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

Well it's safe to say King may have been good for boxing at one time, (ie he promoted the Foreman - Ali fight) that certainly hasn't been the case for decades.

 

Or it showed that Newman not wanting to deal with the WBC's corrupt BS went to HBO and scored a fight for the #1 contender spot of the WBA, keeping things on his terms and not Don Kings.

 

There seems to be no agreement that Bowe was to fight Lewis other than in the context of a defence of the WBC title.
And Bowe dumped the WBC title.

As far as I can make out, Holyfield's people always prefered Bowe as the challenger over Lewis or Ruddock, so was there really any dirty dealings going on from the Bowe camp ?

Lewis was the best challenger out there, by far, and Bowe ducked him. But this stuff about them "reneging on an agreement" amounts to what ? It's just another case of a fighter giving up an alphabet title.

Of Lewis, Bowe and Holyfield it is only Holyfield who has consistently pleased the alphabet organizations in honoring these "agreements" to fight who they say when they say - and we all know they bend and break and change their own rules as they like. In other words, he's always avoided being stripped and never dumped a belt. Holyfield criticized Lewis for dumping the belt rather than fight Ruiz, on the grounds that (paraphrasing) "we all know the rules when we agree to fight for these titles, we all sign up with our eyes open", and other than the fact that Lewis really was the most worthy challenger, and was therefore "ducked", I dont see where Bowe and Newman backed out of any agreement other than what the WBC routinely dictate. And he gave up the title, so all's fair.

People are talking like Bowe and Newman had an agreement that went beyond what the WBC were dictating. If that were the case they would have been sued by Lewis. So, were they ?

 

It was an agreement only by the WBC, and with all the politics involved in these sanctioning bodies its no big suprise that the titles were separated. Theres a reason why we havent seen to many undisputed champions, and why when they do unify they dont hold onto the titles for long.
The main reason Holyfield chose Bowe, was because Bowe was often brought in to spar with Holyfield, when he was coming up, and Holyfield always handled him and felt Bowe could never hang in with him for 12 tough rounds.

 

Because, as I said :

Maybe he could have done more, but he achieved a hell of a lot with his talent. He worked hard for what he got. What the **** have most people done in their lives to make Bowe so unworthy of a little respect ? Who the **** are you to deem him such a waste to be unworthy of the respect of boxing fans ?

 

No they don't. They talk about the fact that Bowe had a signed agreement to fight Lewis and reneged on that agreement and yes he gave up the title.

As to whether or not "all's fair" depends on your perspective.

From a fan's perspective I was completely pissed off because I wanted to see that fight. Beyond that, many fans take the view that Bowe ducked Lewis and it's haunted him throughout his career.

So is that fair? Sure in some ways it's very fair. Bowe's has a legacy of perhaps having ducked Lewis and from my perspective he's justly punished for forgetting it's fans that make this sport a business. And it was the fans, who wanted the fight.

I have zero sympathy regarding the perception that Bowe ducked Lewis, because I think all boxers do a disservice to the sport when they put their own interests, whatever they may be, above the fans interests. Many who know follow the UFC cite that one of the reasons why, is because boxing and boxers don't care enough about the fans to put the best fights forward. In this particular case we were robbed of one of the most significant fights in a generation.

 

I agree. The fight should have happened. Bowe ducked Lewis.

I still haven't been shown where he had a signed agreement to fight Lewis though.

 

Those are valid points, but look at who is guiding these fighters. There is more info on Newman and how he took on Bowe, paid for all his purses, his opponents purses, cooked for them, put them up in hotels and at his house. A boxing manager has to make a signficant investment in a fighter, even one who won a silver medal in the olympics. Its not just about making fights for the fans, because ultimately its a business, so the fans can SEE the fights.
Unlike the fighters, noone is in the business of boxing for the sport of it, its all about money, and after making that investment it was time for Bowe's team to reap the reward. Anyone in their right mind would want to maximize it, and taking a couple easy fights while still maintaining control of two titles, thus keeping open a fight with Lewis down the line for a far larger purse, seems like smart business to me and most likely what 99.9% of managers would want to do for their fighter.

 

Short story, I sponsered a Puerto Rican kid who was a promising amatuer. I paid for all his expenses, training gear, traveling, food, everything. He won the state Golden Gloves tournament, the Regionals against Evander Holyfields team, and made it all the way to the Nationals in Colorado (tournament to make the olympic trials). My plan was for him to make the olympic team and then hopefully get him signed to a major promoter. I was young at the time, but I still made a significant investment in this kid and had high hopes. The kid lost in the first round of the Nationals and never boxed again. So everything was a complete waste of time and money.
Times that story by 1000 and thats what many boxing managers and promoters go through on a yearly basis before they get that one fighter who hits them pay dirt. Theres a significant amount of money needed to develop fighters, and it doesnt just appear out of nowhere. Rock Newman made a career out of one fighter basically. He was taught the business by Butch Lewis, but he took advantage of his chance quite well, he just got too caught up in the limelight, and less on maintaining Bowe's physical status of being heavyweight champion.

 

Well post #183 is a close as I can get to confirming that he did in fact sign such an agreement, because the WBC claims he did, and in fact he gave up his title rather than being stripped of it, also supports this claim. Just to make things easy for you I've copied some of post.

These comments came from the WBC.

