Chris Byrd on Lennox Lewis

George Foreman said himself he could not beat Lennox.

Ike would have fought Lennox had he not called that hooker in Vegas

None of the others you mention would go past 6 rounds before Lennox destroyed them

 

IIRC I've disagreed w/you in some threads, but agree prime Tua would beat Byrd. Not sure it would be easy... prime Byrd was a slick boxer.

If/when Tua caught him it would soon be over :dead

 

Very good point.
Wonder why - as another poster replied - he isn't given much credit? :think

 

TKO6 in first fight, nothing to prove by rematching. Lennox was old, he was the most out of shape he'd ever been when he beat Vitali, what could he prove by getting back in the ring a year later even older, out of shape and washed up. And what would it have proven if there had been a rematch and Vitali had won? That Vitali couldn't beat and old, washed up version of Lennox but could beat an even older one that hadn't fought in over a year.

Would have happened if Lennox hadn't shown his age against Vitali and decided to call it quits. Regardless, one of Lewis's uppercuts would have knocked Wlad out cold, Wlad wouldn't have lasted three rounds against Lennox as he was then, even the current Wlad would do well to last the whole 12.

Bowe dumped the WBC belt in the trash rather than face Lewis and quit the sport after being dominated in two fight by Golota - who Lennox knocked out in 1 round. You cant blame Lewis for a fight against Bowe never happening.

Don King paid Lewis $1million and gave him a fancy new car not to fight Byrd. That doesn't speak well of King's confidence in Byrd's ability to win that fight if he, as Byrd's promoter, was actively trying to prevent the fight happening.

Ruiz got the WBA Mandatory spot because the two guys in front of him - Akinwande and Holyfield - were in no way viable fights for Lewis at the time from a network promotion standpoint. Holyfield had just lost two fights to Lewis in decisive fashion and Akinwande had been DQed in his fight with Lewis for excessive hugging. Suddenly the WBA managed to re-imagine the rankings so a guy Lewis had never fought got the #1 spot.

Michael Grant, meanwhile, was being hyped by HBO and was the fight most of the boxing world wanted to see, so Lewis sued the WBA to be able to keep his belt and fight Grant then fight Ruiz afterwards. But Don King and Ruiz took the matter to the US Court and managed to get the title stripped from Lewis because the contract for Lewis/Holyfield called for the WBA mandatory to get the first shot at the undisputed Heavyweight Title.

If King hadn't pushed the matter so he could get Lewis stripped of the WBA belt and have two of his stable of fighters compete amungst themselves for it then Ruiz would have fought Lewis in 2000.

Sanders was never considered as a potential opponent for Lewis. He was regarded as little more than a journeyman for most of his career and if the Klitschko's hadn't been forced to drag him out of semi-retirement in 2003 people would still think of him like that today. Sanders made his name by knocking out Wlad in two rounds and pushing Vitali on the way to being stopped in eight.

Foreman himself admitted that he'd never beat Lewis, and never seriously considered a fight with him.

A story of potential unfulfilled. Had he not got himself thrown in prison he might have fought Lennox. As it was he was just beginning to reach the world stage when he was jailed.

Holmes never went after Lennox and was never in line for a shot at Lennox. The last time Holmes got a shot at one of the legitimate world titles it was against the man who beat Lennox - Oliver McCall - and he lost that by UD. If Lewis hadn't lost to McCall then Holmes would have fought him, even so you cannot really say Lewis ducked Holmes.

Hide never went after Lewis, and for good reason, Lennox would have knocked him out cold in four rounds tops. If Lennox was major league then Hide was sunday league.

Neither Jones or Lewis really went to any lenghts to make a fight. They talked about it tentatively after Jones beat Ruiz but it died totally after the Vitali fight. Lewis had lost his passion by this point anyway and wasn't excited by any potential opponent. Jones also tried to get Holyfield and Tyson but didn't get much interest from them. I suppose they "ducked" him as well.

 

Alright. Fair enough. Maybe I should have said Foreman never wanted Lewis.

Regardless, the above quote was asking Foreman how he thought he'd do in his prime against Lewis, not how old-man Foreman would do against Lewis - which was the only version that could potentially fight Lennox - so its still true that Lewis did not duck Foreman and Foreman wanted no part of Lennox in 1990's.

 

If Lewis caught Wlad his punches instead of overrated Vitali his punches he wouldn't last 3 rounds too...

Lewis would never want to fight Ruiz because he learned in a sparring session it would be a too ugly fight.

Jones did want to fight Holyfield, Tyson and Lewis.
Lewis was the third choice and didn't go on because Lewis wasn't happy with his performance against Vitali.
Tyson was first choice, but Tyson went bankrupt and it got cancelled.
Holyfield didn't go on for other reasons. (first choice before Ruiz but Ruiz beat him so team Jones went for Ruiz instead)

Not saying he ducked anyone btw.

 

Lewis would have smashed on him like Wladimir did.

 

Bowe-Lewis was gonna happen in late 1994. The money was agreed & the fight was pencilled in but Lewis lost his title to McCall & the fight never happened.

 

Exactly. 3 words: Straight right hand. Byrd would eat that all night long.

 

Lenny is the biggest ATG Ducker :deal

 

Because Lewis was a real champ and didn't need some paid for title to tell him he was great like Byrd did.

Lewis would have startched Byrd with one right hand. Byrd had nothing to keep Lewis off of him and no way to outwork him bevause unlike VK if Byrd started throwing those wild punches he would ate and uppercut and went to sleep.

The whole Lewis ducked Ruiz and Byrd thing is a joke.

 

Golota was robbed in that fight as well. Also McCline kicked Byrd's ass before he faded and even dropped Byrd and had him on ***** street.

Then the fights with the Klitschko's it's obvious Byrd didn't fair well when he had such a height disadvantage.