Reminder about Bowe-Lewis

Oh, please what a load of horse****. The reason this fight didn't happen is the same as why many fights don't happen - MONEY. Bowe and Newman could make more money taking a gimme against Dokes, a planned fight against Mercer (who blew his shot by losing to Ferguson) and then rematching Holyfield. After that, a Lewis fight would have been HUGE. It also would have been a unification fight, bringing in even more money.

Unfortunately for them, Evander Holyfield upset the plan. But this nonsense that people throw around that Bowe was "afraid" is just ridiculous. It's the same propaganda that the Lewis camp used at the time, and it has no basis in reality, pure speculation.

 

Dude stop rewriting the past cause the fact is Bowe was afraid to fight Lewis. Everybody beside you knows that. Lewis was at ringside when Bowe beat Holyfield. Instead of fighting the mandatory challenge Lewis, Bowe fought bums before a rematch vs Holyfield.

 

Zak is a knuckle head to even think Bowe was never afraid to fight Lewis.

 

In Olympics Bowe took a wild but hard right to head from Lewis, and started walking away as ref waved it off. Bowe acted nonchelont (sp?) about it. I would have liiked to see them as pros go at it, but Lewis deserves to be cosidered the better of two, having accomplished so much more, and beating him in what would be last amateur bout for both.

 

I'm not rewriting the past, I lived through it. I've been a boxing fan for 30 years. And "everybody" does not "know" this - BECAUSE IT IS UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW what's going through somebody's mind!

This thing happens all the time. Fighters give up belts because they don't want to face mandatories, because there's more money to be made elsewhere. Newman and Bowe wanted a gimme defense in his hometown (Dokes) - which a lot of new champs do - and then they were gonna take a fight with Mercer and then rematch Holyfield.

You people are the revisionists. What you don't remember, or want to admit, is that Lewis was relatively unknown in the U.S. compared to Mercer, and certainly Holyfield. A champ and his managers are gonna go where the cash is - while at the same time giving Lewis a belt, and time to build himself into a bigger name in the U.S.

Don't get me wrong, I wish they'd taken a fight with Lewis - I think the prime Riddick Bowe of '93 would've knocked him out before anyone ever heard of Oliver McCall. But boxing history is riddled with these sorts of situations where big fights were delayed, or didn't happen, because of financial and/or political factors. That's the way it is in boxing. Trying to impugne the mentality of Bowe with no real evidence is just baised BS.

 

At the very least, Bowe did a turtle head when Lewis knocked out Ruddock.

 

so guys that win the heavyweight title are afraid of people?

 

Yea, lets not forget late in his career Lewis refused to fight Ruiz, anyone want to try and convince me that Lennox was afraid of John?..lol

 

I don't know if Bowe shat in his pants. But I think Bowe never had any plans to fight either Lewis or Ruddock..especially Lewis who had beaten him in the amateurs. He would much rather fight Holyfield - just like all other HW contenders at that time, they are all dying to fight the smallish Holyfield.

Nobody gave Lewis much of a chance to beat Ruddock, including me. Ruddock at that time was generally viewed as the best HW following Tyson's imprisonment.

 

Yea and everybody was so dying to see Lewis vs Ruiz. Please man. Alot of People wanted to see Lewis vs Bowe. Nobody and i mean nobody wanted to see Lewis vs Ruiz.

 

So instead facing his mandatory challenger Lewis, Bowe decide to fight a bum fighter in his hometown and that's suppost to be a good excuse? I don't think Lewis was that an unknown considering he fought fighters like Rudduck and Bruno who both are very well known. And back then when Lewis and Bowe went face to face at ringside, many boxing writers, boxing fans was dying to see that fight so i don't want to hear " Lewis was relatively unknown in the U.S." B.S.

 

Great fight, great boxer...

 

Bowe ducked him. NO DOUBT.