Tyson vs Lewis: why it didn't happen(1996)

[sonnyboyx2]

I don't care to watch a video from a biased party 15 years after the fact. Do you have sources for these numbers besides the video? And even if the numbers are correct how can you excuse Bowe Low balling Lewis with a 10% offer when the fight would have been at its apex?

JAB you have a very strange opinion of Rid**** Bowe and to refuse to watch the video is also strange... what evidence do you have that the former undisputed champion is "biased" why do you label him as biased and not Lennox Lewis?

i am sure that when boxing managers come together to try to make a boxing match that negotiations take place over several weeks while they `iron-out` a deal. The Bowe camp offered Lewis 10% at first, HBO offered Lewis 20% then Bowe's camp offered 25% which is exactly the same as Bowe accepted when he challenged Holyfield for the title.. If Lewis was confident he could beat Bowe and become the undisputed champion of the world then he would have accepted the best offer which was 25% and fought Bowe and got the titles.. common sense says that Bowe was not going to pay him more than what he accepted himself to get the titles from Holyfield... Lewis himself only paid challenger Tony Tucker 20% when defending his WBC title..

Here is an article from the New York Times which shows Bowe accepted 25% from Holyfield yet Lewis camp would only accept 25% if the gross fight generated over $25.5 million.. yet HBO offered only $18 million for the fight which is way short of the amount of $25.5 million so in other words Lewis camp was "Pricing themselves out" just like Rid**** Bowe claimed, yet you claim he is biased.



Lewis was also making plans to defend the WBC title he got from out of the garbage can by dragging his feet so as to get Bowe stripped..

It looks like Rid**** Bowe was not biased but he was telling the truth.

[sonnyboyx2]

JAB.. a purse split of 75/25 is traditional yet Lewis turned it down





i think you are vastly over estimating Lennox Lewis drawing power back in 1993 because as the newspaper article above shows that a Bowe v Lewis fight was not worth half of what a Tyson vs Holyfield fight in 1991 was worth

[JAB5239]

JAB.. a purse split of 75/25 is traditional yet Lewis turned it down





i think you are vastly over estimating Lennox Lewis drawing power back in 1993 because as the newspaper article above shows that a Bowe v Lewis fight was not worth half of what a Tyson vs Holyfield fight in 1991 was worth

I could have sworn 66/33 was traditional but may be wrong. Either way the Bowe camp low balled him with a 10% offer to start and than trashed the belt. As far as any other offer described by the Bowe camp, it should simply be taken with a grain of salt.

I wouldn't expect Bowe-Lewis to be as big as Holy-Tyson, but it was a huge fight just the same of the top two heavyweights who both happened to be undefeated and Olympic rivals.

[JAB5239]

JAB you have a very strange opinion of Rid**** Bowe and to refuse to watch the video is also strange... what evidence do you have that the former undisputed champion is "biased" why do you label him as biased and not Lennox Lewis?

i am sure that when boxing managers come together to try to make a boxing match that negotiations take place over several weeks while they `iron-out` a deal. The Bowe camp offered Lewis 10% at first, HBO offered Lewis 20% then Bowe's camp offered 25% which is exactly the same as Bowe accepted when he challenged Holyfield for the title.. If Lewis was confident he could beat Bowe and become the undisputed champion of the world then he would have accepted the best offer which was 25% and fought Bowe and got the titles.. common sense says that Bowe was not going to pay him more than what he accepted himself to get the titles from Holyfield... Lewis himself only paid challenger Tony Tucker 20% when defending his WBC title..

Here is an article from the New York Times which shows Bowe accepted 25% from Holyfield yet Lewis camp would only accept 25% if the gross fight generated over $25.5 million.. yet HBO offered only $18 million for the fight which is way short of the amount of $25.5 million so in other words Lewis camp was "Pricing themselves out" just like Rid**** Bowe claimed, yet you claim he is biased.



Lewis was also making plans to defend the WBC title he got from out of the garbage can by dragging his feet so as to get Bowe stripped..

