June 21, 2003 – The Staples Center, Los Angeles. It was on this day when heavyweight king Lennox Lewis took on WBC number-one ranked contender Vitali Klitschko, this in a fight that came on short notice for both men, Kirk Johnson, Lewis’ original foe, pulling out injured.
Lewis was at the top of the mountain, the 37-year-old having beaten every one of real note and worth and having achieved all his goals (undisputed champion, each man he had faced being beaten, a secure place in The Hall of Fame).
There was only one place for Lewis to go, and that was down. Lennox, however, was certain he would not be knocked down by Klitschko. In fact, Lewis was arrogantly certain he would not have any real problems with the “unskilled” Klitschko, a man who had questionable heart. The knock on Vitali was he had not sucked it up the way he should have done in his 2000 fight with Chris Byrd; Vitali quitting with an injured shoulder. Only later did we learn that, had Vitali fought on against Byrd, this in a fight he was winning handily, he could have ended up permanently injured, his career over.
There was nothing wrong with Vitali’s heart, as he proved on this day 20 years ago. There was nothing wrong with Lewis’ heart, either.
Lewis was coming off a thrashing of a faded Mike Tyson and he had a possible big-money fight with Roy Jones Jr ringing in his ears (Jones having beaten John Ruiz for a slice of the heavyweight crown that March). Klitschko, eager to restore his good fighting name after the unfair criticism that was hurled at him after the Byrd loss, was coming off a stoppage win over Larry Donald.
The fight, dubbed “Battle of the Titans,” turned out to be a heavyweight slugfest that thrilled the world. Lewis was 40-2-1(31), Klitschko was 32-1(31). Klitschko, six years the younger man, came in at a ready 248 pounds, Lewis scaled a career-high 256.5 pounds.
Both men came out fast and full of full-bloodied aggression at the sound of the bell. These two big men set a terrific pace, a brutal pace for heavyweights, and the war was on. From the get-go, bombs were exchanged in savage fashion, with both men looking for the early knockout. Lewis, who perhaps fought the single sloppiest fight of his entire career, appeared to have no game plan other than to land a huge right hand and end the fight.
Klitschko, fighting in his somewhat ungainly yet effective, outdated ‘European style,’ may well have shocked Lewis with his fast start and his ability to take whatever the champ got home with. Klitschko won the opening round and it was clear this was no easy fight for Lewis. In round two, fans began thinking possible upset, as “Dr. Iron Fist,” as Klitschko was known, cracked Lewis with a big right hand to the chin that visibly wobbled him.
It was a street fight; it was as wild as it was entertaining. Both men punched, they wrestled, they absorbed whatever shots came their way, and then they punched some more. It was, as Jim Lampley said on air on HBO, “a pier six brawl.”
It wasn’t long before Lewis was feeling the pace, the champ open-mouthed. But at this same time, Klitschko suffered a cut above his left eye. It was a bad cut from the start, soon to become a truly horrific one. But Klitschko appeared unfazed by the gruesome facial damage Lewis had inflicted on him, the challenger fighting harder. There was no doubt, Klitschko was in better shape than was the overweight, perhaps complacent champion.
But Lewis was chucking out hydrogen bombs, his right hands bouncing off Klitschko’s head. In round six, with Klitschko’s face now a real mess, Lewis cranked off a peach-perfect uppercut that snapped Klitschko’s head back. This involuntary movement of his neck muscles aside, Vitali never flinched as the nuclear blast connected. Both men had shown the ability to eat shot after shot. This was one of the most wild and seemingly unskilled heavyweight slugfests seen in years. It was down to who took the better shot, who wanted it more. Who could last longer.
Lewis was running on empty in a most serious way, while half of Klitschko’s face was hanging off. It was a certainty the fight would not last all 12 rounds. But who, or what, would give? It turned out the ringside doctor’s stomach gave.
After the completion of the sixth, with Lewis hitting his stool hard, the ringside doc decided enough was enough as far as Klitschko’s nasty cuts were concerned – one ghastly injury above the eye, one unsightly injury below – and the fight was stopped. Vitali was incensed, the challenger jumping up and going at Lewis. “No!” Klitschko said. “No!”
Klitschko and Lewis exchanged words in the middle of the ring, with Vitali asking for a rematch and Lennox appearing to agree to one. “You promise?” Klitschko asked.
There never was a rematch, as we all know. Lewis, pushed harder and more brutally than he could have imagined, this at the end of a glorious career, was wise in deciding to refrain from pushing his luck, and his brain and body, in a rematch. Lewis instead retired, leaving Klitschko to continue asking, and hoping, for a rematch for some years.
Here, Harold Knight, longtime co-trainer of Lewis, says what he thinks would have happened had the fight gone on:
“Klitschko was very badly cut of course, but it wasn’t just his eye. Klitschko had a nasty torn lip, and he was weakening due to swallowing his own blood,” Knight kindly took the time to tell me. “Lennox was definitely on his way to knocking him out.”
We will never know.
But the world was treated to a magnificent, explosively thrilling fight between two giants 20 years ago, a fight that, if it didn’t have too much Sweet Science on display, it sure as hell had a ton of blood and guts, and bombs on display. We fans would have loved a part-two, but Lewis was done. Klitschko was just getting into his stride as far as the big fights go, yet he never again featured in as big, or as great a fight over the remainder of his ring career.
