Lennox Lewis ducked Chris Byrd

Yeah, ok, I'm supposed to believe that Vitali was troubled by the thought of fighting the lightest punching heavyweight in the history of the sport, whom he was dominating their first fight, until the time of his injury. Puhlease. Does Powderpuff Byrd even hold a stoppage victory over a top-20 heavyweight? Rumour has it his punches literally tickled opponents.

 

He Doesn’t seem to be lying in this instance.https://www.espn.com/boxing/news/2002/1218/1479329.html

I agree with you. i think Byrd’s fight with vitali was a lot closer than people think.

 

Byrd never hit as hard as a prepubescent girl. Byrds punches were literal slaps, not worth the Compubox code they were recorded on. Would a lion care if he never saw the misquote that bit his nutsack again?

 

I brought this pathetic thread to life.

 

Lewis apparently ducked everyone in the era according to Redbeard7

Ironic considering recent events

 

The timeline clearly shows that Wladimir had soundly defeated Birdy before Vitali recovered from his surgically repaired rotator cuff and returned against Hoffman. Why would he have been inclined to rematch Birdy at that point?

 

The fight was lucrative because of Lewis not Byrd. Fact is Lewis was the draw, Byrd was not a draw, if the fight was so lucrative why did Byrd's promoter pay Lewis to vacate the tile? Answer because King would of lost money on Lewis/Byrd had he paid the promised purse, which we know with King, what he says he will pay you doesn't mean that's what you get paid.

King wanted to make Byrd/Holyfield, even he didn't want Byrd to fight Lewis, otherwise why pay Lewis $1 mill and give him a car to vacate? When an opponents promoter doesn't even want the fight no happen, I'd say that's the definition of "Nobody was demanding this fight."

Byrd himself should e grateful that he never fought Lewis, he'd have never held a belt otherwise, because Lewis would of toyed with him before KOing him.

 

Yeah, even Ike struggled badly against Byrd before his power bailed him out. He actually looked embarrassed at times at how badly he was missing him.

 

What make you sure Lewis would KO Byrd if he couldn't KO 214 lbs bums-basher Zeljko Mavrovic, old cruiserweight Holyfield (who was dropped hard by non-puncher Ruiz soon) at his very peak, while in late 2002 or 2003 it was older, slower version of Lewis?

I'm sure Byrd would make Lewis miss hell a lot, but most likely would still lose by 116-112 or 115-113 type of decision

 

It doesn't make sense to you because you have a whack narrative you refuse admit the reality of what happened at the time and are spouting revisionist BS, which only you and a few other people here adhere to.

You posting up those numbers only proves my point, Lewis was the draw he could make good money fighting anybody, he didn't need Byrd at all, it added nothing to his resume at the time and would not have excited fans.

Lewis plans at the time were to fight on a double header with Tyson as the main co-headliner to promote a rematch with Tyson. Lewis was fighting Kirk Johnson. Tyson was to fight Oleg Maskeav. Once the PPV revenues for a Lewis/Tyson co-headline card had been accounted for, Lewis payday would of likely far exceeded whatever purse King promised to fight Byrd.

But Lewis' plans did not go as he had hoped. Johnson pulled out with an injury, so they accelerated their plans to fight Vitali and bumped him from the undercard to the main event and Tyson backed out of the event which eventually led to Lewis suing King for $385 mill for supposedly scuppering his plans for Tyson to fight on that card as well as a rematch with Lewis.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-apr-23-sp-tyson23-story.html

Why did King not wait for the purse bids, which the IBF were set to announce just before he made the deal with Lewis to vacate his belt? Answer King didn't want the fight to happen between Lewis and Byrd. All he had to do was wait for a purse bid, make his bid which would of likely not been anywhere near what he promised Lewis, then either win or lose the bid, they have the fight happen or see Lewis vacate and saving King the need to pay Lewis $1 mill and a range rover. But he didn't wait for the purse bids, that's not what he wanted, he made the offer to Lewis to ensure Lewis/Byrd didn't happen. How can Lewis of ducked Byrd when Byrd's own promoter scuppered the chances of the fight possibly happening?

Yes it's possible Byrd may have made Lewis look bad, Byrd wasn't an entertaining fighter, which is why nobody wanted this fight, any idiot can see that. Byrd at best would of lost a wide decision in a boring fight that fans would of berated Lewis for not stopping Byrd. Why would Lewis want this as a possible outcome in the lead up to what he had planned as a lucrative rematch with Tyson. Answer he didn't which is why the fight was set to go to purse bids, but of course King made sure it never got that far because he simply wanted the belt so he could make Byrd/Holyfield, a supposedly less lucrative fight by your own numbers you posted, why would King scupper Byrd's supposed more lucrative fight with Lewis, answer it probably wasn't going to generate the kind of money he expected, him throwing out $8 mill number to fight Byrd doesn't mean that's what he would of paid Lewis. Daniel Dubois learned that most recently when he had to take King to court to get paid for his fight vs Bryan which resulted in a settlement, which likely means Dubois got paid less than he was promised. Why are you trusting the numbers given by a proven liar?

You're so focused on trying to belittle Lewis and tarnish his well established legacy all you are doing is exposing your own bias which

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Byrd didn't deserve a fight. I'm just not sure he deserved it any more than the fight Lewis actually had when he lost his IBF which was Vitali.

Now obviously Vitali was a replacement for Kirk Johnson, so you could maybe argue Byrd is a better mandatory defence than Johnson, but the actual reality was he fought and stopped Vitali, which definitely is a better mandatory defence than Byrd.