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

Obviously you werent around when this was happening, but I was.
A contract was signed that four fighters would fight to determine the REAL HW champ Lennox Lewis, Rid**** Bowe, Evander Holyfield & Razor Ruddock. Bowe meets Evander , Lewis meets Ruddock. The two winners meet to decide the real champion.
Bowe, to be fair to him , legitimately beat Hoyfield & Lewis destroyed Ruddock. Instead of keeping his bargain Bowe & Rock Newman renaged on the deal which led to Bowe dumping the WBC belt in a trash can in London
Lennox could not have done more than he did to get that fight on. I was there when Lennox & a young girl in a yellow chicken suit with CHICKEN BOWE across the front contronted Bowe & Newman. The idea was to embarrass Bowe into signing but they both just walked away. They knew Lennox had Bowes # since he TKO'd him in the olympic finals. Bowe knew in his heart he could not beat Lennox Lewis. Please do not blame Lennox it was NOT his fault

 

Look lets put this into perspective.....

Lennox was due to fight Kirk Johnson in a warm up fight prior to defending against Vitlai his #1 contender who was on the card too. Well Johnson , who had himself been robbed of a title by John Ruiz Oscar winning acting & joe Cortez inept or blatantly corrupt officiating & was not fully focused. He backed out claiming injury & to save the card being s****ped Lennox though only prepared for a wam up fight took on his #1 contender on just a few days notice. Name me one other world champion that put his title on the line against his #1 contender on a few days notice.
Bottom line is Lennox ,though barely 80 % in shape, TKO'd Vitali nearly taking his face off. What possible reason was there for Lennox to fight Vitlai again. A 100% Lennox would destroy Vitali worse. Oh & please don't say Lennox ducked Wlad ROFLMAO old Wlad took to the hills scared silly.
Lennox Lewis was the best HW champ since Ali. He'd beaten every man he ever faced in the pro ring. He had nothing left to prove & retired at EXACTLY the right time.. Heres to a Long Happy retirement Lennox You EARNED it !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Could you please re post this in English so we can understand LOL

 

I met Bowe & Newman in Dallas Tx . Newman was stomping around saying who wants to meet the Heavyweight Champion of the World. I could stop myself from saying" Did Lennox Lewis just come in the room then"? lol
I added to Newman " If & when Bowe fights & beats Lennox then he'll be world champ" Newman just laughed & said " Look we got the belts don't we". Bowe just looked embarrassed & walked away. Newman said later with no one else around ' Look we can fight Dokes & Ferguson with very little risk for as much money as facing Lewis & risking it all what would you do" ??
I answered " I sure wouldn't brag I was the HW champ & fight no hopers"
It just made me mad to see them get away with it

 

This is a bit of a weird question because it implies that Bowe is better than Holyfield and Tyson, which I don't necessarily agree with. The real loser in this fight not occurring is Bowe, because had he won this fight, he would have had wins over prime Holyfield and Prime Lewis and he might very well have been regarded as the best of out of these four fighters. In stead he's an after thought.

In retrospect, it's hard to imagine a fighter making a bigger miscalculation, whether it was due to ego, money or whatever.

 

No, Lewis ducking Vitali in rematch ruins his legacy.

 

which HW champs at age 38 continued to make HW defences - list - vitali defending against subnationals like unknow unskilled charr in the way that Lennox defending against top contender and future titlist fot 10 years vits didnt.
foreman after a massive layoff that extended his career though he never reached anything like what he was earlier.



which HW champs at age 38 had got out of making hw defences - all the ones in history,


all the weight of history is against you. r u that professor who tried to pretend the holocaust didnt exist? this sounds like your style.

 

The only Heavyweight of the era fighting everyone was Evander Holyfield.

Lennox Lewis did'nt fight any of the of the other top 3 Heavyweights when they were anywhere near prime.

Lennox never beat an elite Heavyweight period, that alone should be enough to put a real dent on his legacy.

 

Bowe ducked Lewis.

Holyfield would have fought Lewis in 1993 if he hadn't lost to Bowe and would have fought him in 1994 if he hadn't lost to Moorer and Lewis hadn't lost to McCall.

Tyson was in prison for most of the 90's and when he came out was bumped ahead of Lewis by the WBC for a shot at Bruno at King's request. He then decided to fight Seldon and Holyfield instead before getting banned for two years, and then when he returned he avoided Lewis until the money on offer was too big to turn down.

Fights against these three men not occuring earlier or at all were not the fault of Lewis.

Of the other top heavyweights of Lewis's era: Moorer wanted nothing to do with him, neither did Foreman, Wlad didn't want a fight with Lewis until 2004 - at least -while Vitali got his shot and blew it.

And when Lewis fought Holyfield in 1999 Holyfield P4P #3 and widely accepted as one of the greatest living fighters. Yet rather than give Lewis any credit for dominating this elite level fighter on the way to one of the most disgraceful robberies in boxing history before winning the rematch clean people fell over themselves to make excuses as to why these fights didn't matter and Holyfield wasn't any good any more.

Lewis's main problem, in so far as his legacy goes, is that he was a fighter without a main fanbase - not being accepted fully in Britain or Canada - who based himself in America. The top American fighters of the day could ignore him and fight each other for better money. Until he became the division's King by dominating Holyfield he was the highest risk lowest reward fighter in the whole division, and the top Americans - except Holyfield - were simply not interested in fighting him.

 

If Holyfield hadnt lost to Bowe - He would have had a fight with Lewis.

Bowe was brave enough to fight Holyfield but not brave enough to fight Lewis


Holyfield didnt fight - Ruddock - McCall - Bruno - Golota - Briggs - Morrison - Tucker - V Klitschko and the Tyson he faced was certainly not prime - nor was Lewis when he faced Holyfield

And to throw in the towel against former Middleweight James Toney is certainly not very warrior like {unless he really decided to quit his boxing career}
Cant recall Lewis ever quitting a fight regardless of how out of shape he was

 

Lennox Lewis ducked no one. He beat every opponent he faced in the pro ring
He is without doubt the best HW champ since Ali
Bowe was a tragedy really when he fought & beat Evander first time he was in his prime. From there it downhill fast. Lennox was evaded by both Tyson & Holyfield at that time too. Vitali really was a great showing of cojones by Lennox. He took on Vitali, his #1 contender& put his title on the line on a few days notice, he was barely 80% ready but TKO'd Vitali in 6. What was the point in a rematch?? As for Wlad he took to the hills
In all honesty The Queen should be saying " Arise Sir lennox ""

 

Lewis has a good record, although you can punch holes in it. You can say that he didn't fight Bowe, but Bowe through a title in the trash to avoid fighting him. You can say that he waited until Holyfield and Tyson were washed up, but at least he fought them. You can say that he was chinny, but he avenged his losses.

 

All true. Add to that was that Lewis wouldn't let King get his hooks into him and that likely prevented him from a number of opportunities.

 

Vitali only wishes he had 1/2 of Lewis' legacy..lol

waaaa waaa I couldn't beat him the first time so I want another chance..waaa waaaa

Vitali had his chance and blew it, couldn't close the show, couldn't deal with the pressure, couldn't win the biggest fight of his career. Hell his pathetic fans are the only one's complaining. They complain more about the outcome than he ever did.

 

You know what's funny?

Lewis fanboys crying about Bowe trashing his title when Lewis did the same thing twice with the same exact excuses.

How many titles has Wlad trashed?