Who is the definitive HW champion today?

Lewis never unified all claims. He ducked Byrd, plain and simple, and I think he also ducked Ruiz, but I'm not as sure about that one.

 

Lewis never unified all 4 titles and the title splintered pretty soon after he "Beat" Holyfield in their Re.

I don't blame Lewis for much, but having given Vitali 10 days notice in the first place, he should have signed up for the Re. with V. or vacated immediately.

He did neither. Vitali actually took the Johnson fight whilst waiting for Lewis.

 

Lewis had the only claim. To suggest otherwise is to rewrite history. We were all around at the time.

 

:: I hope the part in bold is a joke.

 

I don't question that he beat Holyfield- it was American commentators that raised the doubt. He just beat him clearer the first time.

 

Who, Bob Sheridan?

 

You're very, very, very wrong on Byrd.

 

Unified and being THE MAN arent necessarily hand-in-hand (in fact its more exception than rule today).

How anyone can cite BYRD as an obstacle to Lewis' tenure, I cant fathom. Once Lewis beat Briggs (and later Rahman), he was THE CHAMP. Keep the belts.

 

Wlad is the champ, but with an asterisk (* he will not fight and could not beat Vitali)

 

Pretty harsh to put that asterisk there when Vitali is complicit in not allowing the fight to happen, Sly.

 

Yeah, he's ducking his brother. He rings home to see if Wlad is there before calling over for Caviar and Borscht with Babushka and Dudushka Klitschko. If Wlad is there he wimps out and starves instead.

 

They're both avoiding each other (and in this case, I'll come to their defense), so it seems to me you either penalise both or neither for that fact.

Me, I cant penalise brothers for refusing to fight one another.

 

They aren't "avoiding each other"....they both don't want to fight the other.

Avoiding is when Mark Johnson wanted to fight Tapia but Tapia didn't want to fight him.

 

Okay...

Anyway, I dont think it fair to judge Wlad and not Vitali when neither will take the fight. Either judge both or judge neither. Theyre each doing the same thing.

 

This is correct.

 

Didn't HBO announcers have the rematch a draw (or at least a closer fight than the first one). Thought I remember Roy saying at the end of the rematch that the scorecards for each fight should've been reversed.

 

Lederman had it 8-4 for Lewis. I know Larry emphatically stated that he scored the fight for Lewis as soon as it ended. If I remember right, George was suggesting the judges should ignore what happened the first time, but wouldn't commit to the fact that he thought Holyfield might have won (but it's not like he was keeping score anyway)

 

Holyfield clearly won the second fight. Lewis fought like a frightened 3 toed sloth, being terrorized by a much larger animal, backpeddling away behind his cowardly pawing jab.

 

Nonsense...

U Can Only "Duck" a Perceived THREAT...Neither Byrd NOR Ruiz were Legitimate THREATS to Lennox Lewis...Lewis Could've LITERALLY Beaten Both of them in the Same Night...



REED:dancingBaby:

 

Consider the Source...mikE's a Contrarian BULLSHIT Artist...He'd Rank Bruce Seldon HIGHER than Muhammad Ali, All Times, if he Thought it'd Garner Enough Attention...


REED:mj:

 

Reed please,..when Pacquiao was buisy 'making history',..there was a hysterical 'republican' styled campaign against random drug testing, the rare few arguing in favor of the clause were considered annoying contrarian trolls :nono:... sometimes minority views are well worth a swig..

 

Being someone's brother is just an excuse weak people use to avoid their responsibilities

 

I remember back when these fights were mooted, it was looking like LL would face Byrd. People were howling that he should fight Vitali. I joked that people would say LL ducked Byrd if that happened.

Here we are.

 

True..but the asterisk was two-fold...you seem to have misse dthe point where I said that Wlad would not beat Vitali.

 

I thought he gave up the IBF title to fight...maybe Grant?...and that's when Byrd won it? I'm not saying he ducked Byrd out of fear, but he gave up a belt rather than face him as he was supposed to....as I remember.

 

Just as there is a distinction between being THE MAN and having an undisputed claim to a weight class. Lewis was THE MAN. And after Briggs, he had the lineage (except for the WBO), and he retired without losing the belt.

At that point, things got far more murky as to who had the real claim. Until the belts are all reunited, you have to look at the whole picture...and Vitali/Byrd/Wlad/Sanders is all part of that picture.

 

He gave up the WBA to fight Grant rather than Ruiz.

 

When you give up a title rather than fight a mandatory, you are ducking. Ducking doesn't have to be out of fear. Your last sentence is just teeny bopper stupidity.

 

Was it Golota instead of Byrd, then?

 

REED, I'm not going to post 2nd grade level versions of my posts so that you can (maybe) understand them.