Lennox Lewis was not an ATG

I remember that fight too, it was not in America, and I can assure the rematch with Holyfield made Bowe more money than fights with Lewis, Dokes and Ferguson combined!
Lewis wasnt even fighting in big venues in his own country, which at that time noone was too sure what it was, Jamaica, England, Canada??

 

It's really quite simple. Bowe wanted NOTHING to do with Lennox despite telling the world he'd hand Lennox the shot. It was Bowe walking away from Lewis after mouthing him off after just winning the title, not the other way around.

One might have hoped that Bowe would have had the same level of professional pride that Louis and Ali had. By that I mean wanting to prove that HE was the best in the world and erasing the embarrassing loss he suffered at the hands of Lewis...and the stigma that went with it. Instead, we watched Bowe all but jump out of a window to avoid Lewis...or we can choose to blame Bowe's manager, thus at the very least he danced to the crank of an organ grinder.

No matter how you slice it this much is clear - Bowe avoided punchers whereas Lewis took all of the challenges...while others hid behind business excuses for avoiding him.

A lot of cash and belts were passed around behind the curtain on Lewis from 1992-1996.

Look at it another way...and this may hurt some...if an American had the EXACT record Lewis has today...he'd be lauded high and low.

Nuff said!

 

Yeah and Lewis should have defended his titles against Ruiz and Byrd instead of scheduling a fight with Kirk Johnson in Canada. Every fighter goes where the money is.
I dont agree with your American comment either. Lewis became a great fighter, unfortunately his timing was bad. He came a little late to the dance, got knocked out at a bad time and finished strong when everyone else was hanging them up. Not so sure given some his shaky momemts he would have been held as high in regard had he competed with the big boys in their primes.

 

You are right about Ruiz and Byrd, but then again neither had lathered Lenny previously. We can point out that Lenny dumped some fights near the end, but are you gonna tell me that we got the worse match-up when Lennox opted for Grant over Ruiz? Gonna tell me that Bowe's lack of pride and personal need for revenge is justified because Lewis opted to move past two pedestrian match-ups and opted for Grant and Tyson?

Hey, he didn't go around rummaging for stiffs.

Bowe did.

 

Ruiz - instead Lennox opted for the undefeated Michael Grant = better matchup
Johnson - instead took on Klitschko at no fault of his own = better matchup
Byrd - instead opted for Tyson = better matchup

Bowe - dumped belt, caught the red-eye out of town and called up a shadow of Dynamite Dokes when there was work to be done and lots of interest looming.

 

See how Lewis always gets the pass? Better matchups. I dont know, Ruiz probably would have put up a better fight than Grant if that was the case. He still had Johnson scheduled, who Ruiz beat. Both Johnson and Grant turned out to be bums.
Bowe just won the title, his manager wanted to make some money. Fighting Holyfield again was not bum hunting. Ferguson got his shot by upsetting Mercer who was supposed to get Bowe had he beaten Ferguson but blew it.

 

Lewis gets the pass BECAUSE he did not avoid his greatest challenge.

Bowe did.

 

Haha :good. Hes lucky his mum wasnt in the ring against him he would be massacred no joke

 

I think theres a little more to it, but we can agree to disagree. I do believe Lewis wanted the fights, but he didnt have the options at that time not being a champion, so it was a little different. Lewis also got knocked out shortly after winning the title, so that threw a wrench in the gears as well.

 

I like debating you. You have your act together and are intelligent. I believe Bowe was content to side-step threats - or - content to have somebody make some bad and transparent decisions for him. Sometimes it really isn't all "black and white", rather shades of grey.

At any rate, Lewis certainly would have faced Bowe in the spring of '93 had Bowe agreed to go forward.

I think we all know that.

 

Thank you.....Thread closed..

 

That's your opinion Chris, personally I think Tyson is way overrated. The minute he faced the toughest guys he ever faced he buckled. His resume is decent, but Lewis's is a league above. In a **** era of boxing a good HW ruled supreme, when the next era began his true colours were shown.

Equation,
Tyson - Cus + Rooney = slightly above average.
Tyson + Cus + Rooney = ATG

 

Not my opinion, it's fact. Here are the ring rankings of 2000 and 2001. Who is ranked #2 twice?


20200 2001 2002 Title Vacant

1. Lennox Lewis
2. Mike Tyson
3. Kirk Johnson
4. Evander Holyfield
5. David Tua
6. Wladimir Klitschko
7. Oleg Maskaev
8. Michael Grant
9. Hasim Rahman
10. Chris Byrd

Lennox Lewis, Champion

1. Wladimir Klitschko
2. Mike Tyson
3. Chris Byrd
4. Hasim Rahman
5. Kirk Johnson
6. Evander Holyfield
7. John Ruiz
8. Jameel McCline
9. Fres Oquendo
10. David Tua

 

That just goes to show how The Ring ratings aren't very good at all. They are certainly not based purely on results or performance. Tyson gets rated highly in 2001 because of his historical reputation rather than what he'd done in the ring recently.

 

Sure, you don't like the facts, so try to devalue them. Ring rankings aren't perfect, but they're the most reliable out there.