Evander Holyfield calling out Riddick Bowe to his face for not fighting Lewis

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by Dubblechin, Feb 9, 2017.



  1. he grant

    he grant Historian/Film Maker Full Member

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    They are mostly poorly educated and completely exploited thru trust ... then to a degree comes some degree of accountability .. the same ego's that drive them in the ring often rage outside of them ... the money Holyfield and Tyson went through is astonishing ... Bowe made some major bucks as well .. very few are like Lewis or Leonard who seem t have socked their money away well ... I remember Eubanks Sr. making fun of Benn saying "we all know he's going to end up a bouncer somewhere". The joke is that Eubanks is broke and Benn saved money, invested in real estate and seems to be set for life ... you never know ...
     
  2. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    I do know that Bowe did very amazing donating that money. I thought (and still think) that was pretty awesome.
     
  3. dinovelvet

    dinovelvet Antifanboi Full Member

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    Newly unearthed footage puts a different perspective on things. :shocked:

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    Here Lewis openly admits pricing himself out and calling a career high pay day - slap in the face money.

    Then he offers to fight for no money - lets send all the money to Africa. lolol.

    Bowe isn't a good actor either like Lewis claims... He's just being honest. When you're being honest , you're less likely to contradict yourself like Lewis did.

    Lewis at that period wanted no part of Bowe. Its clear as day as you can see from this new found footage :smile::icon_popcorn:
     
  4. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    I get the feeling Bowe made it clear in the amateurs that Lewis was going to be his special project in the pros, and Lewis saw what he could do and wisely decided to NOT fight him.
     
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  5. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    That said, I still bet Lewis would have given Bowe a very good fight post-Steward. Maybe even knocked him down. But once Bowe starts landing flush...it's over.
     
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  6. Dubblechin

    Dubblechin Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Newly unearthed? Career high payday?

    Lewis was the WBC mandatory. Lewis was due to get at least 25% of the purse if the fight went to purse bids. Rock Newman offered Lennox a 90-10 split favoring Bowe - giving Lewis $3 million and Bowe $27 million.

    Of course, Lewis turned it down. he could get a better offer in a purse bid. So Bowe dumped the belt because, as he says in the video, the WBC was going to make him fight Lewis ... and Bowe wasn't getting 90% if they did.

    So Lewis fought Tony Tucker. And Lewis got $9.1 million (three times what Bowe was offering.)

    They low-balled Lewis. There is nothing new in that clip. Bowe wasn't offering a "career-high payday." Lewis got three times that "career-high payday offer" fighting freaking Tony Tucker instead of Bowe.

    Rock Newman even went to court to try to get out of the Holyfield rematch because he didn't want Bowe to fight Holyfield again unless Rock Newman got "options" on Holyfield if Evander won. (Newman was unsuccessful.)

    Newman only controlled the heavyweight championship for one year, but he made one stupid move after the other (refusing to fight Lewis, telling Bowe to dump the WBC belt, trying to get out of the Holyfield rematch, fighting Dokes and Ferguson) and burned a lot of bridges for Bowe with the other players in boxing.

    And when Newman got another heavyweight, Lance Whitaker, he legally changed Whitaker's name to Goofi because he said the Disney character Goofy was a household name, so Lance would become a household name.

    Newman wasn't exactly a "chess master."
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2019
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  7. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    I think Lewis knew he could beat Tucker, anyway. Why go with a low ball offer with a guy who has a MAJOR PERSONAL vendetta against you (especially at that juncture in time) when you can beat somebody who was maybe half the fighter Bowe is (and yeah I know Tony was a good fighter, but no matter where he ranks with anyone else I have Bowe in the top 20 ATG heavies).
     
  8. williams7383

    williams7383 TKO 6 Klit Lickers Full Member

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    Lewis would have gone in with Bowe fully focused, motivated, and not looking past him to other fights and no way would we have seen the complacency of Rahman/McCall. I think we'd see something like the Lewis v Holyfield 1 fight with the correct decision
     
  9. dinovelvet

    dinovelvet Antifanboi Full Member

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    There's a very important caveat you fail to understand about the 90/10 split. It was only dependent on the fight grossing $32M , if it did Lewis would've earned around $5M. That was $2M more than what Bowe made when he was in the same situation against Holyfield.

    Lewis didn't turn that down , because the fight wasn't worth 32M. It turned down the 25% mandatory challenger split , which was $3M - exactly what Bowe got for Holyfield.

    Lewis would not have played hardball if he really wanted the fight. He played a game of politics with the help of Don King which would see him fight for the vacant belt against a washed up Tony Tucker for 9 MILLION Dollars.
    He played the game , he knew exactly what he as doing.
     
  10. Dubblechin

    Dubblechin Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    He didn't fight for the vacant belt against Tucker. He made his first defense against Tucker. Like Norton made his first defense against Holmes.

    And Bowe got $5 million for the first Holyfield fight. $3 million was his guarantee.

    And Bowe dumped the belt one month after he won it, because Newman didn't want the Lewis fight to go to purse bids. That's it.

    Lewis wanted Bowe. He'd just knocked out Razor Ruddock in two rounds and he'd stopped Bowe in two rounds in the Olympic final.

    You think Lewis didn't want Bowe because Lewis wanted the fight to go to purse bids ... which it would've if Bowe wouldn't have vacated?

    Lewis just wanted the most he could make for the fight. He was the mandatory ... it was his right as the mandatory to go to purse bids if he didn't like the champ's offer. There was nothing out of the ordinary about that.

    Ducking is dumping the belt so you don't have to defend against the last guy to beat you.

    Getting back to my initial post in this thread, that's why Holyfield was so pissed at Bowe. Bowe should've gone to purse bids and fought Lewis and kept the title in tact.

    Like Evander said, when Donald said he'd beat Bowe at their press conference, Bowe punched Donald in the face. When Lewis said he'd beat Bowe, Bowe walked away barking and then dumped the WBC belt.

    Evander knows both Bowe and Lewis ... and Evander knows the truth.
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2019
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  11. dinovelvet

    dinovelvet Antifanboi Full Member

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    The extra $2m came from PPV sales. Lewis stood to make even more if his fight sold more PPV units.

    Lewis was guaranteed the same $3m as Bowe. Potentially more depending on buy rate.

    He refused , calling it - slap in the face money.
     
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  12. BCS8

    BCS8 VIP Member Full Member

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    Great post. Fact is, Bowe dumping the WBC belt in the trash rather than facing Lewis was an extremely embarrassing moment for him, cringeworthy especially considering the whooping Lewis had already put on him in the amateurs. The truth is that Bowe had to make a statement against Lewis for the sake of honour if nothing else and he ran for the hills instead. That tells us all we need to know about Bowe.
     
  13. Sting like a bean

    Sting like a bean Well-Known Member banned Full Member

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    People who burn through millions of dollars like that are very foreign to my psychology. There just isn't that much sh*t I want, and I'm not sure I could spend that much money if I tried, just as I couldn't be an alcoholic if I tried.
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2019
  14. BCS8

    BCS8 VIP Member Full Member

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    Newly unearthed footage: Bowe now regrets not fighting Lewis:

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    3:10. Now that he's older and wiser he realises trashing the belt was a dumb thing to do.
     
  15. InMemoryofJakeLamotta

    InMemoryofJakeLamotta I have defeated the great Seamus Full Member

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    Bowe should have accused Holyfield of ducking Frank Bruno