91-92 Bowe vs 97-2000 Lewis

Conclusion:
1. Both of their most important fights were against Holyfield, so this is a correspondence fight.
2. Holyfield in 1992 looked much better than Holyfield in 1999. Younger, much faster, more mobile.
3. The Bowe-Holy fight was much more pleasing to the eye, and I'm sure it was also at a higher level of athleticism.
4. Bowe's victory was more decisive.

In summary, Bowe won the better victory, defeated a better opponent, and looked better visually.
In my opinion, Bowe.

 

I could care less about Bowe win over Holyfield, Lewis doesn't fight like Holyfield. Bowe struggled with Golota, Lewis destroyed him in 30 seconds. Lewis is the better boxer and has the better resume. Bowe cannot outbox him, would be in the firing line and we saw Lewis hold his own against Bowe offense at close range before overpowering him in the Olympics. The stoppage was BS but it was going in Lewis's direction. Lewis would have won and Bowe knew it, thats why he ducked

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Lewis was not holding his own on the inside with Bowe. In fact Bowe's right uppercut staggered him and Lewis tried to unsuccessfully counter him with a wild left hook. Then the referee inexplicably halted the action IIRC, deducting Bowe a point.

As for Golota, yes Lewis did far better but was it the same Golota before the Bowe fights ? Because Golota took also plenty of punishment during their battles.

Outboxing Lewis is not a scarcity, as Bruno, Mercer and Vitali proved it.

 

But Bowe wouldn't do it, because he wasn't confident he could beat Lewis in the pros. Lewis hurt him twice in that fight and Bowe was getting outpointed at range. Bowe is overrated. They talk about 2 fights in Riddicks career as to why he beats the much greater Lewis when he already struggled with the guy in the ametures it's ridiculous, he wasn't having his way lol. Lewis would outbox him and time him, Lewis hits much harder, has better defense and than that will show itself down the stretch

 

Amateurs and pros are a different ball game (see Gonzalez vs Bowe).
Bowe was very willing to face Lewis (at least as much as Lewis), why are you saying he was not confident to fight him ?

 

Ther were negotiations but Newman skirted around when Lewis's team agreed to some proposals after disagreement. Bowe literally threw his belt in the trash when Lewis was the #1 contender. He already beat Holyfield at that point so did he even have bigger fish to fry ?

 

It was Lewis' team which refused 3 million + a percentage of the PPV, and then refused 2,5 million to fight on an undercard + 9 million later to fight Bowe.
And Bowe was contractually obligated to rematch Holyfield within a year.

 

"Rock Newman, Bowe's manager, made two offers to Lewis. The first would have guaranteed Lewis $3 million, while giving Bowe 90% of the purse and Lewis 10%. The second offer was for Lewis to refuse the WBC title, have an interim fight in the United States for $2.5 million, and then fight Bowe for $9 million or a percentage to be negotiated. Frank Maloney, the manager of Lewis, rejected both offers and countered with his own proposal: a 75-25 percent split of the purse. Newman turned it down. Maloney later had a change of heart and agreed to the first offer, but Newman told him he was too late. Newman said a deal for Bowe to defend the title against an opponent other than Lewis was imminent." This was documented

Lewis already beat Bowe and was mandatory anyway. The percentage was pretty wide. It doesn't sound too good from Bowes side

 

This account is not entirely correct.
Bowe was guaranteed 15 million by HBO.
Bowe's team first offer to Lewis was a career highest purse at the time comprised of 3 million and a share of the PPV.
Bowe's team felt it was fair since it was what Bowe got to fight Holyfield.
What is not discussed is that Bowe had also to give away one third of his purse to Main Event, which promoted Lewis at the time.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.up...-still-have-no-fight-agreement/3535729320400/
Bowe relinquished one of his belts to Lewis doesn't do him any favors either. Furthermore Lewis is just the far greater fighter with less flaws regardless of the shenanigans. He beats Bowe.

 

Your article is from February of 1993, which was a different stage of the negotiations than what we were talking about.

Also from the article, Lewis is quoted saying :
« I don't think Riddick Bowe's afraid to fight me, I think Rock Newman's afraid because he likes to be heavyweight champion of the world. He likes to be the man in power, that's why he walks around and shoots his mouth off. »

 

Bowe ducking Lewis is the normie version of events. Simply put , Lewis played hardball. He ended up fighting Tony Tuckers ghost (Don King fighter) for the vacant belt and more money. Lewis , Frank and King manipulated the situation to their favour.

Lewis didn't look too good in that Tucker fight. Then he went onto to struggle badly with Bruno and got slept by Bull.

Bowe at this time was boxing a lot better than Lewis was. Bowe would have tanned his hide

 

Lewis's team made reasonable counter offers and they accepted the ultimatum, but at first Newman was looking for other fights at the time instead of Lewis
https://thegruelingtruth.com/boxing/the-truth-behind-lennox-lewis-vs-riddick-bowe-and-why-it-never-happened/#:~:text=HBO wanted to make Bowe,Lewis Champion by Ken Gorman.

Lewis's lost to McCall was bad and a setback, but his team never ducked anything. It was Newman who seemed to avoid the fight it for some time and Bowe also vacated his belt when Lewis was mandatory, that's not a good look. Was that really because of Holyfield who Bowe already beat ?

 

Bowe was the superior fighter. People forget Riddick was still a young kid in Seoul with very little international experience, and Lennox 23!

The New York amateurs were always more suited to the pro game too, with the all-out gym wars they were raised on.