REMEMBER WHEN RIDDICK BOWE SIGNED TO FIGHT LENNOX LEWIS?

[Tuan_Jim]

A narrative has been allowed to develop on the internet that says Riddick Bowe never wanted a part of his hated enemy, Lennox Lewis. This myth is generally promulgated by patriotic Lewis obsessives, Bowe hating cranks and fans with either short term or selective memories. Mostly it is heard and parroted by boxing fans who were too young to follow boxing at the time and have had their natural human curiosity retarded by growing up mentally dependent on Google, a tool very much in its most primitive and unreliable phase.

Being one of those despised bringers of facts and information, I thought I might share some of that pesky contemporaneous 'print' media that refutes the popular narrative and details just one of Bowe's attempts to fight Lennox Lewis [Not the first, not the last - more on that to come] and how Lewis managed to mess it up [Not the first time, not the last time - more on that to come].

What a surprise, hey? The man who participated in five of the most reckless, spectacular punchups of the 1990s is not the coward certain poor sports make him out to be. Whether they man up and admit they are wrong is irrelevant. The history is what it is.

JULY 1994: 'The Lewis and Bowe camps have come to an agreement.'

'Lewis must first defend against his mandatory contender, Oliver McCall.'

'I'm as happy as I've ever been,' said Rock Newman. 'There's an iron-clad agreement here.'




'The fight that should be happening is happening.'





Frank 'Kellie' Maloney, who had so far managed Lewis into public obscurity, takes him to a cable channel barely anyone in England could get and talks enthusiastically of impending pay-per-view fights (never before attempted in the UK). . . .





In the interest of balance, hardcore Lennox Lewis fan Glynn Leach gives Bowe a bit of stick. But crucially:

'Bowe is signed to fight Lewis.'





Rock Newman discusses the fight, demonstrates that he is a man who marches to the beat of his own drum. No wonder he was so hated by the establishment. 'There are no promotional ties with Bowe when Bowe wins the fight.'





Newman hints at how managerial maestro Frank 'Kellie' Maloney has blundered previous attempts to match Bowe and Lewis. . . .







. . . . And Lewis blows the mega fight in a routine engagement versus Oliver McCall.

Hardcore Lennox Lewis fan Glynn Leach: "He only appeared to fully recover his senses after the fight was waved off."

"In the opinions of everyone I spoke to at ringside, the decision was correct."

"Even in the first round it became apparent that "the sparring partner" was capable of hurting the champion."





And finally, regarding everything Lewis has lost - including a multi-million dollar fight versus Riddick Bowe.

[Bricks]

Exactly.

Bowe was ready to fight Lewis and never had any "fear" of Lewis.

The whole "fear" nonsense is based on apparently Lewis beat Bowe in the olympics!!

Well Jorge Luiz Gonzalez beat both Bowe and Lewis multiple times in the amateurs and unlike Lewis was an unbeaten heavyweight in early 1995......Bowe stepped forward in a real grudge fight and demolished the cuban.

He would have done the same to Lewis

[Tuan_Jim]

Lewis with his arrogance, technical deficiencies and a strategy mapped out by the ridiculous Pepe Correra might honestly have been killed by Riddick Bowe had this fight come off.

Bowe's hatred of Gonzalez focussed him in a way that was terrifying. His hatred of Lewis ran far deeper and he had the genius of Eddie Futch to tap. Lewis was so lucky to lose to Oliver McCall and remove himself from the picture for a while.

[BoxBuzz]

I'm glad this is finally sorted for those who did not know/believe this. Riddick would have been a reputation ruining fight for Lennox, he should very glad this never happened.

I think Lennox would have taken the fight for the money, but I don't think he relished the idea one bit.

Riddick at his best beats Lewis every time, and twice on Wednesday. But Lewis owns the better run since he maintained his form for a longer period of time.


They are/were both extraordinary fighters. One with a better run, one with a better peak.

[BoxBuzz]

Hey, where's Devious? Has he read today's paper?

[Tuan_Jim]

The whole 'Bowe ran from Lewis his whole career' pack have opted to run from this thread, buzz. It's deliciously ironic.

[dr_devious]

The Bowe defence didn't come off because Lewis lost against McCall. You are are sad man that hoards magazines from decades ago, but for purposes of balance can you post all the articles from the previous year when Bowe dumped his title belt rather than fight Lewis.

[Bricks]

Lewis with his arrogance, technical deficiencies and a strategy mapped out by the ridiculous Pepe Correra might honestly have been killed by Riddick Bowe had this fight come off.

Bowe's hatred of Gonzalez focussed him in a way that was terrifying. His hatred of Lewis ran far deeper and he had the genius of Eddie Futch to tap. Lewis was so lucky to lose to Oliver McCall and remove himself from the picture for a while.

Yes yes .....eddie futch....no one put together a plan like papa smurf.look at marlon starlings ruining the careers of honeyghan and breland.

