Was there as much politics like pac/mayweather before this?

[J.Dempsey]

I ain't been a boxing fans for years n years, I'm just wondering has there been as much bulls**t surrounding a possible match up like PAC/mayweather before?
All the Politics, negotiations, trying to sue eachother, all the hype..is this a normal thing that's been goin on with other big match ups?

[Suckmedry]

I'm over this fight for the moment. Heard too much about it....Looking forward to Manny fighting Clottey and watching Floyd put his skills to use against whoeever. Revisit it in 2011 or later in 2010.

[Thread Stealer]

It's not extremely common, but it happens.

Riddick Bowe & Lennox Lewis were supposed to fight in 1993, but Bowe was stripped of the WBC title for not facing Lewis. Part of it was Bowe (and manager Rock Newman) getting millions from HBO for easy fights, but there was a bunch of politics going on too.

Lennox Lewis was also the mandatory for the WBC title in 1996, but Mike Tyson was stripped for not facing him. Don King probably wanted Tyson to make easy millions against lesser fighters like Bruce Seldon and a supposedly shot Evander Holyfield, but there was probably more to it. Lewis being an HBO fighter and Tyson for Showtime, other politics involved.

One of the most infamous non-matchups was Jack Dempsey against Harry Wills. Dempsey eventually did sign to fight Wills, but the promoter cancelled the bout, due to fears of race riots.

[MrEvol]

Not really only when floyd came back from ******edment i mean retirement when we start hearing about BS stuff.

[J.Dempsey]

It's not extremely common, but it happens.

Riddick Bowe & Lennox Lewis were supposed to fight in 1993, but Bowe was stripped of the WBC title for not facing Lewis. Part of it was Bowe (and manager Rock Newman) getting millions from HBO for easy fights, but there was a bunch of politics going on too.

Lennox Lewis was also the mandatory for the WBC title in 1996, but Mike Tyson was stripped for not facing him. Don King probably wanted Tyson to make easy millions against lesser fighters like Bruce Seldon and a supposedly shot Evander Holyfield, but there was probably more to it. Lewis being an HBO fighter and Tyson for Showtime, other politics involved.

One of the most infamous non-matchups was Jack Dempsey against Harry Wills. Dempsey eventually did sign to fight Wills, but the promoter cancelled the bout, due to fears of race riots.

Thanks for the info bro, I think money does make the world go round, and every sport revolves around the money now..

[MrEvol]

Alot of the Flamos was on there 2 year hibernation when floyd was away.

[Thread Stealer]

The build-up for Lewis-Tyson had soooooo much bull****.

Tyson helped hype the fight in the summer of 2000 with his infamous "I want to eat his children" rant, followed by Lewis's own trash talk after beating Botha, basically calling Tyson a has-been.

Lewis ended up losing to Rahman in April of 2001, after which Rahman proclaimed "no Lewis and Tyson". After guys like David Izon and Tyson were named as possible Rahman opponents, Lewis took Rahman to court to get a rematch (Rahman called this "gay", resulting in a fight/wrestling match on ESPN between the two). Lewis won the rematch and called out Tyson in the post-fight interview, and once again the public demanded a Lewis-Tyson fight.

It took awhile to finally get Showtime and HBO to agree to work together, after HBO had gotten both Lewis-Holyfield fights. Lewis was an HBO guy, Holyfield was fighting for Showtime/DKP around this time. The PPV broadcast had both Showtime & HBO commentators, and the replay also mixed different people from each network. They had to agree on all kinds of crap like what commentator would say what, since obviously HBO would not allow Jimmy Lennon to say his trademark "it's showtime".

Then Tyson and Lewis got into it at a press conference, resulting in Tyson biting Lewis's leg and threatening to anally ravage a "***ggot" member of the press. Tyson failed to get a license in Nevada and the other commissions followed suit. Tennessee allowed them to fight, with the bout taking place a couple months after the original scheduled fight date.

Tyson then added even more to the controversy and fight build-up with his bizarre comments of his desire to both crush and plant a bullet in Lewis's ****ing skull, and sexually harrassing female members of the press. He even got a Sports Illustrated cover article. There was more controversy when there were rumors of Tyson training with that infamous scumbag POS Panama Lewis.