Lennox Lewis ducked Chris Byrd

Having been Lewis’s IBF mandatory contender since August 2001 and theoretically entitled to a title shot within 120 days, Byrd mounted a legal challenge to force Lewis to fight him before Tyson or be stripped. It was ultimately ruled that the winner of Lewis-Tyson was obliged to face Byrd by December 8th or lose his title. Lewis took little punishment in the June 8th Tyson fight, so Lewis-Byrd was free to take place by the end of the year.

However, Lewis opted not to fight Byrd. Lewis accepted $1 million and a Range Rover from Byrd’s promoter Don King to vacate the IBF title on September 5th 2002 rather than sitting on the belt until the deadline, which enabled King to make an in-house December title fight. Quote: "This may set the record for the sale of ice in the winter, Burstein (Lewis’s lawyer) said, alluding the fact that Lewis intended all along to relinquish the IBF title”.

Lewis commentated on Byrd-Holyfield at ringside rather than fight Byrd, claiming that he passed on the opportunity to fight him (which would have made Lewis $8 million rather than $1+ million; on net approximately what he made for Rahman 1, enabled him to retain/regain the IBF title if he won, added a highly ranked, quality name to his record who had beaten several mutual opponents, proved that Lewis wasn’t southpaw-phobic and dispelled accusations of ducking Byrd, which were inflamed when Lewis vacated the title for a derisory fee rather than fight him) because:

- Lewis “doesn’t think the public wants to see it”

- “I can’t fight everyone all at once. I think Kirk Johnson is a more exciting fighter, people want to see action”

- "There's nothing in it for me to fight Chris Byrd"

- “You cannot put a lion in there with a bird”

- "If I were to fight Chris Byrd, my likely next IBF mandatory defence would be against an opponent (David Tua, Evander Holyfield or Hasim Rahman) that I have already beaten"

- “As I have said repeatedly, Chris Byrd offers no competitive challenge to me”

Unlike John Ruiz-victim Kirk Johnson presumably, who in March 2003 expressed interest in fighting Lewis. Lewis promptly agreed to fight the unpopular Johnson for a low/undisclosed purse, claiming that he “doesn’t really think about money anymore” (contradicted by a later interview with Larry Merchant: “If the money’s right I’ll give Klitschko a rematch, bring on his brother too.”) but Johnson pulled out on June 5th with an alleged injury. IBF champion Byrd claimed that he was the first to throw his name in the hat but the fight instead went to 5/1 underdog contender Vitali, who had previously fought late sub Byrd, failed to hurt him and quit with an alleged injury (possibly caused by Byrd’s evasion) after 9 rounds.

Byrd was 36-2 and the No.1 American heavyweight in December 2002, having schooled prominent Lewis opponents Holyfield and Tua and his only loss in his previous eleven fights was 26 months prior against heir apparent Wlad. Lewis’s trainer said that he didn’t see “any evidence” that Holyfield was injured and “it was more a matter of Chris Byrd thoroughly outboxing him”.

If team Lewis really regarded Vitali/Tua/Holyfield conqueror Byrd as easy work, why didn’t Lewis destroy him in an easy fight, rather than vacate the IBF, sit on the sidelines for several months and sign to fight Kirk Johnson? Lewis wanted at least three more fights in late 2002, prior to signing to fight Johnson and later Vitali; retirement wasn’t at the forefront of Lewis’s mind until after the Vitali fight. Lewis was in talks with King in late 2002 to fight the winner of his “heavyweight tournament”, of which Byrd could have emerged the winner had the fights taken place. Lewis was non-committal about whether he’d fight the winner: “I’ll tell you when I’ve seen them fight.”

Styles/attributes:

1. Lewis never fought a southpaw (southpaws beat top heavyweights at 2-3 times the rate of orthodox fighters) of any note (unless one counts blown-up LHW switch hitter 21-7 journeyman Greg Gorrell, who Lewis took 5 rounds to get rid of), articulated no interest in fighting Vitali-conqueror Byrd or Wlad-conqueror Sanders when asked, dropped the IBF belt rather than fight Byrd and failed as Price’s trainer against southpaw Thompson. 24 year old Wlad schooling and battering slick southpaw Byrd doesn’t mean that 37 year old Lewis would have done so as Wlad was more athletic, powerful and fought more southpaws than any other heavyweight in history.

2. Lewis didn’t succeed in overpowering the best smaller heavyweights he fought. The short and stocky Mercer (42 year old Holmes victim, no KD's or KO's in his last four fights), outjabbed Lewis and fought him to a controversial 10 round MD. Lewis had a highly competitive 12 round fight with former 190 pounder Holyfield in the rematch (even with the huge advantage of having Holyfield’s ex-trainer), who had been outpointed by Bowe and Moorer, KO’d in 8 by Bowe 4 years prior and was on the cusp of going 1-1-1 with John Ruiz. Lewis also struggled with and gassed against the 214 lbs light punching journeyman-basher Mavrovic, who he claimed was his most fleet-footed opponent.

Quotes from “@The Kentucky Cobra”:

 

The fight was to be held in LA (where Lewis fought Vitali), not Canada:

https://www.boxing247.com/news/Kirk-Johnson-Interview.php

Lewis wanted at least three more fights as of late 2002, it's in the essay.

"We've seen Byrd put fans to sleep such as in the davaryl Williams fight."

That was 3 years later. The problem was that Lewis was worried that he wouldn't be able to put Byrd to sleep, hence "It's not an exciting fight" etc.