by Jim "Boxadamus" De Pierro

Vitali Klitschko may not have won the heavyweight championship of the world but he did win my respect. For those of you who read my last prediction column on Lewis vs. Klitschko you will know that I was very hard on Klitschko for quitting the fight against Chris Byrd going so far as to even dub him Quitschko. I still stand by everything I said in regards to the Byrd fight but I also feel that Klitschko more than made up for his lack of heart he displayed against Byrd in his bid to wrest the heavyweight crown from Lennox Lewis and for that I will no longer refer to him as Quitschko.

Lewis for his part didn't do himself or his reputation any favors by his ingracious post fight interview. It seemed like the best he could say of Klitschko was that he was okay and even that came very grudgingly. I am happy Lewis won because I placed a few dollars on him but I can't help but feel that Vitali Klitschko was cheated out of the biggest opportunity of his lifetime. I have seen fights stopped on cuts that were far less serious than the ones Klitschko sustained over his left eye. I have always felt that far to many fights in general are stoped on cuts. In my view a cut or swelling should only stop a fight if a fighter is clearly blinded by his own blood or is about to lose consciousnes due to excessive blood loss. I don't know about most boxing fans but speaking strictly for myself I feel the majority of fights I have seen stopped on cuts were done so unnecesarily. Clearly Klitschko was still very much in the fight at the time of stoppage. Fight fans deserved a conclusive ending with one of these comabatants ending up on his back.

One thing that I was taken aback by as I was watching this fight was how sloppy it was. I think it is safe to say the Lewis prime is definately over. Lewis missed several times with winging shots that makes me wonder how he would have done against a slickster like Chris Byrd or Roy Jones jr. Vitali Klitschko isn't exactly a mover and at 6' 8" and 248 pounds its not like he was a hard to hit target. Lewis was certainly not in the best of shape coming in at an all tiime high of 256 pound. Comparisons to Lewis in South Africa in his first fight against Hasim Rahman have been often mentioned but I think this fight is a little different. When Lewis lost to Rahman is South Africa I think that had more to do with the high altitude and thin air then Lewis's weight. Rahman had gotten to South Africa before Lewis arrived and was well acclimated to the climate.

I think this fight revealed a couple of things about Lewis and Klitschko. For Klitschko the two things that I have learned about this fight is that Dr. Ironfist's power is somewhat overated and his heart was underatted. I will probably get some flak for this but I think Hasim Rahman hits harder than does Klitchko. That is not to say Klitschko is a weak puncher, he isn't but he nailed Lewis with more clean punches than did Rahman and while Lewis didn't exactly take them well he was still standing at the end of the day. Vitali Klitschko also showed that he can take a punch better than his younger brother Wladimir. I based my prediction partly on the theory that chins are somewhat genetic. Lewis showed that his chin while not exactly iron clad isn't made of glass. I always find it ironic that many boxing fans summarily dismiss Lewis and his greatness due to his early KO losses to McCall in 2 and Rahman in 5. Joe Frazier lost to George Foreman twice by KO in the 2nd and 5th round yet nobody ever says Joe Frazier had a glass jaw or doesn't deserve to be mentioned as great.

As a boxing columnist whose articles mainly consist of boxing predictions there are four words I have always wanted to say after a major fight. I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!! Okay now that I have got that off my chest in all seriousness I would give my prediction about a grade of a B or B-. I was right in picking the correct winner and the correct round. I was also right in my belief that Vitali Klitschko would look bloodied and battered after fighting Lennox Lewis. I was correct in that I thought the fight would have quite a bit of holdiing and grappling and that there would probably be some sort of throwdown/takedown that wasn't an official knockdown.

I thought the majority of this fight would turn out to be boring and other than the first round which was boring that clearly wasn't the case. I was wrong in that I thought Lewis would be able to control the action and dictate the course of this fight as it progressed much better than he did. While I don't feel that either Lewis or Klitschko was clearly dominating the other the fact of the matter that Klitschko was leading 58-56 on all three judges scorecards shows that the judges were not giving the champion the benefit of the doubt and that I think is a good thing. I felt that Lewis and Klitschko were giving about as good as they were getting. Clearly in the second round and I believe the 5th round Klitschko looked like he had Lewis on the verge of defeat. In the third round Klitschko was seriously hurt and especially the sixth it looked to me Klitschko was on his last legs. I was completely wrong in my last prediction that Klitschko fans would become an endangered species after this fight but I said that largely in jest just to get some of the more rabid Klitschko fans riled up.

