The Riddick Bowe who beat Holyfield in their first fight vs Lennox Lewis who beat

Maybe you forgot what happened shortly after Lewis won the title?? He was outboxed for most of the fight against Bruno and then knocked out by Mcall.

 

No there is not a precedent for a new champion to make a mandated defense out of the gate. In fact most make a voluntary defense after winning the title.
The WBC was the only one trying to enfore this whole deal. The WBC has its own history of making corrupt and BS deals, and exceptions anyway. To say you know the terms of this contract or deal or whatever it was, is horse****. It obviously didnt mean much because Holyfield didnt comply either. The WBC was merely trying to flex its muscles as being bigger than the fighters and the other titles, common when the titles were unified.
If it was some enforceable deal, again Lewis would have sued like he did against Tyson to secure his projected purse.
I base my speculation off of what I believe would happen based on the events that unfolded in Lewis' career against lesser opponents. Riddick Bowe just like Lewis later, had improved his game signficantly since the amatuers. If you cant see how Lennox Lewis was not the improved fighter he became in mid 90's and had been exposed by Bruno and Mcall , oh well.

 

Maybe you forgot what happened before Lewis lost, Bowe got outboxed by Holyfield

And how did he get 'outboxed for the majority of the fight against Bruno' when they were pretty much level pegging on the scorecards? Bruno and McCall would be the second and third best fighters Bowe faced

Still irrelevant points that ignores your contradictory logic

 

Yes the WBC are currupt for enforcing a mandatory against the clear no1 in the division

If Lennox was exposed by Bruno and McCall then Bowe was exposed by Tubbs, Golota and Holyfield

Lets look at like opponents:

Holyfield - Lennox 2-0, Bowe - 2-1

Biggs - Lennox KO3, Bowe KO7

Golota - Lennox KO1, Bowe - gets the **** kicked out of him twice and retired from boxing

 

Your points are way off base. Why dont we throw Rahman and Klitschko in the mix?
The only fight that could be reasonably compared is Biggs, and Bowe fought him first, and both scored KO's. You even know that. Bowe also wasnt knocked out in the process by a mid level contender either.

 

Yes there is, I already showed just some of countless examples of title fight winners being mandated to take on a particular challenger next. You just keep making excuses/spins as to why all those fights should be "discounted".

What was being expected of Bowe was absolutely nothing new. Heck, we'd already seen it just a couple years earlier when Douglas got his title shot.

The terms of the deal have never been debated, not even by Bowe's camp. They admitted they had entered into an agreement to defend the title against the winner of Lewis-Ruddock if they won, but right after Lennox won they said they were having "second thoughts" about following through on that agreement, even before they'd won the title.

Using that logic, Lewis should've lost to Ruddock as well. Lewis had occasional trouble with "lesser opponents" at all stages of his career - as did Bowe. Why single out two of Lennox's fights and make them the be all and end all in this matter? Why not point to Bowe's fights with Tubbs, Biggs, or Golota and say, "See how his limitations were exposed there? Imagine what Lennox would've done to him..."

 

No there isnt a precedent for mandatory defenses. There is clear rules by the sanctioning bodies. The most common is not making a mandatory defense. The rule is most commonly that a fighter has to make a mandated defense within one year of winning the titles. Not to mention the countless exceptions they allow. Argueing that the WBC is the poster boy for fairness is laughable.
As far as my predictions, seems like common sense to me. Who did Lewis have his occassional troubles with? Big tall strong men with good jabs and offensive games. That would be more like Bowes style wouldnt it? Are you saying that Bowe didnt have the physical tools of Oliver Mcall or Frank Bruno or Ray Mercer? Certainly you can give him some credit and say he was on another level than those guys?
Who did Bowe historically have trouble with? Speedy fighters with good mobile boxing skills and slick styles. Holyfield, Tubbs, not Lewis. You want to use Golota as an example, I wouldnt, were talking about the timing in which this fight would have happened and each fighters respective skills at that point in time.
At this point I could say the girl in your avatar is hot, and you still wouldnt agree with me.

