Most significant title fights that didn't happen per decade?

This isn't reflective of reality.

 

Muhammad Ali vs Oscar Bonavena, (May 1967) cancelled.

 

Neither are Don King's and Newman's versions of events.

 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1996-09-07-9609060529-story.html

"Promoter Don King's plan to have World Boxing Council champion Mike Tyson unify the heavyweight title has hit a stumbling block called HBO. Tyson will walk into the ring to face World Boxing Association champion Bruce Seldon tonight at the MGM Grand, but even if Tyson wins, he will leave only with the WBA belt.

As the result of a court settlement, Tyson must give up the WBC belt unless he agrees to a Sept. 17 purse bid with No. 1 WBC challenger Lennox Lewis. Showtime cable network has an exclusive contract with Tyson and will not permit him to go to a purse bid that could be won by rival Time Warner, which owns HBO. King offered Lewis a deal worth $16 million to $18 million if he convinced HBO to permit him to fight Tyson on Showtime, but HBO ended those negotiations, effectively blocking a Tyson-Lewis match.

King on Thursday blamed his feud with HBO Sports boss Seth Abraham for messing up his unification series. At the same time he declared victory over his bitter rivals in the heavyweight boxing wars, chiding Abraham for refusing to gamble that Lewis would beat Tyson and force a rematch on HBO.

"This is a battle between me and HBO, and I whipped their [butt)," King crowed. "Seth can't get around the $16 million they turned down for Lewis. He's blocking the public from having one champion, and he's blocking a contender from getting a chance at the undisputed title. Right now, HBO is wrong."

According to the battle plan King has put together, if Tyson beats Seldon for the WBA title, his next fight will be Nov. 9 against Evander Holyfield, who held the undisputed title when Tyson went to prison in 1992. Under a deal signed Monday, International Boxing Federation champion Michael Moorer will get $3 million to meet Frans Botha on the Tyson-Holyfield undercard. Assuming Tyson and Moorer both win, Moorer gets $10 million to put his title on the line against Tyson March 15.

King originally offered Lewis the March date for $16 million, but when Lewis couldn't get clearance from HBO, King moved Moorer into that slot and offered Lewis $18 million for a June 21 date if Tyson was undisputed champion by that time. Instead, Lewis will enforce a court settlement in which he received $4 million to allow Tyson-Seldon to happen and the right to go to a purse bid for the soon-to-be vacant WBC title. Lewis' likely opponent will be Oliver McCall, who scored a second-round knockout against Lewis two years ago. King predicted Lewis will get about $2 million.

Abraham did not return several calls to his office, but John Davimos, who manages Moorer, supported King's view that the HBO chief is preventing Lewis from accepting King's offer. "I'm sure Seth is standing in the way," Davimos said.

"I don't know why HBO doesn't let Lewis out. They're not competing in the heavyweight division. I don't know what Seth is trying to accomplish. They could have had two champions, the IBF and WBC, if Lewis beats McCall. Seth had an opening to compete. They chose not to make Michael an offer for whatever reason."

According to King, he agreed to all of the conditions set forth by HBO through Lewis' manager, Panos Eliades. King said HBO's terms called for Lewis to meet Riddick Bowe first, HBO to get its normal distribution fee from Lewis' purse for the Showtime fight against Tyson, HBO to get the rematch if Lewis beat Tyson, HBO to get the delayed tape rights and for King to give HBO options for five fights by IBF welterweight champion Felix Trinidad.

King claimed Eliades agreed to the deal on several occasions, but after consulting with Abraham each time, he came back with another condition and, ultimately, a refusal. "I talked to Panos [Thursday), and he said, 'Seth won't let me do it. He's obsessed with you.' "

Exhibit A.

 

Lewis vs Bowe
Calzaghe vs Ottke
Vlad vs Vitali (which never would have happened )
Frazier vs Norton would have been fun
Tzysu vs Oscar or Shane
Pryor vs any of the fab four
McCallum vs Hearns

 

I see...

So I post: "Neither are Don King's......versions of events."

And you post an 'Exhibit', which essentially reports Don King's version of events.

 

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-21-sp-15342-story.html

LONDON — Lennox Lewis, the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, has rejected a deal to fight Riddick Bowe for the undisputed title.

“The deal was $21 million for Bowe and a 50-50 split if the final purse went above $32 million,” Frank Maloney, who represents Lewis, said Tuesday. Lewis was guaranteed $11 million.

“We declined that, and the Bowe fight won’t happen until the summer of 1994,” Maloney said.

In a statement released through his manager, Rock Newman, Bowe, the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Assn. champion, said Lewis is a “pitiful disgrace to the manly art of boxing. . . . Lennox Lewis is a pompous, arrogant, phony British punk who is simply afraid to fight me.”

For reference Lewis got a guarantee of $10 million against Holyfield almost 7 years later.

 

His involvement in the negotiations as Tyson's promoter means that his words carry weight, this was what was being said at the time it was happening.

Is there anything specifically that you disagree with? Is there anything that is blatantly untrue?

Are you saying there was no $16 million dollar offer made? Are you saying that Tyson wasn't contractually obligated to fight under Showtime?

Are you saying that Lewis wasn't contractually obligated to fight on HBO?

Please elaborate.

 

Don King is a bullshitter.

 

As expected, you have nothing.

 

For reference, this $11 million offer you're going on about was made later on down the line when, a) Lewis was WBC Champion and, b) the Bruno fight had already been signed and publicized.

Bowe had already trashed the WBC belt, by then, which the above story does nothing more than distract from. Moreover, this later offer was only ever made verbally and was never a formalized. What, therefore, are these "hardball negotiations" you are referring to?

Newman and Bowe waited until Lewis was signed to fight another opponent and then pulled a crappy publicity stunt; the kind that made them both about as popular as a fart in a spacesuit.

 

Any reply to "

This content is protected

", is already more than what you have.


Do you know of what the $16 million offer to Lewis was comprised?

Did you know that Lewis' contract with HBO allowed him to fight on a rival network?


You miss out key information in your accounts and the evidence used to support them.
In short, you don't know what you think you know.

 

The only time Lewis fought on Showtime was when he fought Mike Tyson in 2002 after a major compromise was made so that both networks aired the fight concurrently mixing and matching the commentators.

So yes. Lewis was bound by his HBO contract. So was Tyson to his Showtime Contract.

Yes a $16 million offer was made to Lewis and it was upped to $18 million if he waited for Tyson to unify. That was the talk back then, but today the only number that people seem to remember is the $ 4 million.

Ultimately, we're completely going off course here but believe whatever makes you feel better.

 

Fernando Vargas vs David Reid