While he was incarcerated, the WBC ordered a title eliminator between No. 1 ranked Razor Ruddock and No. 2 ranked Riddick Bowe, which was accepted by both in writing. After making such commitment, Bowe decided to pull out of the agreement and instead fight Pierre Coetzer of South Africa. The WBC then ordered the eliminator to be between Ruddock and No. 3 ranked Lennox Lewis, with the winner to be the official challenger for the world championship; Lewis won the fight. Main Events, who had the promotional rights to Holyfield, informed the WBC that Holyfield would not fight Lewis because he did not have a marketable name, but would fight Bowe instead. The Holyfield vs Bowe fight was authorized by the WBC with the condition that the winner fight Lewis. Bowe won the title, but instead of honoring his written agreement to fight Lewis, he refused to pay the WBC sanctioning fee and threw the championship belt into a London waste basket

 

I disagree.

There's no way you can tell me he made more money off fighting Dokes & Ferguson then he would have made off of Lewis. And beating Lewis would only have enhanced his marketability, so what you're saying simply doesn't make sense.

He also refused to fight Ruddock, as well, so unfortunately the more I look into it the more I see a pattern, of agreeing to fight a tough opponent, then reneging on this agreement at a later date, cause at the time he refused to fight Ruddock and instead fought Coetzer, there was no indication at that time, that he'd be in line for a Holyfield fight.

 

Seriously you dont see it?? Bowe was signed to a five fight deal after beating Evander Holyfield. You mean to tell me he would have made more fighting Lennox Lewis (who couldnt fill out a ballroom in the UK at the time), than a five fight deal with HBO?
You dont think for instance if Lewis won the title against Tucker and then maybe defended against Bruno or Morrison, that the fight would have paid Bowe more than it would have had they fought right after Bowe Holy 1? Cmon man, its simple math. Bowe as it turns out made way more money, fighting Dokes Ferguson, and then a return match with Holyfield, and two fights after against Mathis and Donald.
Had he fought Lewis, lost, and not signed that HBO deal, wouldnt that be a mistake?

 

BTW he fought Coetzer for the #1 spot against the WBA. The three titles were held by Evander Holyfield. Holyfield called the shots. The WBC could have stripped Holyfield for not defending against Ruddock, but they would not have wanted to miss the sanctioning fee of a Holyfield fight as compared to Lewis vs Ruddock.

 

Sorry it was a six fight deal..
NEW YORK -- Home Box Office Sports and TVKO have signed heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe to a six-fight contract that they termed the most lucrative television boxing deal ever.
The multifight agreement, which begins with a Bowe fight on HBO in February, could generate as many as three pay-per-view fights in 1993, said Mark Taffet, senior vice president of TVKO.
The exclusive deal could be worth as much as $100 million to Bowe and his manager Rock Newman, said Seth Abraham, president of Time Warner Sports. He added that the deal could be much more lucrative than HBO's six-fight, $26 million deal with Mike Tyson because of the potential revenue generated from ...

 

A strange timeline. And a bit thin on details.
This bit :
"Lewis won the fight. Main Events, who had the promotional rights to Holyfield, informed the WBC that Holyfield would not fight Lewis because he did not have a marketable name, but would fight Bowe instead. "

.......... it's written as if Main Events decided Bowe as a challenger to Holyfield after Lewis beat Ruddock, which is clearly not true.
Anyway ....

.... it says Bowe pulled out of an "agreed" WBC eliminator with Ruddock, and he fought Pierre Coetzer in a WBA eliminator. Okay.

And the WBC only authorised Bowe-Holyfield on the condition that the winner fights Lewis. But Holyfield wanted to fight Bowe, who was number 1 contender with the WBA before Lewis was number 1 with the WBC, and let's assume Holyfield would have fought Lewis had he beat Bowe.
I still dont see where Bowe agreed to fight Lewis other than agreeing to fight Holyfield and being dictated to by the WBC.

Why would he have pretended to be ready to fight Lewis if really he wasn't interested in the WBC title ? Because Holyfield was being pressured by the WBC not to fight Bowe ! Because Sulaiman and WBC had been threatening to strip Holyfield of the title for almost 2 years, and Don King was largely behind it. They didn't want to sanction the fight. They would have sanctioned Holyfield-Ruddock in a heartbeat, without any fuss or conditions, I bet.
But prior to Ruddock-Lewis, Bowe was not less worthy to challenge Holyfield than the other two, and in fact the fight was only two weeks away when Lewis beat Ruddock. Besides, WBC was just one of three world title sanctioning bodies involved in the fight, and the IBF and WBA had no problem with Holyfield and Bowe.

I dont have much time for, or confidence in, the WBC comment on the situation. The WBC are just crooks, in fact it is one man, Jose Sulaiman, good friend of Don King.

Bowe's reign is tainted by him not fighting Lewis. But agreements on the WBC's terms aren't some sort of moral authority to be judge by. The WBC almost stripped Douglas of the championship because "Tyson had knocked him out" before the sweat had even dried. Then threatened to strip Holyfield of the title (for various reasons, all stemming from the fact that Don King wasn't Holy's promoter) for the best part of 2 years, and it was probably only the popularity and box-office promise of Evander - as well as influential powerful promotion company behind him - that saved him every time. Obviously they care about big-money fights and fighters because they want huge sanctioning fees. Bowe and Newman were a god-send to the WBC because they gave them excuse to put the title in the hands of a Don King fighter, or someone like Lewis, who they would then force to fight a series of Don King promoted fighters until he lost to one.
So, really, the WBC's statements, as well as being thin on details and misleading in the timeline, aren't coming from a moral authority or reliable source at all.