I think Rid**** Bowe's failure to fight Lewis had more to do with Rock Newman calling the shots than Bowe himself.
no doubt, but Bowe allowed Newman to call those shots :bbb well, put it this way, it works both ways and not only one
Fighters rarely call the shots on business decisions. That's not to say that some of them don't have influence at times but Rock Newman had a pretty firm grip over Bowe's career.
I agree with you. I don't think Newman felt positive about matching Bowe and Lewis up, one could argue it was a smart move on his part
Something tells me if that if Razor Ruddock had troubled the hell out of Lewis and took him the distance in an unimpressive fight, Newman might have considered taking that bout in the spring. But I don't think anyone ( including myself ) anticipated Razor getting sparked that early or badly. The discarding of the WBC title might have been strongly influenced by the result of that match.
Actually King was interested in a Tyson/Lewis bout, however he wanted options on Lewis future fights and Lewis and co didnt agree to this.
Bowe clearly ducked Lewis, you won't find a more blatant duck than that. Bowe was contractually bound to face Lewis but refused to. He gave Lewis a low ball offer to try and duck the fight. He didn't even avoid the fight to fight a more lucrative opponent, which would be understandable, Lewis was by far the most lucrative fight available in 93 and Bowe actually made less than Lewis earned in his next 2 fights. Lewis even predicted Bowe would duck him after Bowe won the title.
I always gave Bowe the benefit of the doubt, but their mini-argument ringside makes me thing Bowe was scared.
Really? I got the impression that Bowe was flying high off the win and said a few things, "You're not the man I thought you were!", that seemed to implicate something else was going on behind closed doors.