June 2003, The Staples Centre, Los Angeles.
The date and venue are familiar to fight fans, heavyweight fight fans especially. Why? Because we saw a great action fight between two huge heavies, both well above the mid-240-pound range, we saw blood and gore, we saw huge bombs landed, we saw heart and courage on the line, and we were left wanting to see a rematch.
But the biggest reason fans still talk about this fight, won by Lewis via corner retirement on the part of Klitschko at the end of the sixth round, is because we all wonder what might have happened; what would have happened.


I believe that most of us had expected to hear Vitali Klitschko announcing his retirement from boxing sometime soon. And exactly this happened, as Vitali’s political agenda and involvement in Ukraine swiftly took a turn, and required an entirety of his time and attention. Not only is Vitali dealing with a vicious wave of protests, but is also trying to win over the people and the majority vote that would land him in the presidential office.
As fans know, Vitali Klitschko recently vacated his WBC heavyweight title and declared how he “cannot imagine” a ring return “as things stand now.” So, it seems there is a good chance that at age 42, the elder Klitschko brother has fought his last fight in the ring and can now retire from boxing, his contributions to the sport in the history books.