Devils advocate, Lennox Lewis ducked chris Byrd and John Ruiz

As I recall, in the late '90s and early '00s Lewis was concerned about his marketability and making big paydays. Fighting Ruiz or Byrd might have been a box office disaster for Lewis, and for this reason he wasn't eager to have these fights.

Lewis would have knocked Ruiz out easily and decisively, but the bout would have proven nothing. It would have not have drawn many fans, and the poor audience reception might have soured the cable stations on Lewis's future financial prospects.

As for Byrd, Lewis would have won but he would have looked terrible doing so. The bout would be boring, and it would go to the cards. Such a match would definitely have hurt Lewis's popularity, much like Klitschko's recent win over Ibragimov has tarnished Vlad's box office appeal somewhat.

I'm basing my remarks on stuff I remember reading in the papers.

 

What did Wills do to be a top 15 HW encroaching on the top 10 ?

What film and real evidence have you seen to give Wills a top 15 spot ?.

 

I am not trying to justify Lewis avoiding (if at all) Byrd or Ruiz on the ground that he would have easily beat them. If you read my post carefully, you will see that I actually give Byrd a chance (howsoever slim) of beating Lewis. No chance for Ruiz though.

The thing is that, as most posters has pointed out, Lewis opted to face better (both from the point of view of competition as well as gate) opponents. Now, you can't really blame him for that, can you?

And he kept fairly busy. So you can't say that he could have squeezed them in somewhere in the line. But considering the easy time he would have had with them, maybe he should have.