Riddick Bowe Vs. Lennox Lewis's opponents?

Did you miss the part where if Bowe didn't throw the belt in the trashcan there would be purse bids and the fight would be made on the terms dictated by the market?

 

That was only after everything fell apart. By the time Bowe dumped the belt, negotiations had already broken down. Before the purse bid process was even necessary, Lewis had been offered the same money Bowe had himself received against Holyfield, and a 'winner take all'.

I'm not denying it was stupid on Bowe's side to dump the belt so he has to take some blame and responsibility for that, but I strongly feel Lennox should have accepted the two reasonable offers he was given.

 

The video (which I am well aware of and have seen before) as it relates to the initial offer that you think Lewis should have accepted, doesn't tell me anything I didn't know already, and actually supports the details I supplied in response to your post.

The point both yourself and the video neglect to account for is that Bowe made £2.5M more for fighting Holyfield (and 25% overall) than Lewis would have for Fighting Bowe (at only 10% of the available purse).

That point still stands.

What happened after Bowe publicly dumped the belt is immaterial to the negotiations that had been undertaken up to that point.

 

That's all great except there were many times the fight could have been made and the facts are Newman and Futch wanted no part of Lennox ... they knew Lennox was bigger, stronger, had emasculated Bowe in the Olympics, was a much more focused athlete , mentally s and they didn't want to lose there meal ticket , especially Newman, when Bowe still had the title ..I say this liking Bowe and with a lot of respect for the great first Holyfield fight but a Lewis match up is a very different fight for him ...

 

Well, that's why the purse bids are there for - if the champion and the mandatory can't agree on the terms, they are being subjected to the forces of the market. If Bowe didn't throw the belt in the trash can, the fight would still be on. But he ducked Lewis, plain and simple.

 

Exactly, Golata who did not have one major win in his career. The ext biggest may be Hyde. Bowe was not in Lewis' league based on level of opposition or accomplishments.

 

We could speculate how Lewis would do against Bowes opposition but there would only be 1 fighter worth mentioning!

 

Bowe's best win was Holyfield 1992, and it's clearly better than Lewis's biggest win, Holyfield 1999. Bowe's worst loss was Holyfield 1993, and it's not even close to Lewis's worst losses, which were McCall 1994 or Rahman 2001.
I agree that Lewis managed his career much better and maintained discipline for much longer, with more wins, a better record, and an overall better resume. But he wasn't a better champion, just like B-Hope wasn't better than Roy Jones (in my opinion, of course).

 

Well Bowe has a single better win than Holmes, Wlad, Usyk and many others. That doesn't make him better than them.

Rahman and Douglas aren't considered great fighters for a single great win.

 

Bowe had 2 successful title defences, both against unranked opposition. He couldn't carry Lewis' jockstrap when it comes to being the champion.

 

Thoughts from goals - Holy 92 and Holy 1995. Both in outstanding style. The defeat in 1993 then does not bring him shame if you look at it. Other than that in fights with solid contenders like Cooper, Hide, Gonzalez, Ferguson, Dokes, Seldon has shown that he is at a higher level. Holyfield and Lewis were able to fight such rivals for a living until Bowe declassified them. And re- wg Holyfield Riddick was the superior opponent. In The Ring, Riddick was ranked higher in the prime of his career than Lewis. Claim a better victory then.

 

Saying that Bowe "ducked" Lewis in 1992 is a simplistic view of the situation, as it had more to do with boxing politics (as often it is).
The big point of contention for Bowe's team was the attitude of the WBC, whom they felt were favouring Don King's fighters while demanding high sanctioning fees to be ranked.
They disliked being bullied into facing a mandatory contender whereas the champion is traditionally awarded a voluntary defence.
Bowe decided to not pay WBC's sanctioning fees for the undisputed title and as a result was never awarded the belt (the belt he threw in the bin was a replica).

The negotiations started with Maloney offering 12 million to Bowe, which was refused by Newman.
Then, HBO proposed him a guaranteed 15 million (not 29 million like it's often mentioned) to face Lewis. Newman offered 3 million and a percentage of the PPV to Lewis, who felt undersold, since a mandatory challenger should get 25% of the purse (so 5 million in that situation).
A second offer was to refuse the WBC title, take an interim fight for 3 million and then fight Bowe in the fall for 9 million. This offer - which was judged good by Maloney - was also refused because Maloney felt they should stand with the WBC who supported them throughout the negotiations.
Lewis' team finally accepted the first offer, but at that point Newman had other plans.

Could Bowe's team have made a better effort ? Yes.
But Lewis' team was also at fault, rejecting and accepting offers (which was a career highest purse at that point and roughly the same offer Bowe got to fight Holyfield).

 

You keep drinking that Newman Kool-Aid!