Riddick Bowe on SkySports Ringside: "Lewis was afraid of me" (Excellent interview)

[edgarg]

People put too much into lewis beating bowe in the olympic finals or semi finals. Riddick Bowe was one of those guys that improved real fast after turning pro, and at that point Lewis was still very good, but would get cracked, and I do not think he would have been able to take those patented Bowe uppercuts.

I think it would could have went either way.

I agree with you. The whole WBC thing was a viscereal hatred by Bowes manager towards Suleiman, who were in the middle of a long-ongoing battle, and the belt dumping was a publicity stunt to show his contempt for Suleiman. He called a press meeting with plenty of photographers for the event. Bowe held nearly all the belts.

It's hard to believe that Bowe was afraid of Lewis as the ignorant,who never knew Bowe, claim. The guy who fought 3 life-or-death wars with a really top class Holyfield, and those two torrid battles with Golota......never. That Holyfield was grades above the best Lewis at any time, and a much bigger draw. Which is why Holyfield retains so much respect even to this day.

And, by the way, didn't Lewis refuse to face both John Ruiz and Chris Byrd. Byrd at that time was fighting everybody including bruisers, and generally making them look silly.

[edgarg]

I agree with you. The whole WBC thing was a viscereal hatred by Bowes manager towards Suleiman, who were in the middle of a long-ongoing battle, and the belt dumping was a publicity stunt to show his contempt for Suleiman. He called a press meeting with plenty of photographers for the event. Bowe held nearly all the belts.

It's hard to believe that Bowe was afraid of Lewis as the ignorant,who never knew Bowe, claim. The guy who fought 3 life-or-death wars with a really top class Holyfield, and those two torrid battles with Golota......never. That Holyfield was grades above the best Lewis at any time, and a much bigger draw. Which is why Holyfield retains so much respect even to this day.

And, by the way, didn't Lewis refuse to face both John Ruiz and Chris Byrd. Byrd at that time was fighting everybody including bruisers, and generally making them look silly.

Just found an old excerpt from thr Los Angeles Times that may be of interest;

"Bowe is not the undisputed heavyweight champion. He refused to fight Lewis, who beat Razor Ruddock, in his first defense. Bowe and Newman knew that Jose Sulaiman, World Boxing Council president, and his ally, promoter Don King, would strip him of the WBC belt.

So Bowe beat them to it, at a televised news conference, dropping his WBC belt into a trash can. Hours later, Sulaiman announced he had given Lewis the WBC's portion of the title".

[lazy]

I watched the amateur bout and was not really impressed with the stoppage personally. That was the amateurs anyways and both developed alot since then. I think it would have been a great bout if the fought as pros.

[Porter's Dad]

Bowe absolutely ducked Lennox.

Nice interview, though. Think it's time for a Bowe vs Holyfield trilogy all-nighter again.

[Axl Rose]

check the facts before posting: this is the same story over and over again.

the fact is, Bowe signed to fight Lewis in March 1995. But, Lewis lost the McCall fight and since it would have been without the title, it never materialised.

so if Bowe ducked and was afraid of Lewis, why accept to fight him?

Go get your brains checked!