Yes they did look sloppy, but never did two men as huge as Dr. Vitali Klitschko and Lennox Lewis ever meet for the heavyweight championship of the world.

Klitschko was awkward, but everyone was already aware of that fact coming in. During the fight both fighters appeared to hurt their opponent several times, with the worst coming in round two from a nice Klitschko right hand. Not knowing that he would be the victim of a grotesque cut in the 3rd round, Klitschko did not jump on Lewis in the 2nd as much as he probably will wish he did after he watches the fight tape.

Klitschko said he wanted to start fast, and keep the pressure on his apparently out of shape opponent, heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis. Meanwhile, Lewis appeared to take a page from the recent Mike Tyson fight strategy. Lewis rushed Klitschko and tried to land the one big punch that would put Klitschko away for good. Klitschko valiantly took some of Lewis's best punches and fired back. At the time of the stoppage, all three judges had the fight scored 58-56 for Klitschko, I had it 59-55 for Klitschko. I was particularly impressed when the seemingly slow Klitschko landed four consecutive jabs at one point, because I couldn't believe it.

Despite the apparent bad conditioning, it appeared that Lewis had trouble dealing with a big man who could hang in there. With the other big men Lewis has fought, Michael Grant and Henry Akinwande, we never got to see Lewis fight them because he took Grant out pretty quickly and Akinwande didn't really come to fight, he only held until he was disqualified.

It was nice to see the two giants fighting hard toe to toe for most of the fight. Too many times a caution first approach by either one or both men puts the people at home to sleep quicker than these guys wanted to put each other to sleep. During the fight Emanuel Stewart could be heard in the corner telling Lewis to keep the pace fast. Stewart explained that Klitschko was not used to fighting at such a fast pace; the apparent problem with his strategy was that Lewis was not used to fighting at that pace either.

Many people including myself doubted Klitschko's heart after he quit in the corner in a fight he was wining against Chris Byrd, but he showed that he came to win the fight on Saturday night with Lewis. He seemed legitimately upset that they stopped the fight because of the cut. He asked Lewis for a rematch in front of the HBO cameras. I saw Lewis nod yes, but then it looked like a fight almost broke out.

After this fight the interest and money should be there for a rematch, but a match with Roy Jones would probably be for more money. The way I see it, Lewis is in a tough position in his next fight with either Roy Jones, or a rematch with Klitschko. As far as his legacy goes, Lewis would have a lot to lose in those fights, since critics will say that one is only a blown up middleweight and the other a big, clumsy, slow fighter with an amateurish style.

I disagree, I think they are both difficult fights for Lewis at this point in his career, and would be impressed if he fought either man. Lewis became the third oldest heavyweight champion to successfully defend his title on Saturday, let's hope he comes back to do it again.

06-22-03

VISIT SERRATELLI'S "RINGSIDE CORNER"