It looks like Rid**** Bowe was not biased but he was telling the truth.

Both Bowe and Newman have been known to exaggerate and stretch the truth. I won't call either a liar, but the fact is that both have called each other liars so I think its fair to assume the possibility that both would say things biased or untrue to further their own agenda.

[MrRolltide91]

interesting

[billeau2]

This is the thing Lewis detractors fail to consider in every argument....business decisions. Lewis declined Bowes offer of 10% equals a smart business decision. Accepting 3 mil to step aside and possibly make much more money down the road equals a good business decision.

Bowe Low balled and dumped the belt when a fight with Lewis would have been lucrative for both with a fair split.

Tysons camp offered step aside money in order to take a much more lucrative fight with Holy rather than chance his monster payday against a dangerous fighter who would bring in the same cash.

All this isn't very hard to understand if you don't have an agenda.

Very well said and absolutely correct

[billeau2]

JAB.. a purse split of 75/25 is traditional yet Lewis turned it down





i think you are vastly over estimating Lennox Lewis drawing power back in 1993 because as the newspaper article above shows that a Bowe v Lewis fight was not worth half of what a Tyson vs Holyfield fight in 1991 was worth

You really need a reading comprehension review....read things more carefully and with a view to the different facts and possible motives of all involved.

Lewis was not a known ducker. If you read back then most people thought he was an easy mark. Bowe wwas aslo beat by Lewis earlier hence, there was a motive for Bowe to duck....keep that in mind.

Tyson's other problems were huge. Its conceviable that these problems created the lac of a fight, also as bleeder and jab said, Lewis was considered at that time a more dangerous route than Holyfield. Most people felt like Tyson would hurt Holly.

Ever hear the expression "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof?" Well you presented a bunch of opinions of people who were by and large, a group of swindlers with massive self interest. THE LEAST you could do before making a hater thread is to consider the self motivations of these crooks.

[Weltschmerz]

Wasn't it Tyson who avoided Lewis in 1996? He dropped his WBC belt and fought Holyfield instead as far as I remember.

[LacedUp]

I haven't read through the whole thing, but no one was ducking anyone. It was a network problem. Don king gave Lewis an offer of 10 million I believe which was rejected. HBO said they'd offer Tyson 40 plus million to fight on their network, which was rejected. Then Tyson was stripped off his WBC belt and fought Seldon for the WBA belt and fought a much richer fight against Holyfield who was able to fight on Showtime. Simple.

[billeau2]

Wasn't it Tyson who avoided Lewis in 1996? He dropped his WBC belt and fought Holyfield instead as far as I remember.

My own opinion is that regardless of "who" it was, you had this schism between the boxing punditry and the boxing public. The Pundits knew (or thought they knew!) that Holyfield was a mark regarding Tyson. Tyson could then conceivably fight Lewis later, or not. The public actually believed that Hollyfield was stronger than Lewis...at least thats how my old brain remembers it, and irony of irony...the public was not wrong! I mean Lewis might have beat Tyson at the time, or might not have, but we know for sure the number Holyfield did on Tyson.

My point is that any knowledgable boxing insider would probably have avoided Lewis in favor of Hollyfield.

Now it is worth mentioning as Ray has that there was history with Tyson and Lewis. But its also worth mentioning that a lot of guys....guys like Tyrell Briggs for example, were able to handle a young upcoming Tyson, but not a Tyson that hit his stride. It seems to me that under these conditions Tyson would not have any great fear of Lewis...But again...Tyson did occasionally have problems with big guys. Bonecrusher, Donovan to name a few. Yet if I am Mike Tyson I probably see these two guys above as lumoxes who have a great punch resistance where as I see Lewis as a different kind of challenge. Lewis was thought by many, and perhaps by Tyson? to be susceptable to power punching and aggression in a way that a guy like Donovan was not.

And finally if I am Tyson, considering the time I probably want to stear clear of Rid**** Bowe because Bowe was thought (at the time) despite his refusal to fight Lewis, to be more dangerous.