Tyson/Lewis?

uote=Zakman;3196137]Of course I'm for real, and I've probably been watching boxing since before you were born. Lewis about the most overrated HW champ that I've seen since I began following boxing 30 years ago. He never fought ANY of the other top guys of the era until they were old, like Holyfield and Tyson - and he didn't fight Bowe at all. Not only that, he's the ONLY top level HW champ taken out early by second raters when he held the title.

Yet there is always a brigade of nuthuggers that makes excuse after excuse for this guy. Both Holyfield and Tyson were better HW champs.[/quote]
Lewis ducked Bowe??atschatsch

 

Zakman is a sad horseterd of a poster whos life mission is to remain the worst Lewis troll online.

 

Bowe threw the belt rather than fight Lewis.

King has to pay Lewis just to get him off Tyson. If Tyson wanted to fight Lewis, why do they have to pay him?

As far as I can remember, even Holyfield was trying to avoid Lewis during the the late 90s for a while until he really has to fight him due to public demand.

All of them never wanted any part of Lewis - not after seeing how he handled guys like Ruddock, Golota, Tua, etc who were thought to be very dangerous at the time Lewis faced them.

 

Didn't say that. Unlike Lewis's supporters, I don't make unproven accusations or say that fighters are "afraid" of one another. How the HELL would I know that anyway? How would ANYONE? atsch

But the fact is the fight did not happen. And Lewis also fought old versions of Holyfield and Tyson. Those are the facts.

 

You accused Lewis of taking the payoff!!!What option did he have??Either way he would not have got the fight.Yes LL took the money,who the **** in the right mind wouldn't??

 

Lewis went to the court trying to get the rematch with Tyson. He never had to force Tyson to challenge him in a first fight.
Further more there isn’t even any logic in that. You can’t force someone to challenge you.


[quote="TKO";3195596]He took the payoff to STEP ASIDE not to not fight Tyson. The understanding was Tyson faces Lewis next after taking on Seldon. Of course, we all know who reneged on that agreement, dumping the title to ensure he could get out of the fight![/quote]

Tyson was force to dump that title because he unified with reigning WBA Champion Seldon instead of facing mandatory challenger. There is nothing wrong with that.
Lewis himself dumped his belts instead of facing mandatory challengers Ruiz and Byrd. Still no one is calling that a ducking.
Wladimir Klitchko would have dump he’s WBO belt and unified with Valuev no one would say he ducked Thompson.

 

I'm not saying that he was stupid to do it. No one in their right mind is gonna turn down millions of dollars for doing nothing. The FACT is, however, he took it. All the mythologists like to make it seem it was all the other guys' fault, in every instance that these fights didn't happen, or they happened late. Lewis played his part too.

 

So you think Tyson would have fought LL if he'd have refused the payoff?

 

Maybe. Who knows? All we do know is what happened. A payoff was offered by Tyson, Lewis took it.

 

I agree with all that above but this bull**** about Lewis being overrated etc is disgusting

 

That whole thing was mess. Tyson had just beaten Bruno for the WBC and was trying to quickly pick up an easy belt against Seldon. Tyson and King's grand plan was to unify all 3 titles. Lewis was pissed off because the WBC promised him he would get the next title shot for the WBC, but Bruno elected to fight Tyson instead. Lewis was very pissed about this and took the WBC to court. Then instead of Tyson fighting Lewis after beating Bruno, he went after the WBA. After the fight occured with Seldon, it was announced that the WBC was actually not on the line. If you watch the Seldon fight, it is announced that the WBC was on the line. The 4mill step aside money Lewis accepted was actually part of negotiating a Tyson/Lewis bout in early 97. The 4 mill was to be deducted from Lewis's purse. Also, Tyson/Bruno, and Tyson/Holyfield was bigger than a fight against relatively unknown Lewis at that time. :yep

 

tyson was on anti depressants (or anti anxiety - can't recall) meds while in the ring as he was required to by their contract. tyson was also obviously having more issues than usual leading up to the fight. tyson's also not stupid and probably had doubts about his preparation and current level in facing lewis. all this i think played into his ringwalk and shitty performance. doubt he was "scared" though

 

I think Tyson would have been scared of Lewis when they actually fought. He must of known that Lewis was still near his prime dispite his age, and that his skills had significantly deteriorated. He also probably knew that he only had a couple of rounds to get the job done and that it was very unlikely he would win if the fight went to the cards. Essentially it was a paycheck fight and he needed it bad enough to risk tarnishing his legacy even more than it already was.

 

:good

 

This is nonsense. Have you even read the thread? The wbc belt was protected during Tyson-Seldon. He dumped it afterwards. A decision he made earlier no doubt.