Did Tyson really duck Lewis in 96?

Because it was the only big fight left for Holy and he wanted it as a big unification fight, you should watch the Lewis documentary he actually says for the fight Evander got 15m, Lennox got 10m and King himself got 10m a promoter should never make such a huge slice of the revenue and this is before you factor in how King charged fighters for all sorts of stupid **** just to milk them for every penny

Do you honestly believe a prime Lewis was afraid of fighting Tyson in 96 or 97 or that he would have lost

 

Lewis was offered 16 million to face Tyson, which is 6 million more than what he received for Holyfield.

And I was alluding about his first reign as a WBC champion (1992/1994), where he fought almost exclusively King's fighters.

Who said Lewis feared Tyson ? It's all about business decisions.
And Tyson would have not been afraid either of someone who was KOed by his sparring-partner and struggled badly against an overweight, 35 years old Ray Mercer.

 

Who said anything about Tyson being scared this was purely a business move Lewis didn’t want to give up control of his career perfectly understandable and now looking back he made some serious coin with his reign and the Holy fights and an even bigger fight with Tyson with no split to King

 

So you think because Lewis lost a fight to McCall who was more than just a sparring partner he was scared to face Tyson in the biggest fight in boxing for the biggest payday and for a world title

Let’s be serious Lewis showed his class in the rematch with McCall and in 97 if they fought Mike would have had a punchers chance at best he was already far removed from his prime form

How many defeats did Tyson avenge? Zero

How many prime ATG fighters did Tyson beat? Zero

Tysons comeback was just smoke and mirrors designed to make him look unstoppable but anyone who knew anything about boxing can plainly see he wasn’t the same fighter and this was shown when he fought an older slower version Holyfield and got stomped

Also I’m literally a huge Tyson fan grew up watching him and prefer him over Lewis but you have to take out your emotional bias and objectively look at things

 

The McCall and Rahman aberrations will always cloud how good Lennox was.
Yes , Tyson ( or the people around him ) wanted no part of Lewis whilst alternative or easier paydays were available in that time frame.
Bowe also avoided Lewis, quite shamefully.

 

This falsehood has been largely rebutted in this thread.
And Bowe offered Lewis his largest purse at that time, which he refused twice (3 million in 1992 and 12 million in 1993).

 

what is the difference between giving the belt to Bowe for Lewis, Tyson for Lewis, Lewis for Ruiz, Lewis for Byrd, Lewis for Klitschko, Foreman for Tucker, Foreman for Shulz, Ali for Norton etc. Why are some of them considered an escape, and others are completely omitted and forgotten? is it complicated?

 

So your argument is Lewis was a good finisher that's why he won fights the same can be said for Tyson, Foreman and any other hard hitter I really don't see the relevance

The discussion was Lewis didn't want to fight Tyson because he was scared, my point is simple if Lewis was scared he never would have faced him in 02, never would have faced other hard hitters which he did many times throughout his career

You also agree that Mike had a lower chance of winning so ask yourself this do you think Lewis was afraid to fight a faded version of Mike or most likely the terms were so unfavourable he didn't want to hand over control of his career and get robbed blind - which seems more likely

 

There's a difference between being scared and not overly confident. Lewis definitely didn't fancy his chances that much.
He preferred to wait in the sidelines, knowing Tyson would be stripped.
Compare that to the courage of Holyfield, who like the warrior that he is, took the money, TKOed Tyson and beat him in the rematch while making almost three times more money, and unified against Moorer.

 

Can't you see the difference between how Lewis and Tyson were perceived in 1996 and how they were perceived in 2002? Lewis couldn't beat Mercer in 1996 and had a horse from McCall behind him, how could anyone be afraid of him then? in 2002 he looked much more serious, and Tyson was a guy who had to smoke crack before fights, take sedatives and hadn't had a good win in at least 3 years.

 

Lewis wanted the fight he just didn't want to give up control of his career which turned out to be the best decision

Think about it Lennox was chasing a prime Bowe for a fight as well as fighting the Holyfield that beat Tyson twice and other very dangerous power punchers like Vitali, Tua, Briggs and Golota so to say he was scared is just stupid.

 

You obviously don't read what we wrote.
No one said Lewis was scared and you keep ignoring our other points.

 

The point you haven't addressed is Lewis not wanting to give up control of his career to a criminal in King - surely you agree with his decision on this