i agree with this. 93-94 bowe stops lewis. but.. lazy bones bowe, fat and happy, gets the tables turned in the rematch. conversely: holyfield gets outpointed by lewis in 96.. and ko's him in the rematch.
Rock Newman made 2 offers to the the Lewis camp. Frank Maloney rejected them both including a career high $11 million dollar guarantee. Then Frank crawls back to Newman claiming he's ready to take the $11 million offer. Newman claims that the offer has already been rescinded and turns him away. The WBC having ordered those mandatory matches was ready to strip Bowe. Newman decided that rather than being stripped of the WBC belt he would have Bowe throw it away on the mindset that the champion made the belts not the other way around. Also he didn't feel that Lewis deserved to dictate anything to Bowe. After the belt was dumped he fought a easy touch in Micheal Dokes before getting ready for a showdown with Ray Mercer. Problem was Ray Mercer blew it when he dropped a decision to journeyman Jessie Ferguson. That's why he fought Ferguson.
Newman offered a ludicrous 90/10 split LOL Lennox told hom to stuff it You forget the "Winner take all minus training expenses offer I heard it from Newmans mouth "We are not interested in Lewis too risky: LOL What should have happened was Bowe got stripped of his bogus titles till he fulfills the contract the four signed Newman got scared his Golden Goose was cooked if he fought Lennox when he saw what Lennox did to Ruddock
I think Bowe's best was better than Lewis', but Bowe's best was very brief. By the time Lewis won the title back from McCall, Bowe was pretty much washed up. Lewis will go down as a far greater champion, and rightfully so.
I just don't see the evidence of Bowe being able to take a punch from an elite level puncher. He didn't even fight any of the top 5+ punchers of his era. No ruddock, no Tyson, no Lewis, no morrison, no Bruno, no foreman etc on his resumee. Now I don't blame him for all of those fights not happening but the fact that he got hurt and wobbled by guys who had considerably less 1 punch power than the elite bracket I just mentioned, tells me that if Lewis catches him (and Bowe wasnt that hard to catch) hes gone. And Yes, if Bowe catches Lewis clean Lewis might be gone also but looking at Lewis resumee you can see that he was quite capable of avoiding clean hard shots from his hardest punching opponents. I also believe that Bowes reputation is based on one single fight in his entire career where an overconfident 205lb Holyfield who also fought a stupid fight against Cooper a year earlier decided to match strength with him instead of making use of his advantages in speed and footwork. You can't go off one fight where the smaller man tries to brawl. If Holyfield had tried to fight foreman like that he would have lost as well.
Lewis wins again .It would be a fast ko despite Bowe never being stopped in the pros. I'd say before the fifth, Lewis would be ultra dominant and up for this like no other fight .Bowe find s himself taking a beating from a lot worse than he received from Golota .
Even though I think Lewis likely wins at most any stage of their careers except for a very small window where I might pick Bowe. That said, I think Bowe got a little hosed in the Am's... I think the stoppage was as premature as a virgin with a porn star.
Bowe would of had chance in early 90s to win. Despite the amateur loss. Lewis fought the tough fights in his career though and Bowe, for the most part avoided them.
The 90/10 split came with a caveat that the fight would generate $32M in worth and that was highly unlikely since Bowe vs Holy didn't even generate that much. Even if it did , it would have banked Lewis a career high pay day of around $5M. That would be 2M million more than what Bowe got when he was mandatory challenger to Holyfield. Newmun rightful felt Lewis didn't deserve to make more than Bowe as a lesser name in the same position. Lewis really should have snatched up that offer if he was confidant in Beating Bowe to become undisputed Champion. Some guys will make all the concessions necessary to get where they want to be. $5M for a mandatory challenger back then was a great pay day for a great opportunity. Lewis and Frank calling it "absurd" tells you all you need to know about where their heads where at. Lewis was reluctant to fight Bowe and hatched a scheme with the help of Don King to instead fight the ghost of Tony Tucker for the vacant belt. Thats really all there is to it
One thing I feel is getting misconstrued in all this is the chin factor. Lewis got caught twice and his chin is rightly questioned but he did take some big shots without flinching when focussed. Would he be focussed for Bowe? I think so. Bowe was nearly knocked cold by Holyfield who was in awful shape that night. Yet, there is a large body of posters who have him as some iron-chinned Chuvalo figure. Where is the evidence he could suck it up from a big hitter? If anything Lewis' chin is the more proven as he can point to fights where he absorbed big shots. Let's say he retires in 96 like Bowe. He has the McCall fight, Bowe has Holyfield. The ref that stopped Lewis may have done likewise to Bowe in the Holyfield fight. There wasn't much difference in their conditions. And, if Bowe goes on until 2001 and gets in the ring with Rahman hopelessly out of shape, anyone think he gets up from that shot? So, yes, Lewis has the two kayo losses but he fought top level guys, and ones who could hit, for so much longer. It stands to reason he should have more moments which give reason to question his chin. Also, I don't think Bowe had the explosive one punch power to turn the trick, He was a heavy hitter but didn't have the snap of a real power puncher. Lewis did have that pop, though. If this fight ends in a one punch kayo, I only see it being in Lewis' favour. This debate polarises more than any other on the forum. I do get the feeling the pro-Bowe posters base much of their argument on Lennox' occasional shortcomings rather than their own man's strengths, though, whereas the pro-Lewis posters draw on what Lennox did over a long period. Again, that is unsurprising as Bowe's resume is frustratingly thin and doesn't really give us enough to base a solid argument on. I'll pick Bowe by late stoppage if he has his best night. If Lennox has his best night I see it being more emphatic and sudden in his favour. And as Lennox had more best nights over a longer period, my guess is that he is more likely to produce so, in a pick 'em fight, I pick Lewis.
Even the original deal was really anti Lewis. He got matched with the favorite,Ruddock, for less $$$. When Rock saw what Lennox did to Ruddock he knew then & there if he ley Bowe fight Lennpx his Golden Goose was cooked. he wanted t make as much $$$$$$$ out of Bowe before he got cooked A focused in shaoe Lennox Lewis is second only to Muhammad Ali in the ATG HW's
How about Frank using the deal from King as blackmail? King was offering $9M to Lewis to fight Tucker when the belt became vacant. Frank took that offer and used it on Newman , saying he would have to better it if Lewis was to accept the fight. Frank and Lewis put up roadblock after roadblock. If Lewis was desperate to fight Bowe , he would have agreed to all the terms which were all fair and reasonable. Lewis was the one not being reasonable.
Where were tou when all this was happening?? I was right there heard it all saw it all as they say Its a similar ituation as GGG- Ganel;u. Canelo hot the belts by dubious means but GGG is the man that most feel is STILL the LEGITIMATE champion
