Does Lennox Lewis not fighting Bowe the second best HW from his era ruin his legacy?

This is not true.

Lewis/Byrd was scheduled to take place in December 2002. Lewis agreed to this stipulation in court to secure the Tyson fight. In September he broke from this agreement and gave the official reason that "Byrd offered no challenge" Opting to sit in inactivity for 11 months before agreeing to face Kirk Johnson...who ultimately became Vitali Klitschko by circumstance on short notice.

To excuse this duck is to say that Champions have the right to pick their own contenders and can decide who is "a challenge" and who is not. That a mandatory who was regarded as a top contender for a decade by the vast majority of organizations and publications; and earned his shot by beating another contender who was good enough to challenge for the title less than a year previously is not worthy just because the Champion says so. :think

If Wlad trashed his IBF title and said Fury was no challenge, but had no other opponents lined up for 11 months and watched Fury win his vacated title at ringside, I wander what these people would say?

 

It's not like Lewis just didn't have the time to face these guys. In the case of Byrd, he said he would not fight him and chose to sit out an HBO date rather than meet him in the ring.

In the case of Ruiz, he agreed to face the WBA #1 contender when it was Akinwande but decided Grant took priority when Ruiz replaced him, despite having been granted a 12 month window to make the fight with Grant.

I'd take Ruiz over Botha and Rahman(Ruiz actually beat him).

 

I heard he prepared by watching Lewis/Holyfield I and Lewis/Tua. Wlad even stole Lewis signature move of holding and hitting.

Lewis was criticized just as heavily in his time for clinching smaller men to death. When it comes to clinching criticism, Lewis and Wlad live in the same glasshouse.

 

-Nobody is suggesting to sub Tyson for Byrd. What is being suggested is that Lewis should have fought Byrd when the was fight was supposed to happen in December 2002 on HBO, instead of trashing his title and disrespecting a deserving contender.

-No, he didn't. He chose to watch Byrd/Holyfield for the title he fragmented at ringside over facing Byrd himself. The Johnson fight didn't come together until Spring of the following year.

HBO set a date aside for Lewis/Byrd which eventually went to Byrd/Holyfield. Early estimates predicted Lewis could earn up to 10 million for the Byrd fight, more than the 7 million that was reported for say..Rahman I.

And lets not try to sell Johnson as a bigger draw or a more featured HBO fighter. Byrd was a top contender at the time and had been featured on HBO regularly.

Johnson had been off HBO since the Ruiz mess, the Saverese fight was on FoxSports. There was little interest in Johnson/Lewis.

"But that doesn't mean the card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles is off, despite very slow ticket sales." ESPN

And if we are take Lewis at his word, a big pay day wasn't an issue. And likely wasn't as its doubtful Johnson matched the 10 million for a mandatory IBF defense with an American HBO regular.

Promoters have not disclosed the size of the purse for the fight and Lewis showed little interest when questioned about his potential earnings.
"I don't really think about money anymore," Lewis said-ABC

-Just because a replacement opponent later turned out to have a great career, doesn't mean Lewis is justified in ruling out the possibility of ever facing a deserving contender the previous summer. Holmes still gets called out for ducking Page, despite his hand picks gone wrong like Spoon having better careers.

A deserving contender with a reputation for being avoided in line for an earned title shot was denied because of the personal opinion of the Champion. If this is not a duck, what is a duck?

If you don't feel there was no criticism for Lewis, read the American Press in the lead up and aftermath of Byrd/Holyfield. There was also an ESPN poll that selected Byrd was the man people would most like to see Lewis face next.

 

This is following Byrd/Holyfield. March 2003. A month before Lewis announced Johnson as his man.

The first question asked who Roy Jones should fight next. There were five choices: Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Chris Byrd, Wladimir Klitschko and David Tua (or maybe it was Evander Holyfield and not Tua). Anyway, I was sure Mike Tyson would be the runaway choice. It was a close contest, but Byrd edged out Tyson. That's right, of the roughly 30,000 respondents, more selected Byrd as Roy Jones' next opponent than any other fighter in the world, including Mike Tyson.
The second question asked who Lennox Lewis should fight next. Again, five choices: Chris Byrd, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones, David Tua and Evander Holyfield (I am sure of these choices, because they are still posted on the site as I write this). Again it was a close contest between Byrd and Tyson. Again, Byrd edged Tyson out.

 

So people on these forums can laugh and mock the idea of Lewis ducking Byrd. And people can try to twist Lewis' disrespectful words as some sort of truth. Even though Byrd already had a reputation for being a much avoided slippery southpaw and was well liked by HBO and the press. The actual facts, comments, and paper trail tells a different story.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A lot of heavyweights want nothing to do with Chris Byrd and his unorthodox interpretation of the sweet science.
Evander Holyfield was one of them, until the prospect of an unprecedented fifth heavyweight title was dangled in front of his aging eyes.
Holyfield goes after that title Saturday night against Byrd, a crafty lefty who might be the worst opponent outside of Wladimir Klitschko for an old warrior whose reflexes are slipping.
The two meet in the Boardwalk Hall in a scheduled 12-round fight for the IBF version of the title that Lennox Lewis thought so little of he sold it for $1 million and a Range Rover.




ATLANTIC CITY — There is a common misconception that the fighters other fighters most fear and avoid are big punchers, guys who can put you down and out with a single punch.
The actual profile of the sort of fighter most likely to be ducked whenever possible is something entirely different. He'd be lefthanded, cuter than Shirley Temple in those 1930s musicals, peskier than a swarm of mosquitoes at a picnic. He'd be someone who wouldn't only beat you, but make you look foolish in the bargain.


Someone, in other words, exactly like rising heavyweight contender Chris Byrd.

In the other featured bout, big - 6-7, 250 pounds - and big-punching Michael Grant (27-0, 19 KOs) defends his lightly regarded International Boxing Council title against Obed Sullivan (29-2-1, 20 KOs) in a scheduled 12-rounder.
Because of his power and unusual physical dimensions, Grant is widely perceived as the best of the next generation of heavyweights, but it speaks volumes about Byrd that, in a recent issue of KO magazine, a panel of four experts picked him to defeat Grant should the two ever meet.