Chris Byrd on Lennox Lewis

Sanders fighting lewis was impossible because , in sanders prime he wasn't good enough to get a title shot, getting ripped apart by moderate contender rahman.


in contrast, fat retired shot sanders was good enough to instantly wipe out prime wlad in seconds.

 

Lewis got beat even worse by that moderate contender...

Sanders just didn't have a contractual rematch to get in shape for.

 

Akinwande had Hepatitis. He had it when he was supposed to fight Holyfield for the title, and that fight got cancelled at the last minute. And he tested positive for it when he was named the WBA mandatory.

He had a chronic condition.

Ruiz got moved up to number-one, after Akinwande tested positive again, but Holyfield ended up threatening lawsuits with the WBA for rating Ruiz above him. Because the WBA instituted some bizarre points system for rating fighters at the time, and defending North American titles seemed to garner more points than defending the WBA world title, which Holyfield had possessed until he lost the rematch with Lewis.

Holyfield wanted to be the mandatory and fight Lewis a third time, and fought the WBA on rating Ruiz #1. That's how Holyfield ended up getting the vacant WBA title fight with Ruiz and winning it.

My point was that Lewis agreed to fight Ruiz, Ruiz agreed to fight him, and when a judge ruled that Lewis had to fight Ruiz before Grant - when the Grant fight was days away - Lewis chose not to cancel a major PPV event.

And he was lauded for it at the time.

That's how Botha ended up there. Chris Byrd was committed to fighting Wlad Klitschko at the time, wasn't available and Byrd got spanked.

So that guy saying why fight Botha instead of Byrd didn't make any sense. Byrd wasn't available. In order to fight Vitali, he had to accept options. And one of them was if he somehow won, the Klitschkos' promoter was going to tell him who had fought next. And it was Wlad.

 

Lewis didn't seek out Grant until Akinwande got cancelled and Ruiz was inserted.

 

That's not what he was saying.

He brought up Botha as an example of Lewis taking on lesser fighters when it suits him.

So his moral stance on blocking Byrd is hard to swallow.

 

and he trounced him in return, proving it was a lucky win for rahman.

Now you've inadvertently brought up the rematch topic, I await your rematch results of Vitali byrd and Wlad Sanders.

take your time researching those avengning rematches against a LHW and a retired failed fattie. Yeah you take your time self destructing your own arguments cheers.

 

Don't kid yourself. HBO didn't want Lewis-Akinwande II, either.

HBO wanted Grant, after Ibeabuchi got sent up the river.

 

Byrd was a lesser fighter.

 

Maybe not, but Lewis for whatever reason had no problem until Akinwande was out.

And when Lewis said no to Ruiz..HBO had the opportunity to push Grant.

 

Lesser than who?

He was better than Johnson, Rahman, Holyfield, Tua, Grant, and did make Vitali quit.

Only Wlad had a stronger claim, but he was in no position to challenge Lewis.

 

@ mongoose.

Politics aside bro, honestly who would you want the first undisputed champ in 5-6 years to fight first. Boring John Ruiz who didn't look as decent a fighter as he turned out to be. Or undefeated 6"7 Micheal Grant??

 

Corrie Sanders had quick feet, very quick hands, solid mandible and a lot of power in that Southpaw straight hand.
Lewis was smart to avoid him.

 

Funny, how nobody has trashed Lewis harder than you in this thread by belittling his opponents so much...almost seems intentional.

 

At the time, I actually wanted Holyfield 3.

 

Lewis wasn't committed to fighting Akinwande. Before their rematch, Lewis and Holyfield agreed to fight the WBA mandatory next, whoever that may be.

It was Akinwande at the time. Then it wasn't Akinwande, it was Ruiz. And then Holyfield challenged the WBA's ranking of Ruiz #1. So there wasn't a clear idea of who the WBA mandatory was.

While they all got their **** together, Lewis signed to fight Grant in a PPV fight. Lewis also filed a lawsuit claiming the WBA switched up mandatories so he wouldn't have to **** around with all them while they sorted it out.

Then, the WBA settled on Ruiz. And Lewis and Ruiz agreed to fight after Grant.

And then the judge LEWIS filed a suit with hoping to block the WBA, ruled against him.

That was the kick in the nuts. So Ruiz backed out, and Ruiz and Holyfield fought for the vacant strap.