Lennox Lewis, Chris Byrd and the IBF

Wtf ? How does Lewis have a better claim to cleaning out his era over Ali and Louis ?

 

Trolling thread. Lewis did not duck Valuev.

 

Lennox's goal in his boxing career was to become undisputed champion and when he did that in the Holyfield rematch, he focused on making as much money as he could and had his sights set for the Mike Tyson fight.

I do really respect Lennox for taking the Vitali fight on such short notice. I think it is a very underrated victory for Lennox.

This comment below is spot on BTW, Lennox had filmed a scene with Wlad for Ocean's Eleven too which was a little bit of a selling point as well.

 

Lewis' fans overlook it, but yes it was a clear duck as Byrd legitimately earned his mandatory spot by beating Harris and Tua.
Lewis had a clear window of time (second half of 2002) to fight him but choose not to.

 

Byrd was never the man people wanted Lewis fighting.

Holyfield, Grant, Tua, Tyson, Vitali were the fights that were demanded and they're the fights we got.

Fighting Wlad would have been a better choice than Byrd, but the lustre for that fight went when Sanders banged him out.

This was 1999:

Lennox Lewis
Evander Holyfield
Michael Grant
Ike Ibeabuchi
David Tua
Mike Tyson
Vitali Klitschko
Andrew Golota
Derrick Jefferson
Oleg Maskaev"

There's only 3 men there he didn't face. Ike who got locked up, Jefferson and Maskaev.

Lewis was the champ of the 90s.

In the early 00s he just finished his business, but at no point was Byrd the fight to make.

Wladimir is a better call tbh.

 

The OP talked about the IBF/Byrd situation, not the Ring ratings.
Lewis clearly refused to face his mandatory.

 

There was no reason for Lennox to fight Byrd or Ruiz. He’d beat both to a pulp and make no money for doing it. There were much better fights for him that didn’t involve trinket belts.

 

It asked how henwas rated and why Lewis refused it, and i answered.

He refused because there were always better fights out there for him.

In an ideal world he'd have stayed more active and defended every title, of course, but the fighters that Lewis needed to fight, he fought.

 

At the time when Lewis relinquished the IBF belt (2002), Byrd was the mandatory challenger. He beat Tua (who was one of the Lewis' best challengers) and Vitali (who Lewis didn't beat at the time), so he deserved his chance.
Lewis didn't fight anyone for the rest of 2002 (negociations with Vitali's camp failed at the time). Byrd could have easily challenged for his title.

 

But the point is Byrd was not the best opponent to face in 2002, Vitali was.

 

Because he was eyeing a rematch with Mike Tyson at the time, however weird it sounds.

 

Exactly but sometimes posters don't want to hear facts.

 

Lol wow.

If “Wladdy” (Who the **** says that?!) was such a joke of a fight for ‘The LION’ lewis… why did he feel the urge to phone up Corrie Sanders the night before his fight with Wlad and basically plead with him to go on the attack and let his hands go??? I mean… Why not make a quick and easy 25 mil??? And yes… that was the absolute biggest fight in boxing at that time. Surprised THE LION wasn’t hoping Wlad would take out Sanders so he could take him out!

Yes Wlad’s stock went down after the losses but he was still a big name who had an incredible amount of talent and hadn’t developed his safety first approach yet. So NOT even comparable to Ruiz or Byrd in any way. True fans would be absolutely psyched to see Wlad possibly redeem himself with a very possible KO of Lewis.

Byrd was known as a boxer with a boring style but also known as an extremely slick southpaw that did have world class boxing ability that made most fighters look bad. He would’ve also been the first southpaw lewis fought in the pros. I think it was a combination of those things that made lewis wary of a fight with him.

The main thing that would help against Byrd is hand speed. If a boxer doesn’t have fast hands then Byrd will see those shots coming from far off and either make them miss, look bad… or at least roll with them. Wladimir did so well against Byrd because of his fast hands. Ibeabuchi too.

lewis wasn’t known for fast hands. Or fast feet for that matter. Just too much negatives for Lewis in this fight.

 

What's also not calculated into this Byrd ducking theory is the fact that most thought that Byrd had lost to Fres Oquendo and Andrew Golota, especially Golota who in turn was turned into pulp by Lamont Brewster. There was so much interest in a Byrd vs Lewis fight that neither man ever mentioned the other mans name even.

 

Byrd's fights with Oquendo (2003) and Golota (2004) have nothing to do with Lewis relinquishing the IBF belt to not fight him since it happened earlier (2002).