Could Bowe have beaten Lewis

Bowe beat a Holy who is better than anyone Lewis fought at that point, possibly ever fought. The main reason Bowe rematched Evander was money!!! Lewis wasnt a draw in the US, Holy was!! It took a longtime for Lennox to be appreciated there. The 92-93 Bowe was a very very good fighter, Lennox, as Bruno would show was still a little raw. Bruno had the same conditions as Lennox so thats no excuse, if anything Lewis should have been motivated to prove a point.

At their respective bests I favour Lewis, but at this point Bowe was close to his best, Lennox was a way off yet

 

Once Lewis destroyed Ruddock a Lewis/Bowe fight was massive fight not Bowe Dokes - Its nearly 20 years since Bowe ducked Lewis and it still gets talked about - doesnt that tell you how big a fight it would of been.

Sadly a few boxers have now taken a leaf out of Bowes book - Avoid dangerous oponents and let your fans just claim you would win anyway.

 

I don't know why people claim Bowe was the finished article and Lewis was raw. Bowe was very limited in what he could do in the ring and most resorted to brawling and nearly always resorted to eating a punch to land a punch. He also never developed the ability to get past a good jab and move plan. He also never proved his chin against an ATG puncher. Yea he beat a 205lb Holyfield who fought his fight (a brawl) and wasn't an ATG puncher, that doesn't make him the finished article. People also never look at the possibility that Bowe wasn't shot against Golota, obviously he wasn't primed and in the greatest shape, 1 of his best career performances (Holy 3) was the prior fight, maybe Golota just exposed him twice.

 

Bowe Holy I was such an enthralling fight everyone wanted to see a rematch. Bowe hadnt even fought Holy when Lewis beat Ruddock. Bowe was a live dog against Holy and expected to give Holyfield a pretty tough fight but ultimately come up short, at which point Lewis would get a shot. Once Bowe won a rematch was the only fight anyone wanted. Bowe was to fight Mercer, Holy Stewart and then rematch as they did. Bowe took on Dokes in a homecoming bout in New York with Mercer on the undercard fighting Fergusson. Fergusson upset Mercer so got his shot.
The reason it is still talked about is because of what Lewis become, not necessarily what he was then.

 

A 205lb Holyfield who was the best Heavyweight in the world at the time Bowe beat him. You obviously havent looked at the possibility that he made Holy fight his fight, something Tyson and Lewis struggled to do. Bowe had a terrific inside game and something the Holy trilogy and Golota bouts certainly showed is he had tons of guts, heart and courage in adversity. It took a ton to put him down and we never saw what it would take to keep him down

 

The Winner of Bowe Holyfield was meant to fight the winner of Lewis and Ruddock - everyone and his dog know that.
Also Ruddock was expected to beat Lewis and Bowe was gonna be Evanders first real challenge against a bona fide young big heavyweight.

Lewis shocked the boxing community with his demolition of Ruddock and then when the week later everyone was expecting the winner of Bowe Holy to fight Lewis......and I would bet anyone that had Evander won he would have fought Lewis in his next fight because he is a true boxing warrior.

Mercer was nowhere on the radar then - he had just been beaten off 100 year old Larry Holmes.
Whereas Lewis was unbeaten and had just destroyed a very highly regarded fighter in Ruddock in spectacular fashion.

Bowe wanted none of that...

 

Bowe Holy I was fight of the year. Bowe Holy II was always gonna happen before Lewis. Had Holy won or Bowe won decisively then Lewis would probably have got his shot. Mercer was to be given a shot. The two had bad blood dating back to the Olympics and also Mercer pulled out of a defense of his WBO title against Bowe in 1991. It is well documented

 

Why the hell was Bowe Holy always gonna happen before Bowe Lewis??

Lewis Bowe was arranged before Bowe actually beat Holyfield!!

Bowe Dokes and Bowe Fergusson happened before Bowe Holy 2 - So the only logical reason that you can say that Lewis Bowe neber happened was Bowe never felt he would win it and wanted the easy path..

 

Lewis Bowe wasnt arranged before Bowe Holy at all. Lewis was to face the winner. With the first fight being so good, Everyone wanted to see the rematch that is why Lewis was put on the back burner. There was way too much money involved in a rematch to fight a high risk low reward bout with Lennox.

 

For those who say Bowe was scared of Lewis, rather than admitting he was a puppet of Newman...

Bowe-Lewis was signed for December '94, to be shown on HBO. The combined purse was $30million, of which $18million would go to WBC beltholder Lewis. Sadly, McCall upset Lennox in September '94, so the Superfight was ruined. DonBoxer has a lot of info about this in a Boxing Monthly magazine, in which they interview Bowe, Maloney & Newman. I believe he intends to type those interviews up at some point soon.

When Lewis was WBC mandatory in '93, Newman wanted Lewis to get a $3million purse (a career high for Lennox in '93), & Undisputed Champ Bowe to get $17million. This is because $3million is 15% of the combined purse of $20million, & when Bowe fought Holy in '92, he was only given 15% of that combined purse. Lewis refused to take such a purse & asked for more. So instead of giving Lewis more money in '93 like Newman should have, he decided it was better (more profitable) for Bowe to vacate his WBC title, & sign a 7 fight deal with HBO instead, & face Lennox later. It was just the crazy stupid way he vacated it which looked bad, but Newman probably thought it was a great idea. Lewis vacated his WBA belt to not fight madatory Ruiz in 2000, & vacated his IBF belt to not fight madatory Byrd in '03, but he didn't throw those belts in a bin, so it didn't appear bad.

 

Exactly!! Bowe doubted his ability to beat Lewis - or he would have fought him then Holyfield.

 

Completely different situation, Lewis was mandatory and Bowe was not, Lewis was actually willing to fight for 15% but Maloney told him they have to fight you for 40% and let it goto purse bids, they must offer more. It was all agreed beforehand that the winners of Holy-Bowe and Lewis-Rudduck would square off

No Holyfield wasn't the proven best HW on the planet, he never face Rudduck/Lewis around that time to prove that and had defended against weak opponents instead of squaring off with Rudduck/Tyson/Lewis.

No Bowe didn't make Holyfield fight his fight, Holyfield choose to brawl it was obvious he never tried to use his speed and mobility to neutralise the limited Bowe. And Bowe was always limited no matter how much his fans try to pretend otherwise and that's why Golota and Tubbs outboxed him

 

No it wasnt

 

You just make **** up. :-(

 

Kind of like Byrd and Ruiz yeah? High risk low reward.