Did Lennox Lewis avoid the Chris Byrd and John Ruiz fights

I don't believe Lenny ducked em ,he'd have been very confident in his ability to best both. If Lewis had faced Bryd ,Chris would have given him a few early troublesome round s ,but Lewis eventually nails him .I'd say about the 8th.Ruiz ,despite going the distance with Holy 3 times, would have being caught early and hard .Round 3 sounds about right.

 

Lewis couldn't do anymore with the same Holyfield than Ruiz did. To say Lewis easily beats Ruiz is flying in the face of that 5 fight evidence. Which his t@rds love to do I know.

 

Why should Lewis? Is he in any danger against the mobile light handed Byrd or the medicore Ruiz? .....

 

Byrd did handle tua. He was the much tougher fight for Lewis because of his skills and style. 5'9 tua was never gonna reach Lewis chin

 

The idea the Lewis would duck Ruiz is pretty funny though...

 

Everybody wanted Lewis vs. Tyson more on principle than anything, because they'd spent the better part of a decade wanting it...but when it went down it was as overdue as Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, if not more so. I think everyone that followed boxing would've accepted Byrd instead at that point. There would have been some kicking of dirt and some "aww shucks I've been wanting to see Lewis vs. Tyson forever..." but the soup was already burnt, I think by then everybody realized it wasn't going to be the ultra-competitive superfight of their dreams anymore, from before either fought Holy.

 

It is one of those cases where you could argue it either way.

He seems to have taken the fights that garnered the most media interest up to the Tyson fight, after which he seems to be fielding WBC mandatory's.

It is possible that he saw the tricky southpaw Byrd as a potential stumbling block, but it is also possible that he didn't see it as being worth the money.

His first choice for his last opponent, was a rather underwhelming one in Kirk Johnson, and I think that Byrd would have been a better choice.

As has happened many times in history before, he almost stumbled into the most logical fight, when Vitally Klitschko became the substitute.

I expected Lewis to win fairly convincingly, but I saw it as being much more exciting than the alternatives.

 

But still, everyone wanted Lewis Vs Tyson

 

Nah atleast Tua could knock Lewis out.

 

Lewis set up a tournament with Don King called Hard road to Glory series,

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Don King paid him 1 million dollars and gave him a car to persuade him to vacate the IBF title so Byrd could fight Holyfield for that title and Ruiz could fight Roy Jones for the WBA, the winners would fight each other to determine the undisputed number 1 Challenger to the Emperor Lewis to unify in a big Undisputed fight for all the belts. The WBA winner didn't fight the IBF winner because Roy Jones won WBA then vacated, Ruiz fought Toney for vacant WBA and lost then Toney failed drug test and result changed to ND. Lewis considered retirement while he waited for Tyson who enforced a rematch clause meaning Lewis contractually had to fight him again (so couldn't fight Byrd next). Eventually Tyson relinquished his rights and Lewis ended up fighting Vitali.

When Lewis made the fight with Grant, he had been mandated by WBA to fight Akinwande (again) Akinwande was diagnosed with Hepatitis and couldn't fight, they then moved Ruiz into mandatory position. Everybody considered unbeaten Grant the universal number one contender and because of the late replacement of Ruiz Lewis applied for an extension to fight Ruiz after. When the WBA pulled the rug out from under Lewis he filled the Ruiz date with Botha as he readied for IBF number one mandatory Tua.

 

As anybody who was around at the time knows.

After the Tyson fight, the press acted like he was the second coming of Joe Louis!

 

Either way, it was his duty to meet the more qualified challenger, not the greater stylistic risk!

 

http://ghosttown-boxing.2299399.n4....-Lewis-David-Tua-and-others-td4090601i80.html

 

"...but the soup was already burnt..."

This is a very well written comment.

 

I can't claim credit, that's a boxing aphorism dating a decade or so back to when Bob Arum asserted that the Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Juan Manuel López superfight - that was then very much in demand and considered a golden ticket to superstardom and a high p4p ranking for the winner - needed to "simmer", until he ended up getting scorched by his own greed.