Pepe correa was just a kid.

The beating Bowe put on Jorge had grown men cowering.Even i was moved by Gonzalez standing up to it for 5 rounds.

[Dart340]

Again, the George Foreman quote.... "One guy was afraid and the other seemed grateful for it".

Myself, I doubt Bowe was "afraid" of Lewis at any time. He sure wasn't afraid against previous conqueror Gonzales, who was an intimidating guy, and his ferocity that night against him was eye opening.

[Tuan_Jim]

The Bowe defence didn't come off because Lewis lost against McCall. You are are sad man that hoards magazines from decades ago, but for purposes of balance can you post all the articles from the previous year when Bowe dumped his title belt rather than fight Lewis.

So rather than admit you were wrong you resort to personal insults, and - even in the face of irrefutable evidence - continue to bleat on about Bowe not wanting to fight Lewis. Bowe dumped the WBC belt to milk his title. Lennox Lewis did the exact same thing with the WBA belt and Ruiz. Bowe demonstrably wasn't afraid of Lewis. Lewis 'probably' wasn't afraid of Ruiz.

Act like a rational adult and admit you were wrong. The facts are here for all to see.

[badkatt]

Lewis with his arrogance, technical deficiencies and a strategy mapped out by the ridiculous Pepe Correra might honestly have been killed by Riddick Bowe had this fight come off.

Bowe's hatred of Gonzalez focussed him in a way that was terrifying. His hatred of Lewis ran far deeper and he had the genius of Eddie Futch to tap. Lewis was so lucky to lose to Oliver McCall and remove himself from the picture for a while.

agreed bowe hated gonzales and that bowe mite have knocked lennox lewis out / rock newman fukkkkked everything up

[PredatorHayds]

Didn't Bowe and Newman only offer Lewis a 90/10 split though?

I tend to recall that played a huge part in the fight not coming off.

[Tuan_Jim]

Didn't Bowe and Newman only offer Lewis a 90/10 split though?

I tend to recall that played a huge part in the fight not coming off.

The above articles detail the precise split. Lewis as champ is getting the most money, $18,000,000. Bowe $13,000,000. A career high payday for Lewis. All he had to do was beat Oliver McCall. The fight was a done deal, Bowe & Newman all signed up.

[PredatorHayds]

The 90/10 split was the offer later on.

Shame the fight never happened.

Both two of my favourite heavyweights of the era. Hard to think that after Bowes win over Holyfield that would be the career highlight by a country mile.
I still wish Bowe surrounded himself with better people Rock Newman included.

[Boxing Writer]

Exactly.

Bowe was ready to fight Lewis and never had any "fear" of Lewis.

The whole "fear" nonsense is based on apparently Lewis beat Bowe in the olympics!!

Well Jorge Luiz Gonzalez beat both Bowe and Lewis multiple times in the amateurs and unlike Lewis was an unbeaten heavyweight in early 1995......Bowe stepped forward in a real grudge fight and demolished the cuban.

He would have done the same to Lewis

No dobut in my mind.

Look WHAT Gonzalez did to Bowe on amateurs - no BS standing knockdowns, no BS stoppages. He put him down really HARD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR3k71ogKmY

And everybody knows what Bowe did to Gonzalez in the pros - he knocked him out cold. KO was absolutely brutal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6T93GUcqYw

[Boxing Writer]

I'm glad this is finally sorted for those who did not know/believe this. Riddick would have been a reputation ruining fight for Lennox, he should very glad this never happened.

I think Lennox would have taken the fight for the money, but I don't think he relished the idea one bit.

Riddick at his best beats Lewis every time, and twice on Wednesday. But Lewis owns the better run since he maintained his form for a longer period of time.


They are/were both extraordinary fighters. One with a better run, one with a better peak.

Well said. Prime Bowe was one of the best heavyweights of all time. Top-3 probably. His offensive skills for such a big man was unprecedented.

[Boxing Writer]

A narrative has been allowed to develop on the internet that says Riddick Bowe never wanted a part of his hated enemy, Lennox Lewis. This myth is generally promulgated by patriotic Lewis obsessives, Bowe hating cranks and fans with either short term or selective memories. Mostly it is heard and parroted by boxing fans who were too young to follow boxing at the time and have had their natural human curiosity retarded by growing up mentally dependent on Google, a tool very much in its most primitive and unreliable phase.

Being one of those despised bringers of facts and information, I thought I might share some of that pesky contemporaneous 'print' media that refutes the popular narrative and details just one of Bowe's attempts to fight Lennox Lewis [Not the first, not the last - more on that to come] and how Lewis managed to mess it up [Not the first time, not the last time - more on that to come].

What a surprise, hey? The man who participated in five of the most reckless, spectacular punchups of the 1990s is not the coward certain poor sports make him out to be. Whether they man up and admit they are wrong is irrelevant. The history is what it is.

JULY 1994: 'The Lewis and Bowe camps have come to an agreement.'

