Lennox Lewis offends Klitschkos, Wladimir and Vitali react

Lennox Lewis offends Klitschkos, Wladimir and Vitali react

10.07 - Hamburg – Ten days after Dr. Wladimir Klitschko’s impressive victory over Ray Mercer in Atlantic City and another ten days before Dr. Vitali Klitschko’s showdown against Larry Donald in Dortmund WBC and IBF champion Lennox Lewis all of a sudden began to speak publicly.

However, he didn’t compliment Wladimir for his decisive win over the tough Mercer, something one would expect after the press was full of praise worldwide for the young Klitschko’s impressive performance. Just the opposite. Lewis made offensive comments against Wladimir, something very unusual for the British world champion.

"Wladimir Klitschko is not tough enough," Lewis told SKY Sports on Monday, contradicting all Wladimir-Mercer post fight reports. "He's not ready for me yet. It would be a waste of my time to go and fight him. I would knock him out."

“It seems to me that Lennox is looking for an excuse to not have to fight me”, Wladimir Klitschko countered. “I would love to show him that I´m tough enough. If Lennox will not retire whom does he want to fight next? Chris Byrd, whom I totally beat up, or a third match against Holyfield or a rematch against Tyson? Are these the fights the fans want to see? I don't think so.”

“Ask the fans, carry out a poll and you will see Lewis vs. Wladimir Klitschko is the fight most people want to see. On the other hand if Lennox wants to keep the WBC belt he has to fight the mandatory challenger sooner or later and that`s my brother Vitali. Then Lennox will see how tough the Klitschkos are. We are both ready and I can only repeat once again: let's start the promotion with a chess match and then we move to the ring.

“It’s typical that Lewis all of sudden changed his tone”, Vitali Klitschko, the WBC #1 contender, analyzed. “All public statements that had been made before were just some playing around. Now it’s getting serious and Lewis knows that himself. That’s why he backs down.”

“Most certainly Lewis watched Wladimir’s last fight on television and he understood that the Klitschko brothers are the only fighters who can beat him”, promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl said. “All experts agree that Wladimir Klitschko is the world’s top challenger to Lennox Lewis. After his victory over Mercer the media agreed unanimously about it.”

“In the movie Ocean’s 11 the lights went out before Wladimir or Lewis could win the fight. In a real fight it would be Lewis’ lights that would go out.”