The Olympic result was not bogus...legit stoppage...Bowe turned away...his bottle went. So what if Gonzalez was happy to fight Bowe for 300 large? He was more desperate financially probably - but anyway this is irrelevent to Lewis v Bowe. Nothing Bowe could do? There was something Bowe could have done - he could have held onto the belt and made Lewis come to him - he had the belt - Lewis wanted the shot - Bowe held the cards. If Lewis felt he could have won? Same logic applies to Bowe - see my paragraph above. Lewis rejected $ 3m? If that was the famous 90/10% split, I don't blame him. Bowe agreed that the winner of him & Holy would fight the Lewis-Ruddock winner and reneged afterward. You refer to Lewis fighting Tucker instead, yet Bowe fought Dokes & Ferguson instead...Bowe was hardly taking the moral high ground in terms of quality of opposition, was he? Bowe feared no man? B*ll*cks imo. I think Bowe fancied the Holy fight because of the size discrepancy & the fact that Holy had not looked great in fights against Holmes & Foreman; Holy's stock as world heavyweight champion was not as high as history now shows. He got the shock of his life when Lewis thrashed Ruddock so unexpectedly and just didn't fancy the fight. I don't expect you to agree with any of this though...
Lewis did the same thing with Chris Byrd. He gave up his belt but somehow it's ok because he was going to fight Kirk johnson who couldn't even beat john Ruiz and then it turned into vitali. both Lewis and Emanuel steward knew Byrds style was all wrong for Lewis. They needed a guy who would stand in front of Lewis and allow him to hold and hit him. It's all politics anyway. At that time Lewis didn't want to do business with King. Guys want to win titles but at that level they are risking a lifetime of work for it so they need to ensure they are getting paid. Lewis was in a strong position with Bowe because he was the mandatory but Bowe had better financial options and signed a long term deal with HBO and that's the bottom line. Neither guy was scared of the other.
Either way, it was Bowe who declined to fight Lewis for whatever reason, and now it's Bowe who has a 1/2 assed legacy and it's Bowe whose essentially flat broke. Lewis did fine. Not fighting Bowe hurt him marginally in terms of ATG status, but Bowe's whole legacy went up in smoke when he declined to fight Lewis.
Why do you lie? Everybody knows that stoppage was bogus. Lewis even lost the first round. To a young in-experienced Bowe no less. He got waved off bouncing on his feet. He did not turn awayatsch. Even the commentators were shocked it was stopped..This was the same Olympics where the Korean 'beat' Roy Jones Its not irrelevent. You brought it up trying to claim Bowe only fought Gonzalez cos he beat him in the ams, so know you realize how utterly reta.rded that post was. Are you stupid or something? Since when does the Champion to go the challenger. You do everything the Champ asks of you to get the shot. Thats how it works. Lewis felt he was too good for all of that. Thats an old fable and your a sucker to believe it. If Lewis was getting 3m for 10% , then the fight would have been worth over 30million. Holyfield Vs Bowe wasn't worth that. Lewis was a nobody at that time. Bottom line is Lewis was mandatory. The sanctioning bodies ruled what the spilt is as per their own rules - Not Newman. He was guaranteed his 3m - the exact amount Bowe reviewed when he challenged Holyfield. Instead of taking the opportunity he made crazy claims that Bowe was getting 30million to get out of it. Lewis reneged. He didn't need a silly verbal agreement. HE HAD mandatory clause. Bowe was mandated to fight Ferguson after he beat Mercer. Why would Bowe fight the loser? He fought the winner and annihilated him. They tried to get Morrison but were ducked. Newman filed a law suit against Dan Duva for keeping top fighhters away from Bowe. Lewis was also promoted by Dan Duva. Common sense would argue Lewis got the shock of his life when he saw undefeated Holyfield get trashed by Bowe. Rather then the other way around. Bowe was always open to a Tyson fight . Ruddock had already been battered to pieces by Tyson before Lewis got to him.
Everyone DOES NOT know the Lewis-Bowe stoppage was bogus. I don't give a damn if the commentators were shocked. Bowe was asked after the fight if he was hurt...he replied "he shook me up pretty good". Young & inexperienced? He was mature and experienced to get to an Olympic final...and you have claimed in previous threads that he was 17. Thing is Dino, you are not an unbiased poster - you've proved that in Wlad threads - your agendas are barely hidden imo. I bought Gonzalez up in response to another poster. "Retar.ded post" "your (sic) a sucker" "are you stupid or something?" - - - Dino - why do have to resort to personal insults? Can you not debate without doing so? Lewis was a nobody? Utterly wrong imo...he was an Olympic Gold medal winner who had just annihilated Ruddock, widely regarded as a real dangerman who had given Tyson 2 hard fights...hardly a nobody. Dino - we have debated this before (either earlier in this thread or another) and we are never going to agree...I'm gonna leave it here on this one...
Lewis was a side liner in the early nineties.....he could not draw flies, hell, Grandpa Foreman had more clout than Lewis. However he did re build himself nicely after the McCall fiasco and with heavy HBO marketing he was eventually the last man standing because most of his contemporary foes destructed/imploded ( Bowe/Tyson/, got old (Holyfield) or were never were's ( Grant, Golata) BTW, Bowe's close family member (sister) was murdered at home during his Olympic participating, needless to say he was not mentally in the best shape to cope with it at that age.
Whether or not he was a nobody, an agreement was signed that the winner of the Bowe - Holyfield fight would fight the winner of the Ruddock - Lewis fight, and Bowe agreed to that. He then reneged. That's the bottom line. So quite making excuses on his behalf, and downplaying Lewis' accomplishments, he had just beat the **** out of what most thought at the time to be an extremely good fighter. And if he was so ****ty then it should have made for an easy payday, no?
Side liner? He was clearly the top contender for Bowe's titles. After Lewis demolished Ruddock he was paid $9.1 million to face Tucker, then $8 million against Bruno in 93, while that same year Bowe made $7 million against Dokes and Ferguson, so how can a side liner make more money than the champion? It's true after he was KO'ed by McCall he was a side liner as King tried to freeze him out but prior to that Bowe/Lewis was the fight everyone wanted at heavyweight.
I think the only one lying is you. It's a simple choice really. People can either read your anti Lewis spew, and fall for it, or they can read the far more sensible following article.
Byrd was a bum, but ofcourse the Bowe Butt Licker has to compare a cum like Byrd to the threat Lewis posed to fatboy
No too much risk for little reward. Lewis wasnt scared of Byrds punching power but he didn't want to get clowned. Lewis threw his belt in the trash to fight a guy nicknamed bubba.
