History of the Heavyweight Championship

[Southpaw Stinger]

ok thats ******. rid**** refused to fight lennox even though he was the number one contender. champions should fight anyone who attains number one contender status. otherwise you could get a boxer fighting only bums and retaining his title into his 60's!!

Maybe Bowe did refuse to fight Lewis but the point of the Linear title is that it can only be lost in the ring.

[K-DOGG]

ok thats ******. rid**** refused to fight lennox even though he was the number one contender. champions should fight anyone who attains number one contender status. otherwise you could get a boxer fighting only bums and retaining his title into his 60's!!

I beg your pardon. There's nothing ****** about it. I'm not saying Rid**** was right for dumping the belt. In fact I deplore the fact that he out and out ducked him; but Sam Langford and Peter Jackson and many others from the past were "ducked" as well.....and even thought Sam Langford was the Colored World Heavyweight Champion, he still wasn't the champ......and neither was Lewis until he beat Briggs.

To be the man, you have to beat the man.....it's like a communicable disease, you have to have contact with someone to catch certain non-airborne viruses and you have to actually fight and defeat the World Champion to be the World Champion.

It's a pretty simple concept, actually.

[hemichromis]

archie moore was ducked for 16 years when he finally got the championship he kept it for 9 years that shows how good he was and makes you wonder why it took so long.

i hate it when fighters duck other fighters its just wrong but i dont see how you couldpunish lewis because rid**** was too afraid to fight him!

[K-DOGG]

archie moore was ducked for 16 years when he finally got the championship he kept it for 9 years that shows how good he was and makes you wonder why it took so long.

i hate it when fighters duck other fighters its just wrong but i dont see how you couldpunish lewis because rid**** was too afraid to fight him!

LOL!!!! I'm not punishing Lewis!!!

Rid**** Bowe ducked him and truth don't play favorites. Just because Lewis would more than likely have beaten Bowe, it doesn't make him the champ....only whoever fought and beat Bowe could do that. One world, one world champion.

Personally, I think Lewis would probably have Knocked Bowe out.....but because the fight never happened, we'll never know.

Lewis was ranked highly by the WBA and the IBF too, ya know. He didn't have to take the WBC belt and Bowe would have had to fight him eventually....or Holyfield would have. Lewis decided to be called champion by an organization without merit, thus making sure he wouldn't be ranked by anyone else. So, Lewis punished himself, from a certain point of view.

[Southpaw Stinger]

archie moore was ducked for 16 years when he finally got the championship he kept it for 9 years that shows how good he was and makes you wonder why it took so long.

Wasn't Moore eventually stripped of the title though for not defending it enough himself?

[hemichromis]

LOL!!!! I'm not punishing Lewis!!!

Rid**** Bowe ducked him and truth don't play favorites. Just because Lewis would more than likely have beaten Bowe, it doesn't make him the champ....only whoever fought and beat Bowe could do that. One world, one world champion.

Personally, I think Lewis would probably have Knocked Bowe out.....but because the fight never happened, we'll never know.

Lewis was ranked highly by the WBA and the IBF too, ya know. He didn't have to take the WBC belt and Bowe would have had to fight him eventually....or Holyfield would have. Lewis decided to be called champion by an organization without merit, thus making sure he wouldn't be ranked by anyone else. So, Lewis punished himself, from a certain point of view.

bowe was told in no uncertain terms that if he didn't fight lewis he would be stripped yet he still refused to fight i dont see how anyone can remain a champion by refusing to fight!

[K-DOGG]

bowe was told in no uncertain terms that if he didn't fight lewis he would be stripped yet he still refused to fight i dont see how anyone can remain a champion by refusing to fight!

It wasn't the first, nor will it be the last.

Lennox, if you will remember, was stripped for "ducking" his number 1 contenders, John Ruiz and Chris Byrd. Do they deserve to be called World Champion more than him?

[potatoes]

Lennox Lewis may have been the so called "linear champion" but the fact remains he was not cut from the same cloth as the great champions like Joe Louis. Louis never ducked any fights and he always gave rematches to anybody who felt they deserved one. Compare that to Lewis who did everything he could to avoid the fight with Vitali Klitschko, that is until HBO lowered the boom. Then he wins by a lucky TKO and refuses to grant the rematch. If that is what being a "linear champion" is all about, then I really don't give a damn about it. What I want to see is a REAL champion like Joe Louis emerge from the rubble.

[wmute]

Foreman was robbed I tells ya!!

true that

but schultz (or however it is spelled) was robbed against him before that...

[wmute]

Lennox Lewis may have been the so called "linear champion" but the fact remains he was not cut from the same cloth as the great champions like Joe Louis. Louis never ducked any fights and he always gave rematches to anybody who felt they deserved one. Compare that to Lewis who did everything he could to avoid the fight with Vitali Klitschko, that is until HBO lowered the boom. Then he wins by a lucky TKO and refuses to grant the rematch. If that is what being a "linear champion" is all about, then I really don't give a damn about it. What I want to see is a REAL champion like Joe Louis emerge from the rubble.

not a big lewis fan, but when you are 38 and you are a boxer you have all rights to retire (where was joe louis at 38? in his SECOND retirement)

as for "lucky TKO", that is your opinion thank you for sharing it