1996-Tyson vs Lewis - What would have happened?

I think he would've won the 12 round rematch with Mercer similarly, a match up with Holyfield in 96 would be tough, Holyfield still had a lot left then, that would've been a close one, Holyfield may've edged that one out. Lewis would've stopped Bowe. I would've liked to see him against Moorer too, I think he probably would've stopped Moorer too but that fight would've gave a lot of emphasis on future southpaw match-ups. If you had a good jab, you could be somewhat competitively with Lennox Lewis, even Hasim Rahman showed that in the first fight.

 

Umm widdow did you read this? Tyson was offer 45 million dollars to fight Lewis but turn it down but instead fought Holyfield cause he and king thought Holyfield was a done fighter in which Holyfield surprise alot of people.

 

I don't think he have lasts that long with Iron Mike. Look at how quickly Oliver McCall had him out of there. Hit that chin and it's goodnight.

 

i think that if he had accepted the 13+ million to beat Tyson and let himself get under the contractual grip of Don King it might have ****ed him enough to damage his career.

 

Uh-huh. And you were how old? 10?

This pathetic thread is a weak-assed attempt to stir up bull**** - just like the "headbutt" thread was. :hi:

 

are you having "I'm an *******" problems. I asked what the terms of the 13.5 million offer were. When was the fight to take place. If you need me to tell you I didn't follow boxing then fine, if you need me to tell you I'm illiterate then fine. Just tell me when the ****ing offer was for, and what were the conditions of the offer. You brought it up, you can at least elaborate on it a little. :deal

 

There seems to be no info online about the $13.5m offer other than the NY Times' mention of it. Someone mentioned that the Lewis-Tyson book has the full story.

 

I think Lewis would have defeated inactive Tyson.

However Tyson was much more dangerous back then than 2002, so he could knock average chinned Lewis out.

 

**** me!! 10 pages to say "Lewis would have beaten Tyson in 1996, gotten (and won) the Holyfield fights earilier and gone on to dominate the division"

 

Lewis would have beaten Tyson. As I stated before, Tyson post Rooney was a shell. After that things would have pretty much ran the course that it did. Top contenders getting beat. I still think he'd have had a loss early 2000's because he became complaicent.

Bottom line for me is if Lewis had fought Tyson anytime post 1995 (Which is imo the time Lewis had manouvered himself into a position to fight him) he'd have won. From then on there was no-one that was a real challenge to him. It's unfortunate because I'd have loved Lewis to have the guys around him Ali did. 4 good-great fighters that could test him. There would have been some great battles.

Imo things would have just panned out the way they did.

 

Prime Tyson was a very special fighter but the 96 version of Tyson had little to offer other than speed, power and intimidation. He no longer had the movement, defence or combinations to beat Lewis and Don King new this which is why he did his best to keep his fighters away from Lewis. Lennox would have stopped Tyson late.

Had Lewis not taken the $4 million it would not have changed the landscape of the 90's heavyweight scene by any discernable amount. Tyson and King wanted to fight an easier fight against Seldon to unify he WBC and WBA titles which would have meant a Lewis/Tyson fight later that year would have been for 2 titles instead of 1. But instead of fighting Lewis, Tyson fought Holyfield which resulted in Tyson being stripped of the WBC title.

So even if Lewis had forced his mandatory status he would have been $4 million worse of and still not gotten his chance to fight Tyson in a defining fight. The only difference it may have had is Tyson getting stripped earlier and Lewis fighting for the Vacant WBC title earlier and probably against someone other than McCall would probably still be in rehab at that time.