Where does Lennox Lewis rank among the best heavyweights of all time

This is Wikipedia comments on the fight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rid****_Bowe

Only a couple of weeks earlier in London, Bowe's old Olympic rival Lennox Lewis knocked out Canadian Donovan "Razor" Ruddock in 2 rounds, establishing himself as the WBC's #1 contender. The Bowe/Holyfield and Lewis/Ruddock fights were part of a mini-tournament where all four fighters agreed that the two winners would meet each other for the championship. Bowe's manager Rock Newman made a proposal that the $32 million purse HBO were offering be split 90-10 in Bowe's favor, an "absurd" offer which Lewis rejected.[8] Lewis's manager Frank Maloney rejected another offer of $2 million for Lewis to fight on a Bowe undercard, citing his distrust of the Bowe camp after the aforementioned negotiations. So in a move that would hurt Bowe's image he held a press conference in which he dumped the WBC belt in a trash can rather than fight Lewis

 

And rather than the 10`s of millions he could have received for fighting Lewis, this is what ended up happening.

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Although Washington had not hosted a heavyweight title bout since Joe Louis beat Buddy Baer in 1941, the fans were wise enough to stay away from the execution of Jesse Ferguson. Fewer than 9,000 people turned out in the 55,000-seat stadium, and 3,500 of them got comps from Rock Newman, Bowe's manager, who bought $300,000 worth of tickets. Still, the crowd was too large for Ferguson, who is more comfortable sparring in front of a few hundred folks in a gym. "I froze," said the guy whose wife suggested he find another line of work after he lost to Dokes last year.

 

I am perplexed by your response. Are you denying that Lewis turned down that offer?? Lewis was given an offer he couldn't refuse and he turned it down. He ducked. End of story

Bowe was still the undefeated undisputed HW champ of the word, he deserved a lion share of the profits and he was being generous to give Lewis a potential 50/50 split that he didn't deserve.


Just tuck you tail between your legs and concede defeat here.

 

So, Bowe has wins over prime Holyfield and Lewis has wins over prime????

BTW, LA Times trumps wikipedia as a source.

 

While it's true that Lewis turned down the fight at that point it has to be taken into context of what was happening at the time.

Lewis had just made $9.2 million defending against Tucker while Bowe had just made $7 million against Dokes. So another $1.8 million for a unification fight seemed insignificant when he was already earning good money, in fact the $9.2 million Lewis had just made was more than Bowe had ever earned in a single fight at that point.

Also with Bowe and Holyfield earning a combined purse of $20 million in their rematch the chances of Bowe/Lewis making more than $32 million were very small so it's unlikely Lewis would have gotten the higher split.

Fact is they low balled Lewis. Initially Lewis declined but then changed his mind and accepted $3 million believing he would definitely beat Bowe and Bowe then withdrew his offer and fought Ferguson for $6 million and Dokes for $7 million. When it was clear he wasn't going to make as much fighting against weak opposition he tried to negotiate a fight with Lewis but only offered him a little more than he was already making while Bowe himself was going to triple his highest purse to date.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-02-05/sports/1993036146_1_dokes-bowe-duva

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-06/sports/sp-989_1_heavyweight-title-fight

 

I'm certainly saying there's conflicting reports, that should be obvious.

 

Lewis had made $9.2 million in the Tucker 2 months prior to the article you posted where Lewis was offered $11 million. The fight was unlikely to make over $32 million when the first two Holyfield/Bowe fights saw a combined purse for both at $23.5 million and $20 million so in reality the 50/50 offer was a bull**** offer that was really never going to pay out.

So while $11 million may have looked good on paper in reality it was not a great based upon what both fighters were earning at the time.

 

Bowe was still the undefeated, undisputed champ as he had won that title in the ring and never had lost it in the ring. Because of this he was still the man in the division and accordingly deserved to make more than Lewis. Yes Lewis was going to make less than Bowe but that is just the cost of doing business. He was still slated to make(depending on how well the fight sold) at the least more than he had ever made for a bout before. If Lennox was so confident in a win, he should have taken what was a good offer + opportunity to unify an become undisputed. If he were to beat Bowe and be undisputed , he would be making the lionshare in future fights. Win-Win for him but he didn't want the fight.

 

I don't disagree with Bowe earning less than Lewis, nobody is disputing that, despite the fact even though Lewis was earning more than Bowe at the time.

But did he deserve to earn almost twice as much as Lewis? Bowe and his team were in reality offering Lewis a 66/34 split yet when they fought Holyfield instead, Bowe made $11 million and Holyfield $9 million which is a 55/45 split, for a far smaller combined purse when Holyfield didn't even have a title like Lewis did and when Bowe had already beaten him quite convincingly.

Why the difference? Why only offer Lewis, with a title 34% of $32 million but then offer a more generous 45% to Holyfield of a smaller $20 million? The answer is they saw Lewis as a much bigger threat, they either wanted a far larger payday knowing they could very well lose the title or they simply didn't want to offer Lewis a purse they knew he would take.

Lewis himself went on to fight Bruno for a tidy $8 million so lets not make out the offer from Bowe's team was an amazing offer as it was really only $2-3 million more than he was already earning.

 

Sorry man I just don't buy how anyone can feasibly turn down that offer and save face by saying the other guy was ducking him. If Lennox was truly confident that he would beat Bowe then he would have had every incentive to accept that deal. Besides making more than he ever made before, it was an opportunity to unify all the titles and become the king of the division something that Lewis had stated time and time again was his biggest goal. It isn't just about what he was making at the time it's also what he can make in the future. Defend you paper title for a lesser amount or fight for all the marbles and start making huge money and be the boss in negotiations.

The guy with the confidence and actually wants the fight will choose the later.

Newman tried even to sweeten the pot by making it a no-risk fight for Lennox by only having Bowe's IBF and WBA titles at stake.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-05-14/sports/1993134195_1_lewis-newman-dan-duva

If Lennox was really confident that he'd beat Bowe he should have taken any of these offers in a new york minute. Instead he turned it down and was ok with continuing to defend his paper title.

 

Could you not say the same thing for Bowe? If he was confident he would have offered Lewis a higher % than he did, wouldn't have binned the belts etc?

 

Damn! Federer is laying down some harsh supporting evidence that Lennox is the one who actually did the ducking against Bowe.

So, after stinking up the joint in his bout against Tucker, Lewis went on to fight Bruno for 8 mil when he could have earned an extra 40% or more against Bowe? Plus, Lewis would have been able to keep his WBC even if he lost?

This is contrary to what I had believed for years. I'm glad I started reading this thread because I guess IDKSA the history of Bowe/Lewis.

 

you dksa boxing full stop. you dosser.

 

I do know that Lewis ducked Bowe, though. I just learned it, but you still should give me credit for it.:hey

 

Some fighters fight for only money, others fight for greatness and money as well. Lewis fought safety first and was all about the $$$. So many great fights did not happen, his fans can ,make excuse after excuse. Bottom line is Lewis had the chance to be rated top 1 or 2, he went the easy route and rating him higher than 8 or so is impossible.