What do I think would have happened had the fight not been halted by the ringside physician? I really can't say. If I had to pick one word to describe this fight it would be inconclusive which is why this fight begs for a rematch. If I had to guess though I think Lewis would have finished off Vitali Klitschko in the next two or three rounds. Klitschko looked like he was about to go in the last minute of the 6th round. Vitali Klitschko's strategy of trying to wear Lewis down by draining his stamina was a wise one and may very well have worked. I am slightly inclined to the point of view that Lewis would have won anyway based on the 6th round but it was far from a foregone conclusion. This fight had a real ebb and flow quality to it. It is entirely conceivable that Klitschko would have gone on to to hurt and dominate and maybe even KO Lewis in the 7th round or at some later point had the fight been allowed to continue. The only thing that I am confident of in saying is that this fight would not have gone the distance under any circumstances.

Even though I think Lewis would probably have won that doesn't mean I think Lewis will win a re-match. Lewis will almost certainly be in better shape and have a better gameplan and will not make the mistake of overlooking Vitali Klitschko. I still think Klitschko is robotic and somewhat one dimensional but I would never underestimate what anger with the right mix of determination can do for you. Usually after a loss a fighter's self confidence can be hurt. With Klitschko I think this is the type of loss that only serves to make him hungrier and more determined. Klitschko, I believe in his mind, thinks he can take Lennox Lewis. I think going into this fight he might have had some apprehension or self doubt about whether he was good enough but not anymore. After the fight one could almost see the fire in his eyes as he called out Lennox Lewis for a rematch. As of now I am not making any pick on a potential Lewis-Klitschko re-match.

Lewis-Klitschko was the most competitive heavyweight matchup in recent memory and the most exciting Lewis fight ever IMO. I think Lewis and Klitschko increased their marketability at least two fold. The best thing to come about as a result of Lewis-Klitschko is that nobody is talking about Mike Tyson anymore.

Joe Mesi 25-0 (23 KOs) vs. Robert Davis 28-5 (16 KOs)

(ESPN TNF Main Event)

Like many hardcore boxing fans I am quickly losing patience with Mesi's methodical approach to taking a step up in class. Its time for Joe Mesi to either put up or shut up. Robert Davis is a step in the right direction and the closest thing to a live body that Mesi has fought so far. While Davis is nothing exceptional he is at least respectable as a choice of an opponent. Davis has some fine boxing ability when he chooses to use it but he has shown that he can be lured into a brawl as was the case against Terrance Lewis the first time. Davis has a tendency to show a suspect chin in the early rounds which I think is going to spell trouble for him against Mesi.

If I didn't place a few dollars on Mesi I would be pretty indifferent to the outcome of this fight but I think the fact that this fight is taking place in Buffalo where the people think Mesi is the greatest thing since sliced bread makes it a pretty safe bet that Mesi will win one way or the other. If I were an oddsmaker and Joe Mesi were to take on a piece of sliced bread in a boxing match to be held somewhere other than Buffalo I would make it even money that the sliced piece of bread could beat Joe Mesi. You don't need me to tell you that Davis is going to have to fight an almost perfect fight and really dominate Mesi if he wants to win a decision. I don't think Davis is quite good enough to KO Mesi. In all seriousness I don't think Mesi is a bad boxer just an unproven boxer. The jury is still out on whether or not Mesi has the goods.

I think Mesi will win a comfortable points decision over Davis and almost score a KO in the early to mid rounds of the fight. Robert Davis goes down twice in one of the early rounds giving Mesi a comfortable cushion to glide to an easy points win. My guess is that Mesi will look very beatable at times but will win a legitimate points decison that is on the scorecards a little wider than it should be. I know I will almost certainly be wrong on the exact tally of the official scorecards but just for giggles here it goes. 117-109, 116-110 and 114-112 all for Mesi

Joe Mesi UD over Robert Davis

Agree? Disagree? Think I'm full of it? E-mail me at boxadamus@surfglobal.net or post a comment.