Lennox undisputed Title resume - your thoughts

Lennox ducked Byrd and Ruiz by fighting Mike Tyson?



I've been detracting on Lewis lately but this is nonsense

 

The WBC would not sanction Lewis vs Kirk Johnson they had told Lewis that he must next defend their belt against No1 contender Vitali Klitschko by December or be stripped of their WBC belt.. Lewis chose to defend the unheard of IBO belt against Johnson but the bout fell through when Johnson sustained an injury. Lewis then had no option other than to bring forward his WBC fight against Vitali who was in training to fight on the undercard of Lewis v Johnson otherwise Lewis training would be lost and he would have to go through it all again starting in a couple of months.

Lennox Lewis done a SKY Sports Special interview December last year where he claimed he avoided Michael Moorer in 1993... check out that interview

To claim Lewis chose "Lucrative options" is not true. Lewis turned down career highest paydays throughout the 1990s.. HBO offered $18 million in 1993 to stage Bowe vs Lewis with $15 million for Bowe the champion & $3 million for Lewis the challenger but Lewis turned it down.

Bowe offered Lewis a guaranteed $13 million in 1995 when neither held a title - Lewis turned it down.

Mike Tyson offered Lewis $13.5 million and a guaranteed World Title fight in 1996 - Lewis turned it down.

HBO offered Lewis a staggering $35 million + PPV to fight newly crowned WBA Heavyweight Champion Roy Jones Jr. in 2002 - Lewis turned it down claiming he had no interest in fighting a former middleweight.

Vitali Klitschko offered Lewis $25 million to fight a rematch in 2004 - Lewis turned it down.

All career highest paydays at that point in Lewis career.

i can never recall Lennox Lewis ever being "Frozen out" neither can i recall any fighter ever avoiding him.

 

Lefthook31... i agree with most of your points on this thread but what is getting "mixed-up" here is how Lewis lost the WBA Belt and who he fought instead of No1 contender John Ruiz.... The WBA allowed Lewis to fight Michael Grant and KEEP his belt on the condition he next faced John Ruiz. a date was set 15th July 2000 London Arena but Lewis baulked on the fight and instead fought Frans Botha on that date... link below.


Lewis reportedly can keep WBA belt - Chicago Sun-Times | HighBeam Research

Lewis fought Frans Botha instead of fighting John Ruiz

 

The question is DID Lewis beat Holyfield in their rematch?

 

The truth has obviously hurt your feelings and i am sorry it's upset you but you will get over it.. i am pleased you watched that SKY Sports interview so i wont have to elaberate on Lewis claiming he ducked Moorer because you will know exactly as i do what he claimed... your 100% correct in that Lewis recieved $9 million for fighting Tony Tucker which is 3 times more than he would have recieved from the HBO offer of £3 million to fight Riddick Bowe the undisputed champion in 1993 it also shows who-ducked-who..Tyson fought Seldon when Lewis turned down his offer of $13.5 million Holyfield came later... you claim Lewis owed Vitali nothing yet Lewis owed the boxing world everything after he promised to face Vitali in a rematch then baulked.

Here is the Lewis offer :

The result brings a scathing attack from Jay Larkin, senior vice-president of Showtime TV sport. He alleges Lennox has no genuine intention of facing Tyson.

"It's totally untrue to suggest Tyson is afraid of Lewis," stresses Larkin, whose company has exclusive rights to Mike.

"Lewis is welcome in a ring with Tyson on July 13 and we will pay him 10 million dollars - the biggest purse of his life.

"Lewis and his people have refused. In their greed they have tied themselves to HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO)
A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber.

"All their talk of shaming Tyson into fighting is bluff. Lewis is simply not available. Unless he gets three of the HBO contracts there is no possibility of him meeting Mike."

Larkin reveals they are courting

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Holyfield

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for July instead. And he insists the legal ban on Tyson

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anybody but Lewis will be overturned.

Says Larkin: "Sadly, Tyson is now trying to abandon the WBC belt to get on with his life.

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Lewis

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can pick it out of a trash can - again."

Eliades confirms: "We have turned down Showtime's offer because we'd prefer to put on the fight ourselves. We can pay Tyson 45 million dollars.

The WBC was informed later that promoter Don King and Lewis representative Panos Eliades had reached an agreement for the Tyson vs Lewis fight. The fight was to be held in March, 1997, and would have paid Lewis $15-18 million (which included the step-aside fee for the Seldon and Holyfield fights). We were also informed that this agreement could not be finalized because the HBO network had an exclusive promotional deal with Lewis, and would not accept the fight unless Lewis was to fight Riddick Bowe first, another fighter promoted exclusively by HBO, and fulfill other commitments.

"Consequently, the Tyson vs Seldon fight was held and the WBC was later informed by Tyson's attorneys that he would relinquish the WBC title, to our extreme disappointment and sadness. The WBC Board of Governors voted, very reluctantly, to vacate the heavyweight title. No one on the Board could accept or understand why Tyson's championship was lost on the desk of a judge rather than in the ring. The WBC will always profoundly suffer due to this decision, which we consider a miscarriage of justice and an insult to the sport of boxing.