'Lewis must first defend against his mandatory contender, Oliver McCall.'

'I'm as happy as I've ever been,' said Rock Newman. 'There's an iron-clad agreement here.'




'The fight that should be happening is happening.'





Frank 'Kellie' Maloney, who had so far managed Lewis into public obscurity, takes him to a cable channel barely anyone in England could get and talks enthusiastically of impending pay-per-view fights (never before attempted in the UK). . . .





In the interest of balance, hardcore Lennox Lewis fan Glynn Leach gives Bowe a bit of stick. But crucially:

'Bowe is signed to fight Lewis.'





Rock Newman discusses the fight, demonstrates that he is a man who marches to the beat of his own drum. No wonder he was so hated by the establishment. 'There are no promotional ties with Bowe when Bowe wins the fight.'





Newman hints at how managerial maestro Frank 'Kellie' Maloney has blundered previous attempts to match Bowe and Lewis. . . .







. . . . And Lewis blows the mega fight in a routine engagement versus Oliver McCall.

Hardcore Lennox Lewis fan Glynn Leach: "He only appeared to fully recover his senses after the fight was waved off."

"In the opinions of everyone I spoke to at ringside, the decision was correct."

"Even in the first round it became apparent that "the sparring partner" was capable of hurting the champion."





And finally, regarding everything Lewis has lost - including a multi-million dollar fight versus Riddick Bowe.

Excellent work!

I will only add two others sources:

New York Times: "Bowe and Lewis Fight Is On" - http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/18/sport ... is-on.html

Washington Post: "BOWE, LEWIS SIGN DEAL" - https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... 5f9d94b59/

[Tuan_Jim]

Excellent work.

[BoxBuzz]

I gotta add a few thougts.

1. Thanks for taking the time to post this interesting info.
2. Why someone who may have previously held a different belief based on a different understanding of the facts, would WHINE AND COMPLAIN that the poster who offered this is somehow odd or strange to have collected and shared this information is way beyond me.
3. This is a boxing forum, therefore chances are people here are interested in the topic of boxing, and are highly likely to have information on the subject handy. Not the least bit off of the norm IMHO.
4. Why not say "Thanks for setting the record straight" instead of whining like someone just stole your lollipop.


What actually physically manifests should be interesting to all of us. Especially when some pretty good documentation comes along to support it.


This world is getting pretty wacked when our BELIEFS trump facts so much that we want to belittle others, should they take the time to offer proof of any kind.

Reminds me of Baghdad Bob, who was reporting his own version of the facts, as the reality was playing out all around him. I suppose it's possible that he was getting it all wrong, because he had no real journalistic skills and lacked the ability to assess and report facts. But my guess is he reported what he wanted others to believe, regardless of the manifest reality of the situation.

[stevedoc]

Lewis would of lost to bowe when they both had belts , Lewis gets overrated by Americans I don't know any English man that rates Lewis top 3 but I have read many Americans that have him very high .

[Tuan_Jim]

I really can't decide who's the most ridiculous, Buzz. This man Devious who is bitching about a boxing fan on a boxing forum having boxing literature to hand that contradicts his opinion, or Keithmoonhangover, who bleats on about the importance of having manners and who stated categorically for years that Bowe spent his career ducking Lewis deciding to duck this thread rather than man up and admit he was wrong (a thing he loves to demand other posters admit).

Says a great deal about their personalities, and certainly proves that their opinions are suspect.

[BoxBuzz]

A wise saying from 80's Murica.

"Trust, but verify".

lol

[Tuan_Jim]

I wonder if the 'Bowe never wanted to fight Lewis' idiots are ever going to be man enough to partake in this illuminating thread?

[banjo]

I think people forget the number one target when it comes to professional sport, making money. Lewis was "avoided" in 1993 because it made good business sense not because Bowe was afraid of him, Bowe maximised his earnings by taking on 2 easy opponents in Dokes and Ferguson before a lucrative rematch with Holyfield(No man who gets in the ring with Holyfield 3 times can ever be called a coward). Lewis at the time brought nothing to the table other than the fact he was mandatory challenger for the WBC belt, it wasn't a big money fight at the time and it was a far more risky fight than Dokes or Ferguson. So Lewis gets the belt builds his profile with wins over Tucker, Bruno and Jackson and a fight with Bowe is signed now worth far more than it had been 18 months earlier, sadly Lewis fucked it up by getting caught cold by a journeyman and by the time he'd got back on track Bowe was already going off the rails.

[Ambling Alp II]

It's funny how people view things when it comes to a fighter not taking on another top fighter(s).
If they like the guy, he was avoided by everyone else. If they don't like him, he ducked the possible opponent(s).

With Bowe and Lewis, and the whole garbage can thing, it was pretty obvious at the time that it was just a publicity stunt.
However, many people remember it as Bowe ducking Lewis.

It is too bad that we missed out Bowe-Lewis. It may have been a great fight.