Did Tyson really duck Lewis in 96?

What you don't want to understand is that Tyson was the generator of the money, a purse bids would have advantaged Tyson's purse, not Lewis' (see the numbers I posted countless times earlier).
The problem was that Showtime couldn't rival what HBO could have bided for Tyson's purse (45 million versus a probable 30-35 million for Showtime). Given that Showtime and the MGM Grand had an exclusive contrat with Tyson and payed millions dollars for it, it doesn't take long to figure out why they didn't allow the purse bids.
And again, the so-called « reasons [you] have enumerated multiple times » were rebutted as even Panos Eliades, Lewis' co-promoter, accepted King's offers only to be told by HBO to refuse.

 

So what you’re saying is it comes down to Don King, Showtime and MGM wanted Tyson for below market value, and Mike/Team Tyson would rather give up the WBC belt than pay what the fight was worth.

That’s called a duck. If HBO was willing to pay the most for the fight, that means the market for it was indeed higher than King’s ‘this is what I have decided you’re worth, Lennox, so this is what you get.’ LL wasn’t playing that.

Good to see after all this discussion that you’ve finally come around to admitting the fight was worth more on the open market than Don wanted to pay for it.

If not for King and Tyson’s greed, the fight could have been made. Showtime could have gone to HBO to work it out and say ‘let’s do it on both networks,’ which they did in other cases over the years. Pool their money and made it work so Lennox and Mike both got fair market value. But Mike signed a deal with the devil (King) and the devil wasn’t going to risk his cash cow getting beat up to Lewis. So he ducked him. Mike was probably relieved to get paid to have Seldon take a dive rather than Lennox trying to tear his head off.

 

Lewis was never on the verge of getting knocked out he took some shots and carried on throwing bombs he was never on rubbery legs or holding for dear life

 

At what point was Lewis close to getting knocked out?

 

This is heavyweight boxing and Briggs had power so if he lands some shots they will have an effect but at no point was Lewis out on his feet he rode out the rough patches and knocked him out I don’t see what your argument is that’s no different to Bruno rocking Tyson in 88 and he came back to stop him

You don’t think Ali was rocked by Foreman of course he was but it doesn’t mean that any of these fights were even remotely close to being stopped that’s not how boxing works

 

Tyson was just as rocked against Bruno and was holding on, in the post fight he even admitted to being hurt.

For the record this is boxing and at the highest level there is nothing wrong with taking a shot it's how you react that separates the greats from the average.

Briggs has an 88% KO ratio so he does know how to finish and Vitali 91% but neither could even knock down Lewis so his chin can't be that bad and guess what he stopped both before the mid point of each fight who did Tyson beat in their primes that was as good as Vitali or Holyfield?

 

The McCall stoppage can be argued as premature Lewis was hurt but there's a good chance he could have recovered, the Rahman KO was just a great punch landing flush something that can happen at any time.

What I don't understand is you use Lewis being caught by Briggs and Vitali against him but don't have a problem with Tyson being caught against Bruno or stopped by Douglas

It's understandable why King didn't want Tyson to go near Lewis a high risk low reward fight especially when they had a bigger more winnable fight with Holyfield

To claim Lewis was scared of Tyson is again stupid fighters are not afraid of fighting anyone and you can't be the best in the division if you have doubts on your greatness Lewis believed he was the best Heavyweight in the division and according to most he proved it

 

It wasn't Tyson t that ducked Lewis it was DON KING !! IT was because he'd heard that Cus said after watching the teenagers Lewis & Tyson spar that one day they'd fight for the title & Lennox would win

 

You are aware the Bowe-Lewis was signed but Lewis lost his tune up fight to McCall cancelling the fight, also you are aware Lewis beat Bowe in the Olympics and that Bowe threw his title in the trash rather than face him.

Lewis was very eager to face Bowe believing he had the better of him

Also a one punch knockout due to a lapse in concentration is better than getting beat up and knocked out over ten rounds to a fighter like Douglas