Bowe vs. Lewis, late 92' or 93'?

Fighters don't typically walk away from massive purses for fights they think they'll win easily. Bowe could have split $30m with Lewis. Instead he defended against a 34 year old washed up Michael Dokes and fringe journeyman Jesse Ferguson, nothing fights for far less money than he could have made for Lewis, a fight some here believe he was going to win easily. If a champion backs out of a big money fight and dumps his title rather than face his #1 contender, and fights two soft touches instead, then yeah, he doesn't fancy it.

 

Hard to argue.

 

I think his management did Riddick a big disservice by advising him to avoid Lennox. Riddick would have been more than concerned about Lewis. That is probably what he needed to bring out the best of him. Just my opinion.
Bowe would have trained his a$$ off. Lewis would have gotten the best version of him. When Bowe dumped the title basically his managers were telling him they didn't believe in him. He was a basket case after that.
I dont begrudge Bowe an easy defense after beating Holyfield but the Lewis fight should have been within a year. I pretty sure if Eddie Futch was calling the shots instead of Newman things would have played out differently.
Both of them at their best it's a helluva matchup. Same size, both had power. Bowe's inside and midrange game vs Lewis laser rightcross and improved lefthook and jab. Lennox had the edge defensively.
Throw in Eddie Futch vs Pepe Correa. That may be a mismatch.

 

Yes. He would

 

Prime lewis destroys badly 93 bowe

 

How is it fair to say Bowe beats Lewis considering Bowe ran away from Lewis with the belt until he couldn't run anymore and threw the belt in the nearest bin?

 

Newman was the reason for Bowe doing that. Newman gave Lewis a HORRIBLE, DISRESPECTFULLY low offer for fighting Bowe that absolutely no fighter in their right mind would take. When Lewis laughed at it and said no, Newman flipped out and basically told Bowe to give that title away. Bowe was for some reason completely beholden to Rock as some sort of awful father figure or something...he stupidly took his advise on a LOT of bad mistakes.

However, it should also be noted that Bowe's camp offered Lewis a VERY attractive deal after Bowe knocked the crap out of Holyfield III and Lewis turned it down outright.

To be honest, though I'm sure the Bowe from the first Holyfield fight would have ko'd Lewis in five or six at the most, I think the Holyfield III Bowe would have lost to LL pretty handily.

The Bowe that looked at Lewis with no fear whatsoever and was ready to fight LL directly after having gone 12 of the roughest rounds any fighter ever went through (against Holy I) would have knocked Lewis silly. It's only because of Rock Newman's HORRIBLE management that fight never happened.

Bowe told Lewis the truth after the Holy fight: Lewis brought up the TKO at the Olympics and Bowe told him he was up on his feet when the fight was stopped, even the ring announcers denounced that terrible ref for mysteriously stopping the fight, especially when Bowe without question had the better of Lewis up to that point.

Lewis-Bowe is one of the greatest shames of all Boxing history: Rock Newman was a travesty.

 

That's the way I see it, Lewis would be ready and he'd hit Bowe with one of those straight right hands that wobbles anyone.

 

???

 

Futch was very angry with Bowe at the end, refused to train him.im pretty sure if he could of got Bowe 100% on track, he would've put him in with lewis

 

He'd be quicker off the mark, more of a sharp shooter than Bowe, he'd get there first imo

 

There's no truth to any of this.

There was no 30m offer. That was a projection , and if the fight did gross that amount , Newman agreed to split the purse 50/50.

As it was , the purses were set like any other mandatory defence. Lewis was guaranteed to get 25%/ $3-5M. The exact same Bowe got when he was mandatory challenger to Holyfield.
Lewis and Maloeny rejected it and tried to get a better deal. Lewis knew he could get a better deal became he had Don King working with the WBC and they all hated Rock Newman.
Bowe and Newman protested against the WBC black balling them when they dropped the belt in the bin. Lewis went and won the bin belt against washed up Tucker for $10m , .. In the end he got a better deal and a belt against a push over. He knew exactly whet he was doing.
Bowe got screwed because his manager was an controversial outsider.

If Lewis really wanted the fight he would have never played hardball during negotiations. He knew Bowe would have knuckled him all over the ring before depositing him to the canvas for the full count of 10.

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Newman set a Monday deadline for a response, promising a letter of credit if the reply is positive.

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

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"We declined that, and the Bowe fight won't happen until the summer of 1994," Maloney said.

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Complete hogwash.

Lewis was guaranteed his 25% as mandatory challenger. He is on record turning it down.

 

I wasn't aware of all the details, thank you @dinovelvet

Yeah, the Lewis that beat Tucker would have been stomped by that Bowe.

That said, I really don't think the Bowe who beat Hide could have beat Lewis. And I think Lewis would have beat the living yee-haw out of Bowe anytime after that.

 

This. Bowe dumping the belt showed that he had little interest in either defending it nor in fighting Lewis. It's obvious that his heart was not in it, and when there's no fight in the dog, the dog will lose the fight.