Did this happen between Newman and King? Check the interview at 21:00 here: This content is protected This was on 29th, nine days after Tyson officially pulled out against Holyfield. By the time, it seems they´d already found a subsitute in Francesco Damiani, who was later replaced by Cooper. Wasn´t Tyson scheduled to fight Holyfield on January 20th 1992 anymore? I remember an prison interview, Tyson stating that there is/was no option for him to fight his childhood friend Riddick Bowe. Not sure about that one... Here´s some timeline, leaving alot of open questions. http://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-articles/13582-what-if-tyson-fought-holyfield-in-1991-markarian
After Bowe ko´d Seldon in 1 (august of 91), it was pretty clear that Bowe needed "superior competition", as said in the interview. This content is protected Ray Mercer was at stage? Did he hide? The second thing is, Bowe seemed very interested in fighting Lewis, who he mentioned confidently among others after having no trouble with Seldon. Lewis at that time only beat Weaver, who fought his third decade, but was far away from showing ATG potential by destroying Biggs and Ruddock. I´ve seen another interview about 80/90s army boxing talent recruitment, where the fellow of course mentioned Ray Mercer, claiming Mercer kicked butts day in and day out and Riddick Bowe wanting no peace of him....Instead of a Mercer fight (who was going into a victorious war with Morrison in october), finally all lead to the Tillary fiasco. Better competition? Tillery? What was happened? Didn´t they find a live body out there? I could see that too. Tyson winning a decision against Holyfield, but getting into trouble with Bowes power on shorter distance. But Bowe fought sloppy at times, eventually putting him on the canvas. So there were no real negotiations for a Tyson - Bowe fight pre jail?
