When bowe threw his belt in the trash...

No it was long before the tournament that Hopkins was forced to fight King fighters he wanted nothing to do with, but he only had one title and was basically an outcast with all the promoters, so he needed that title.

Lewis did the same thing Bowe did, he just didnt make a public spectacle of it. He was able to relinquish titles but maintain others so he could still be in the position he needed to be in. He was still the champ with one belt or three, same with Bowe. Ruiz and Byrd were MANDATORY challengers for Lewis' titles. On both occassions he refused to fight them. Just because he decided to fight Michael Grant instead of Ruiz, or Kirk Johnson (which turned into Vitali) instead of his mandatory challengers doesnt justify anything because they were perceived by the general public as better challenges. Reality was that both John Ruiz and Chris Byrd accomplished more as heavyweights than anything Mike Grant or Kirk Johnson ever did, and Johnson was the original choice when he vacated his title, not Vitali.

Riddick Bowe beat a far better fighter than any fighter Lennox Lewis ever won against to win his titles. Lewis won his titles from a shot Tucker a crazy Mcall and unified against Holyfield who was far from the fighter that Bowe faced in 1991. Thats a fact.

 

Bowe, despite his pluses as a fighter, was the very opposite of a champion, and what champions...true champions stood for. The throwing of his belt into the garbage was a despicable move..true champions never do that. They proudly hold on to their belts and try to unify if possible.....but...it was a very successful strategy..it did help prevent him from getting trashed himself by lennox Lewis. So it was a great move cooked up for him by his garbage can buddy Rock Newman..it made sense coming from him.

 

Bowe was the undisputed champion, he didnt need to unify.

 

There were some differences between Lewis relinquishing his WBA title and Bowe trashing his WBC title.

The WBA had agreed to give Lewis permission to bypass facing Ruiz as his WBA mandatory so he could face his WBC mandatory Michael Grant as long as he faced Ruiz next. But King took them to court and got Lewis to relinquish the title or cancel his fight with Grant and fight Ruiz.

Lewis was in a no win situation he would either lose his WBA title and face possible court action from Grant's management for breach of contract and possibly be stripped of his WBC belt or face Grant and be forced to give up his WBA belt. Lewis chose the former and relinquished his WBA belt to face his WBC mandatory.

Lewis gave up one belt to face another mandatory and face his number one contender while Bowe gave up his belt to face easier opposition and was not in a position where he could lose one of his other belts.

But Lewis should have never agreed to face Grant in the first place as he had contractually agreed to face Ruiz as part of his deal in facing Holyfield, he should have gotten permission from the WBC first to bypass Grant and face Ruiz first rather than the other way round.

 

The WBC never said they would strip Lewis if he didnt fight Grant. Im of the opinion Ruiz would have been a tougher fight than Mike Grant.

 

I dont blame Lewis for what he did because most fighters do that kind of stuff when they get in positions of power. Lewis didnt have a similar situation that Bowe had where he was coming off a tough fight with Holyfield and then faced with another tough challenger so we dont know how he would have reacted had he been in the same situation. I wonder if his handlers who had a lot of money invested in Lewis might have wanted to do the very same thing Newman did and thats milk those titles before facing another big fight. I would think they would. 90% of Lewis opponents and title defenses were on the level of a Mike Dokes anway.

Lewis was just a hypocrite and thats what I didnt care for with him. He bitched to no end coming up that noone wanted to fight him, but he did the same type of thing when he was in control.

 

Yeah, i know Bowe was unified...my point was to refer to how a champion should treasure those belts..even if he only has one, instead of mocking the sport and all it stands for by ditching a belt in the garbage like he did.

 

Yeah, I didn't like his actions either. But there was more to it than meets the eye.

 

It was a foolish attempt to be provocative, to be a cutting-edge Ali kind of guy. Rock Newman was behind it, just as he was the one who arranged Bowe's meeting with the Pope, Nelson Mandela, and others. They thought they could make Riddick some kind of international figure, controversial risk taker and all that. Bowe never had the personality or brains for it, and then he totally blew it by losing the title back to Holyfield. Bowe should've fought Lennox. It was a very foolish move and it cost him hugely. He had a great shot at beating Lewis at that time, as he'd have come in motivated, unlike the unmotivated version who lost to Holyfield.

 

Disagree on the highly motivated argument. Bowe was a guy like Tate and Page and Douglas or Liakhovic even---when they finally get a title shot and moment to shine, they do. In that 1 fight. That's it. They are never ever as good as they were for that 45 minutes and subsequent fights have a guy a little worse each time out, not a little better. A little worse. But public perception is that a guy only improves and in boxing it just does not follow that script. It's a ladder and a guy is going up or down and everybody seems to get sold on the concept it is only upward steps.

And I recall Lewis destroying Ruddock. Took Ruddock a long time to come back from that and that kind of ko is a career killer. I sure did not see Bowe destroying Holyfield. I saw a close fight that Bowe won. No destruction though. But the story being sold was that Bowe was a guy that was going to get better fight by fight and I was not a buyer of that sentiment.

And if Bowe is only 100% that one night, how does an 85% Bowe do with a Lewis? Because that's about all there was after the first fight with Evander.

 

Lewis did not do so great against a far older Holyfield but then again the match up is Bowe and Lewis .. the joke is the Bowe that fought Evander the first time may have given Lewis hell but we will never know because he and Newman so blatently ducked the fight ..

 

Funny you describe Bowe like that. THere is no comparison to Ruddock and Holyfield. Holyfield was lot better and noone destroyed him, not even the great Lennox Lewis. Ruddock had been knocked out long before Lewis and Tyson beat him.
Bowe had one loss his entire career and it was to an ATG in his prime. Lewis was knocked out twice by fighters he should have never lost to. Lewis just wasnt as good as you think. Hes a product of a poor poor era. Bowes comp might not have been too stellar either, but he handled it like a fighter of his caliber should have, he never lost, even when he was in poor condition and unfocused.

 

Have you watched Jaco-Ruddock? Razor was totally dominating, then gassed & was prematurely stopped while being slapped with feather-dusters. It was a bull**** stoppage. Jaco is featherfisted & Ruddock would've made it to the final bell & still taken a clear decision. After that fight, he took a year out & had treatment for his lung condition, which improved his stamina. Plus Ruddock was a light 203lbs in '85, which is unrespresentative of his weights at his Peak which ranged from 227-238lbs.

 

The WBC represented everything that was horrible in boxing at the time. It was perhaps the most blatantly corrupt time in heavyweight boxing as King completely controlled the WBC and Jose Suliamon was merely a puppet. Again, every fighter that was involved in any kind of eliminator or title defense against the champion was a Don King promoted fighter. Ruddock only had to beat two King fighters to once again be the WBC's highest ranked challenger for Lewis in the eliminator after he lost to Tyson. Lewis fought all King fighters up until and including Mcall. Then after the loss to Mcall, he had to go back and fight a King fighter for the WBC eliminator and wait an additional two years to get his title back against a King fighter. Was a joke really. Noone wanted to do business with King because he wanted the fighters he controlled to hold the title. People really didnt know that so what Bowe and Newman did really backfired on them.

King would later gain a similar control over the WBA, but in the 90's he had the WBC under his full control.

 

Yes but the point is he was stopped. Bowe had never been knocked out or lost. Wlad has improved a lot since his gassing, but he still folded and was stopped against Purrity, that doesnt change certain factors about a fighter as proof when he lost to Sanders and Brewster.