye.
Klitschko’s style may have been amateurish and stilted, but the Ukrainian hit Lewis with almost every left hand he threw and had the champion exhausted and baffled.
The judges thought Klitschko was getting the better of Lewis in what at times was a wild and bloody brawl. So did the enthusiastic crowd of 15 939, which cheered wildly at every punch the challenger landed.
That’s why it was hard to listen as Lewis conceded afterward that he won only three of the six rounds but was somehow robbed by the referee himself because he was deprived of a knockout he was sure was coming.
”I really wish the referee wouldn’t have stopped the fight. I wanted to knock him out for real,” Lewis said.
He wasn’t the only one wishing. Klitschko wished ring doctor Paul Wallace hadn’t looked at his eye after the sixth round and told the referee to wave the fight to a close.
Wallace, in a somewhat convoluted explanation, said Klitschko’s eyelid was closing in such a way that the fighter had to turn his head to see him. The explanation may have been lost in the translation in the corner, but soon Klitschko was rushing around the ring shouting ”No, no, no.”
”I see everything, I don’t know why he stopped the fight,” Klitschko said. ”I know if the doctor doesn’t stop the fight I win the fight because I want to be world champion.”
Indeed, the heart Klitschko didn’t show when he quit after the ninth round because of an injured shoulder against Chris Byrd was in plentiful evidence against Lewis. He took hard lefts and uppercuts from the champion without flinching, and was leading 58-56 on all three ringside scorecards when the fight was ended. Had the fight continued, it seemed like either fighter could easily end it with one or two big punches.
”I controlled the fight,” Klitschko said. ”But it was not so easy to fight Lennox. He’s good.”
One look at Klitschko’s face was evidence he took as many punches as he gave. The left side was badly bruised under the eye, and blood was trickling down his cheek.
Still, Klitschko looked like a winner in many ways. He won a lot of fans with a gusty showing, proved he belonged among the heavyweight elite and positioned himself for some big fights down the road.
One of those could be a rematch with Lewis, assuming the WBC champion doesn’t retire or go after a proposed fight with Roy Jones Jr in the fall.
”I hope there will be a rematch,” Klitschko said. There would haveeen an immediate rematch if Klitschko had won because it was in the contract for the fight. Lewis is under no obligation to fight Klitschko again, though he said he might do it.
”I’m happy to give him a rematch,” Lewis said. ”Then I’ll bust up the other side of his face, too.”
Lewis came into the fight with some ready made excuses. He hadn’t fought in a year since stopping Mike Tyson and had only two weeks to adjust to fighting a bigger fighter after his original opponent, Kirk Johnson, was injured. He was also a bit soft around the middle, and at 116, 35kg, the heaviest of his career.
The fact remains he is a 37-year-old heavyweight who has been in some wars and may be hearing the clock begin to click. History is not on Lewis’s side; in the past only two heavyweight champions retained their titles past age 36.
That’s what makes Klitschko so eager to get Lewis back into the ring as soon as he can.
”For Lennox it is a different situation because time works against him,” Klitschko said. ”Every day Lennox will get one day older.” – Sapa-AP