Does Anyone Think Lewis Could Have Beaten Bowe,In 1992 ?

If anything that should have given Bowe even more motivation to make the fight, but he never did.

 

People talk like Bowe never wanted to make the fight, remember that he signed in 1994 to fight Lewis but the latter lost to McCall.
Even if you consider that Bowe " ducked " Lewis in late 1992, it's Lewis' team who backed out of a fight in early and mid 1993.
So I don't understand why Bowe is seen as the lone culprit here.

 

Which fight did Lewis back out of in '93?

 

He’s just so fragile. I have no faith in his butter chin & mediocre recovery. The Lion had a mouse’s heart. Bowe is a dangerous fight at any point in Lewis’ career.

 

You can check this link.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-21-sp-15342-story.html

 

Any time he got hit you had to hold your breath. It wasn’t china, but it was certainly a vulnerable liability. When you are a 6’5” fighter weighing 240lbs with a monster right hand & you spend your peak years backing up behind a pawing jab, well, there’s a reason isn’t there…

 

Heres a highlight of Lewis taking flush shots his chin isn't as bad as people make out. The left hook from Holyfield at 5 minutes into the video had Bowe down and almost out in their 3rd fight.

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His haters will say his jaw was total glass, which I agree, it wasn’t. But it was weak. Perhaps even moreso you could criticise his recovery. Bowe would be dangerous & a good chance at winning at any moment. I suppose I’d favour Lewis but no money would go down on him.

 

Faded battleworn no punch holyfield gave the best Lewis all he handle.

Bowe battered Holy so badly the last time they fought people had to convince themselves he had a heart attack.

The Lennox versions of evander would've been beaten into a crumpled heap by 92 Bowe .

The fact Lewis looked so tepid and apprehensive against the shadow of evander proves hed crap the bed against a the best shw atg offensive guy who was prepared to die in the ring

 

OK - Yet another verbal "offer" from Newman - many of which had been made already - ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. This was just Newman putting on his typical public show for the benefit of the press in an attempt to conduct damage control.

Lewis was in talks with the Bruno by then. Their fight was announced 10 days later.

Telling Newman to take a hike isn't backing out of a fight. It's not trusting a guy that's given you the runaround from day one.

 

The offer was acknowledged by Maloney.
It was a good offer (65/35 split), so why you are not considering Lewis ducking Bowe to fight the easier opponent in Bruno ?

 

I didn't say it wasn't.

But a verbal offer doesn't mean there was a fight in place. You can't back out of a fight that hasn't been made.

Yes - But as mentioned previously, Newman made a lot of 'verbal' offers. Some of which were accepted by Lewis, after which Newman would go silent.

Because it wasn't serious. Again, as mentioned previously, this was Newman publicly conducting damage control to try and clean up some of the carnage caused by him and Bowe, back in December '92.

Why would any sane boxing manager derail a multi-million dollar fight they already had in the bag on the basis of a verbal agreement from that clown Newman? The question becomes even more pertinent when it is recalled (and was well-known at the time) that their own promoter Dan Duva was seeking the Bowe/Holyfield rematch and leveraging both the rematch clause and the regulations to make sure that match happened.

Pure smoke and mirrors from Newman - and, Maloney was absolutely right to stick with the course they had taken, following Bowe's and Newman's behavior over the prior several months.

 

There wasn't a fight in place in 1992 too.
So why do you see it as a duck ?

What offer was accepted by Lewis that made Newman go silent ? Are you talking about the 3 million ?

I don't believe Maloney was a saint either, he had no problem working with King in early 1993 to have Lewis fight Tucker for 9 million.

 

Sorry, but I'm not quite sure why I'm having to spell this out for you...

Lewis was the WBC Mandatory Challenger and Bowe publicly vacated the WBC title rather than fight Lewis.

No. That one was rejected by Maloney. But there were others.

One went something along the lines of a 'winner take most' type of deal. Lewis accepted that one by fax, personally, bypassing his own management - but Newman never came back.

No one is saying Maloney was a saint. But, regarding him working with Don King? He had to because Tucker was Lewis's Mandatory and Tucker was a King fighter.

And, the Lewis team was always going to have to navigate King in one form or another, every time they were matched against one of his fighters.