Chris Byrd on Lennox Lewis

So we went from nobody wanted the fight to.....hardcore boxing fans wanted it. I would say that is siginificant since hardcore fans were the ones paying for every Lewis era fight bar the Tyson circus.

The estimated purse for Lewis if he fought Byrd was 8 to 10 million. Well Short of Tyson, but an above average pay day for Lewis title defenses. Lewis did reportedly seek out a replacement opponent but ran out of time and lost his HBO date to Byrd and ended up sitting at ringside having to eat crow in interviews afterwards. Lewis said he would have to consider Byrd now, though ultimately did not.

So ultimately, your argument is Lewis just wanted to fight a less deserving and less threatening opponent just because....ok, understand that is going to be met with suspicion from people that aren't willing to give Lewis every benefit of the doubt.....surely it was anything but him avoiding the southpaw with a rep for being avoided.

 

At anything other than Boxing, yes.