1996 - "Tyson Ducked Lewis" ?

I'm calling bull**** on these offers, yes I think don King maybe capable of lying. Either way Lewis wanted the fight, was trying to hype the fight and contractually was owed the fight. Tyson and his team broke the contract not Lewis

 

I guess this is the bottomline. I will say though, that any basically any piece of information that i read/heard/viewed stated that Lewis wanted the fight, and any sound from Tyson's camp was based on getting title(s) back as fast as possible, or making as much money as possible. This meant Lewis was not in business.

I have to question the legitimacy of that offer. It's very obscure and even your sources don't agree on the substance of the offer.

 

Rock Newman did the same thing with Riddick Bowe. The fights were worth substantially more than that, so Newman and King just made him a take it or leave it offer that was probably a third of what the realistic number was, and Lewis declined.
King would have never put Tyson in with Lewis anyway after three fights, he had the WBA and IBF titleholders under contract, Holyfield, Morrison, and Lewis being the WBC mandatory and the most credible opponent around that time, was the only one who was not signed to King. King signed just about everyone else.
Kings thinking was that he would eventually get the title back just as he did when he beat Lewis with Oliver Mcall. Lewis was forced to fight a King fighter after his loss to Mcall for the eliminator and another King fighter as his first defense.

 

Well just as you said, Lewis camp offered Tyson 45 million to fight Lewis with them promoting the event, so that says something right there doesnt it?
Holyfield was the low man looking in and he also signed with King, meaning King controlled Holyfield win or lose. Im sure Holyfield was paid comparable money 10-20 million, but he made a killing on the rematch.
One thing about King, he was not really afraid to make competitive fights, he was only afraid of losing control of a title or a promotion. If he had Lewis under contract with options, things would have been a lot different, for example Lewis would have been ranked in the IBF as the #1 contender, because Tyson being superstitious, wanted to unify the titles exactly the way he did when he was younger, WBC WBA, voluntary defense, IBF, and Lewis would have been the final fight in that series and would have been huge to both fighters, Lewis just didnt want to have anything to do with King, and basically fought himself into the mandatory spots by stepping over a lot of King promoted fighters.

 

Holyfield recieved $8 million for the first Tyson fight.

 

If you consider how much influence a fighter's handlers have in the match making process picking Holyfield for $8 million and control of either fighter seemed like a no brainer for Don King. Lennox wanted more, and would not give King any promotional options therefore King played hard ball.

I doubt at the time people questioned Tyson's ability especially since the Mercer fight raised more questions than answers about Lennox Lewis. If anything I think team Tyson was more interested in controlling the belts and therefore holding significant leverage over any fighter that would eventually challenge for any given belt. It simply makes business sense.

Someone mentioned this earlier, Don King always has and will make competitive fights as long as he had options on both fighters. I concur.

 

EDIT: Sorry, I ****ed up and misread the opening post. Must be dyslexic. atsch:nut

 

Re read the entire thread.

 

Yes spot on

 

Convienient that you only only mention the $45 million offer after called upon for the source.

Hidden agenda bull****.

It you're going to provide a case provide ALL the facts.

Lefthook31, good post.:good

 

its all business. they wanted to pick up some easy titles then make the biggest fight they could, a unification fight with holyfield. who was more known then lennox lewis. plus it was thought to be an easier fight. tyson wasnt afraid of lewis at all. and you better believe that lewis would have got hi shot at tyson had tyson beaten holyfield but you all know what happen. it was realy a business move. you can calim that lewis "ducked" chris byrd or john ruiz, since he clearly didnt want to fight those guys and dropped the wba belt. but nobody believes thats the case.