By James Slater: Ever since the ultra-exciting, bloody and not to mention controversial 2003 battle between defending heavyweight king Lennox Lewis and challenger and current World Boxing Council (WBC) king Vitali Klitschko, there has been talk of what would have happened had a rematch taken place.
Fans to this day argue how Lewis, now long since retired, should have given Klitschko a return, seeing how he only managed a TKO win due to horrific cuts “Dr. Iron Fist” had picked up in the brawl. Lewis was behind on all three judges’ scorecards at the time of the enforced corner retirement of Klitschko (at the end of the 6th-round) and to many experts the champ look exhausted.
Vitali has ever since claimed Lewis verbally promised him a rematch, but that he soon opted to retire without granting him one. The 40-year-old was in London this week for the press conference duties his upcoming fight with Brit Dereck Chisora demanded, and he again spoke about the Lewis fight – a fight some say was the last great world heavyweight title fight.
Klitschko revealed that one person and one person alone prevented a Lewis-Klitschko II: Lewis’ mother, Violet!
“I have a dream to fight Lennox. I think about that fight often, it was my biggest one,” Vitali said. “Lennox promised to give me a rematch. He invited me to come to London to talk person to person. I came, and it was Lennox and his mum. I spoke for about 30-minutes; his mum scanned me from top to bottom. I flew back to Germany and he rang me and said he would not fight – the decision of his mum.”
Of course, this is just Vitali’s version of the story and there may have been more to it than that. Still, Violet Lewis was without a doubt a big part of the Lewis story, with Lennox’ mother constantly by his side during his fighting days. Maybe she did advise her son not to have anything further to do with the giant from Ukraine?
But what would have happened had the two fought an immediate rematch? Klitschko fought again six months after the June 2003 battle, his atrocious cuts healed. This would likely have been the timeframe we would have expected for a rematch then. Would Lewis, who was originally training for Kirk Johnson, have been in better shape for a rematch? Or would Klitschko, his confidence even higher after having done so well in June, have been too strong, too determined and too young for the ageing “Lion?”
Personally, I think Lewis would have worked off a few pounds (he came in at just over 256 for the first fight), worked on his strength and endurance game and managed to pound out a close 12-round points win in a return.
But that’s just my opinion. For all the continued speculation as to what would have happened in a part-two, it seems we have Lennox’ mother to thank!