Lennox Lewis ducked Vitali Klitcko, or retired to avoid a rematch, why is he spat on like Bowe?

Let's go over some history shall we?

In 1992, with Tyson in prison and Douglas having lost his belt to Holyfield, the WBC arranged a mini-tournament with three highest ranked fighters and their champion. The bouts would be Lennox Lewis vs Donovan "Razer" Ruddock with the winner of that becoming the mandatory challenger to the winner of Holyfield and Bowe's title match, and the understanding was the fight between the winner of Lewis/Ruddock and the winner of Holyfield/Bowe would be the very next fight those boxers would take.

Lewis blew Ruddock out of the ring in two round while Bowe beat Holyfield over 12 via UD. The stage was set. The two biggest prospect of the era stepping up to the world stage at the same time and due to come together in a rematch of their Olympic final from 1988. Would the fight in the pro's get the same result as the amatuers or Bowe avenge his loss?

Nobody would ever find out, because Bowe and his manager decided they could make more money milking the WBA and IBF belts in fights against no-hopers and a rematch with Holyfield than they could fighting Lewis, and so - after demanding a 90-10 split in the proposed $32million purse from HBO, something they knew they could never get - they staged this press conferance in which Bowe dumped the WBC belt in the trash in front of the world's media, to show it was worthless to them and they would no longer deal with the WBC.

Thus it became common knowledge amongst boxing fan in the years that came after that Riddock Bowe wanted nothing of Lennox Lewis and litterally threw away the WBC belt so he didn't have to fight him.

It wasn't an entirely fair assessment but the big bit of theater Bowe and his manager engaged in backfired with public opinion, which was kind of a result of his pretty lack-luster career after that.

The high points of Bowe's career was defeating Holyfield to win the Unified Undisputed World Heavyweight Title, but within a year he'd lost the two belts he kept back to Holyfield and would never reach that height again. His career went downhill pretty quickly after 1993, and he was retired by 1996 after being beaten from pillar to post by Andrew Golota.

Bowe's poor reputation is based partially on backing out of that deal struck by the WBC to fight the winner of Lewis/Ruddock and partially because of his swift decline, while Lewis's reputation endured because he picked himself up from his set backs and came back stronger, fought most of his fights as the away fighter in a hostile environment, and was consistantly a top level fighter for the better part of a decade.

 

"Western media"? Are you drunk?

It's not the same in any way. Lewis was 38 and had been fighting on a championship level for 10 years and he never came back.

Fury was in prime age and had faced one really good opponent and got well again and unretired when that opponent retired.

Bowe was also smack in his prime and didn't retire until he'd got the **** beaten out of him twice by Golota years later.

 

Not sure which Alt you are...
With that being said they are all different situations that aren't comparable.
Lewis beat everyone he fought and was at the end of his career and had nothing to prove.
The situation with Bowe is well documented and he was prime, I don't put it all on him more his management.
Fury was also prime and retired to duck Vlad rematch, Fury is the most inexcusable of the three situations.
There will always be the butt hurt fans that want a boxer to carry on till they lose, the fact is Lewis stopped Vitali, Lewis had nothing else to prove.
Also comparing Lewis to Wilder is completely redacted, Lewis fought nearly everyone in his era and was undisputed, Wilder was not....

 

TKO 6.

That's why.

 

Lewis has gotten plenty of flak for not rematching Vitali. That said he realised that he'd not be able to continue boxing without being hounded about the rematch and stayed retired. Fury also got flak for his duck of the Wlad rematch and in my opinion not enough flak given his games with other fighters since.

 

Fury was the worse duck and he was caught for juice. I still hold that the Wlad that went life and death with Joshua knocks fat Fury spark out early and Fury knew it.

 

Polar opposites really - Lewis fought the majority of the top fighters and attempted to unify (successfully)... Wilder ducked almost all the top guys in his era and ducked unification.

Lewis is a genuine ATG, Wilder is a fraud with a highly enthusiastic fanbase.

 

Is every thread you ever make whining and crying about how eastern euro fighters are treated or something? Sad

 

Bowe never had the balls to fight Lewis and done everything possible to avoid him....including dumping a belt in a bin!! Avoiding a tough rematch when u would be 38 sounds sensible. Lewis retired and STAYED retired.....afterall you cant argue that he had reached an age when retirement is normal. Fury retired after the Wlad fight when he was what.....27?? 8 years later he is sorta still active.

Ur attempt to compare different situations as being comparable is utter nonsense and foolish

 

It's funny to compare Lewis and Fury who didn't keep his word when he said he was going to retire, after all Lewis fought prime Vitali and didn't run away from that fight like some would have done...

 

That and Lewis at about the worst condition he'd been beat Vitali who wasn't realistically going to get much better for the rematch - all Lewis had to prove was that his condition could continue to get worse, because he was clearly finished.

Fury at his absolute best, at that point at very least (and arguably fullstop) managed to eek out a marginal win by stinking the place out with carebear cuddle tactics against as gunshy a Wlad as he was likely to have been able to get.

In other words, Lewis retired a warrior who'd proved even at his end he could keep up with the kids - Fury temporarily retired at his peak having proven he could just barely beat the worst version of the aging champion ripe for dethroning.

 

What made Lennox look so bad was he kept trying to give Vitali’s opponents ‘advice’ on how to beat him after he retired. He gave such sage advice to Johnson, Sanders, and Willams as “try and punch him in the face to cut him”
It was just dumb. Eventually he gave up after Vitali KOed them all.

 

At least he fought him once and way after his prime, Bowe denied fans of a fight between the two best heavyweights of that period.

 

Hmm. Lennox actually fought Vitali.