Originally posted by Soir
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Lewis was a huge risk fight for Bowe but a prime Bowe (who beat a prime Holyfield twice and stopped him once) was also a huge risk fight for Lewis. Who knows who would have won if they'd fought back then. Bowe dumped the belt because, like many other champions (including Holmes before him) he resented being dictated to by the sanctioning bodies. Subsequently the fight should have been made, but the fact that it wasn't was more due to his promoter Rock Newman, who was an arsehole; and also to the fact that the US television networks were simply not interested in Lewis back then. They thought Lewis was boring. If HBO or Showtime had wanted a Lewis-Bowe fight, it would have happened.
Tyson's $4 million step-aside money was paid when Tyson was way past his prime (prime as in best boxing years, not physical prime), and when Tyson was trying to cash out and pay his IRS debts. Lewis hadn't even turned professional when Tyson was at his peak as a boxer.
Holyfield never paid any step aside money. And again the main reason that fight wasn't made earlier was that HBO and Showtime weren't interested in Lewis back then and considered him to be boring.
None of which was Lewis's fault, but that is beside the point. The point is that regardless of why the fights didn't happen, they didn't happen, and because of that, Lewis never fought a truly elite boxer in his prime. Which is not necessarily to say that he would not have beaten those fighters had he fought them at their peak, but it does mean that the fact that he beat everyone he faced proves very little. He's an ATG fighter but not primarily for that reason.
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