 

WBC rule 1.21, b) '�.All WBC recognized champions are obligated to make at least one yearly mandatory defense against the designated official challenger.'

 

Because Rahman and Klit never faced Bowe, and if they faced a 30+ Bowe we'd be pretty sure both KO him and he doesnt win a rematch

Because Bowe was younger than Lewis when both fought Golota, obviously Bowe wasnt in his prime shape but I dont see exactly why he was shot, can you answer that? Maybe Golota does the same to a prime Bowe. Lewis wasnt fighting his best fight against McCall, which is a fluke loss with a Lewis underestimating his opponent going for an early KO. Lewis was 35 against Rahman, fighting at altitude when he didnt have time to aclimatise (unlike Rahman), and underestimating his opponent.

 

Umm who did Bowe have problems with most? Well we don't know because he ducked all the punchers, all the SHWs, all the prime contenders....so the question is pretty much unknown. We know Golota beat him senseless, and the past prime excuse is well an excuse, Lewis was past prime physically from 95 onwards, visably slower and less athletic.

 

You can ramble on about motivations, intent all you want, but you being an accountant, as am I, know that once contracts are signed, they should be honored. There was a signed agreement that the winner of the Bowe-Holyfield fight would fight the winner of the Lewis - Ruddock fight, and rather than honor this agreement, Bowe chose to give up his belt. There is no speculation in these comments whatsoever, this is what happened. And yes, Bowe did have to come to Lewis for something, which was to honor his legal obligations.

 

And the ramification? Really? There was no recourse related to this contract that could or did accomplishment anything beyond giving up the belt. It appears giving up a belt is a rather common practice. No? Losing the WBC didn't affect his ability to pursue his livelihood did it? Was their any sanctioning available and applied by any regulatory body overseeing the sport (the IBHOF)?

Unless you can provide the agreement for review it is impossible for anyone HERE to make ANY especially definitive statements regarding it. PERIOD.

These alphabet orgs are hardly the kind of institutions in which their own best practices are going to be considered all that reliable or discernible. [Especially as they have a history noted for corruption, bribes, and rather inexplicable rating decisions.]

You may desire to import your own view of proper or improper but I sense it is a bit self-absorbed to assume so much from the outside. We constantly see fighters decide to give up belts to avoid the related sanctioning fees assessed by these orgs. The loss of the WBC belt and rating/ranking doesn't affect anything I said in my post.

Apparently, Bowe and his advisers made a business decision related to the WBC that they felt was appropriate. Unless you can provide evidence/support for why they made their decision then you are merely speculating and that isn't good enough.

Three months later, Riddick Bowe defended the WBA and IBF heavyweight title in Madison Square Garden. Three months later, he again defended in RFK Stadium, Washington, District of Columbia, United States. Six months later, he was Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, losing to Evander Holyfield.

It is an improbable leap to believe Riddick Bowe was afraid of Lennox Lewis and that was the impetus for giving up the WBC. You want to say that YOU wouldn't have the balls to enter the ring to fight a prime Mike Tyson in a winner take all $100,000 fight - and I'll believe you. But you would have to come up with something far more relevant than you have to convince me that a talented 6'5" boxer was afraid of another talented 6'5" boxer.

As the decision didn't apparently affect his earning ability or livelihood then it seems more logical that he made a business decision. Whether you agree or not is irrelevant. Whether it was the optimal decision or not is indeterminate.

 

Why should people respect a lazy bum who sqaundered his talent ?.

 

See post above yours. That basically sums up why I, and some other people, defend Bowe on this matter. The assumption that Bowe was flat out afraid of Lennox Lewis and thats why he dumped the WBC belt is ridiculous considering the circumstances and progress of each fighter.

 

he dumped his belt in a thrashcan rather then facing the guy who beat him in the olympics.

Enough of your spin and excuses.

Bowe the undisputed World champion vs his amatuer conqueror Lennox Lewis the olympic champion would have made alot of money .

Instead he dropped his belt in a thrashcan any spin that Bowe was not afraid of Lewis will forever be negated by the fact that when he had the chance to settle things with Lewis he opted to throw away one of his belts instead.