prime 1985-1986 Tyson vs 1990 Buster Douglas

I dont buy that Bowe dropped his belt in the bin with the intention to duck Lewis.

It was a definitely a dumb move, but surely there would have been more 'discrete' ways for him to duck Lewis, if that had been his intention?

Does anybody fault Tyson for dropping his belt to face Holyfield for $35m+ (x2)?

 

Taking two lesser fights for a combined less sum of money rather than to make more facing one man? It sure looked that way to most.

There really wasn't any way of getting around it, discrete or not. Bowe signed a contract with the understanding that if he beat Evander Holyfield, Lewis would be the first man to get a crack at him. He and Rock Newman reneged on this agreement. Regardless of weather of not they felt Lewis was beatable, it was a duck. No way of getting around that.

The difference here is that there was serious fan appeal.. People wanted to see Tyson vs Holyfield for the better part of a decade.. Are you saying that Bowe fought Jesse Ferguson and Michael Dokes because there was more interest in seeing him fight those guys than Lennox Lewis?

 

I think Tyson gets plenty of grief for that. Remember at the time Holyfield was considered shot to pieces and easy money, and more than a few were suggesting Tyson was running scared.

 

Im speaking from Tysons perspective, had i been in his shoes, id have done the same thing

Fight Holyfield for $35m or fight Lewis for nowhere near that amount

 

Its not directly Bowes fault, he was meant to face Mercer, but Mercer lost to Ferguson who fought Bowe instead

It may have been a duck im not disputing that, i just find it strange that hed go through all of that, im sure they could have pulled a much better excuse.

I was referring to the myth that Tyson ducked Lewis because he was scared, when he in fact fought Holyfield for a whole lot more money

 

Actually it IS is fault or at least his manager's. He fought Dokes in February of 1993 AFTER he had already trashed the WBC title. He then elected to fight Ray Mercer who had already lost to Holmes and had done nothing of note in the interim.. Ending up in the ring with Ferguson instead only made things worse..

There really wasn't any excuse and he didn't have to go through much of an inconvenience. It was easier to fight two lesser opponents until the Holyfield rematch could come off, rather than facing a far more formidable opponent. Simple as that.

Scared. Not scared.. Makes no difference. Tyson vs Holyfield was the match that most wanted to see and had been for some time. Bowe vs Dokes, Mercer, or Ferguson was not in any way shape or form viewed as an acceptable replacement for Bowe vs Lewis.

 

There were some signs of fear in their square off after the first Holyfield fight when Lewis was commentating where Bowe said 'Razor Ruddock was afraid of you, i thought we were cool, you aint nothing but a chump'

depends on how you view that, but it makes me feel Bowe was scared of Lewis.

 

I personally think Bowe and Newman were fine with the idea of fighting Lewis UNTIL they saw what he did to Ruddock on Halloween night 1992. After that they didn't seem to have as much bravado.

 

Same here, that little push/shove incident pretty much tells it all.

Also, during the Tyson/Ruddock weigh in, Bowe was there, cheering Tyson on, theres a clip of it on youtube, i did post a while back.

Bowe has always looked up to Tyson, to watch Lewis destroy a guy who went toe to toe with Tyson probably did unnerve Bowe

 

Neither did Don King who was in Lewis corner at the time. King advised Lewis how to get the title through vacancy.

Bowe never trashed Lewis when he dumped the belt. He trashed the WBC who were low balling him and Newnam. Newnam and King hated each other.
Bowe was stuck in the middle. Bowe had no fear of any man and Lewis was nobody to fear back then.

 

Fuch said he thought Lewis would be no match for Bowe after he watched him fight Tony Tucker.

 

If we take Douglas from that night and compare him to Tyson's resume, it's probably fair to say he didn't beat a greater fighter, well in or close to their prime anyway. Then again the only reason Douglas could be considered a H2H beast from one night is because he beat a version of Tyson that was about 80%. Douglas did manage to rise from the canvas and win, so it does give cadence to the fact he has the heart and the chin to get through the fight and potentially whether the worst of things against a prime Tyson. I know the round ended as he got up, but it was a monstrous uppercut Tyson landed. It landed flush in the chin as well. He also has the advantage of being the more likely to come on stronger and carrying his power to the later rounds. Your not going to be able to boss a prime Tyson early on, expect him to start fast and rack up a decent points lead, but if buster can slow him down, past round 6, we have every right to believe he could repeat the feat.

What it boils down to is can Douglas handle a Tyson that was that extra bit sharper, smarter and explosive than the one he fought. There's very strong arguments for both sides of the stick, which is why I think this is a 50-50 fight. Well more like 60-40 for Tyson, but I have no problem at all if people are to favouring Douglas here

 

If we could go back in time and take the fight again after knowing the Tokyo result then Tyson would definitely be the underdog.

Douglas dominated him from start to finish, the man had the skills and the gameplan to beat any version of Tyson.

Get off first and put Tyson on the backfoot and he has no plan B, this was confirmed also in his fight with Holyfield who also counterpunched masterfully against Tyson.