So what's the real story on Riddick Bowe not fighting Lennox Lewis? Was he afraid?

[HitmanTommy]

A travesty his fight never happened. After the first holyfield fight, bowe and lewis got into an argument with lewis saying he was going to knock him out and bowe didn't seem afraid of him at all. He was right in his face. If I'm not mistaken, Lewis' previously fight was destroying Ruddock.

The fight should have taken place immediately after Bowe defeated Holyfield, yes? So why didn't it? What's the full story here?

[boliodogs]

A travesty his fight never happened. After the first holyfield fight, bowe and lewis got into an argument with lewis saying he was going to knock him out and bowe didn't seem afraid of him at all. He was right in his face. If I'm not mistaken, Lewis' previously fight was destroying Ruddock.

The fight should have taken place immediately after Bowe defeated Holyfield, yes? So why didn't it? What's the full story here?

Outside of the ring confrontations between boxers don't mean a thing and many take them too seriously. Just because was Bowe was right in his face in an outside the ring argument doesn't mean he would share a ring with him. To know if Bowe was afraid to fight Lewis or if Lewis was afraid to fight Bowe I would have to know of any negotiations or money offers that were made between the two boxers and their teams and I don't. The Bowe vs Lewis fight was an obvious fight that should have been made and wasn't. Maybe neither boxer was afraid to fight the other but they could not agree on terms. Isn't that what is happening now with AJ and Wilder not fighting? Both say they badly want to fight the other but they are not fighting, They are miles apart on the terms of the fight. How much money each should get, where the fight should take place, rematch clauses etc.

[W1LL]

Riddick Bowe didn't want to fight Lennox Lewis. It's that simple. boliodogs yakking because he doesn't really have a clue of what happened. You'll also get the nationalistic fat Yanks who'll try to tell it another way. But 100% Bowe wanted no part of Lewis.

[Jedi Vader]

It was the biggest duck in boxing hostory.

[BigZ44]

Big Daddy didn't want to get pummeled like he did in the olympics

[4truth]

I never heard a legit reason other than Bowe didn’t want any. Not saying there could not have been one but I’ve yet to hear it.

[champion4ever]

It's because his manager Rock Newman was the Barry Hearn of his day. He refused to allow the two to fight because he thought Bowe wasn't ready for Lennox Lewis at the time; Which was a big mistake.

[OCPancho]

It's because his manager Rock Newman was the Barry Hearn of his day. He refused to allow the two to fight because he thought Bowe wasn't ready for Lennox Lewis at the time; Which was a big mistake.

Bowe wanted no part of Lennox . NONE.
Newman also knew Lewis had Bowe's number.
Bowe threw the green belt to the trashcan himself when WBC mandated him to defend the belt against LL.
That un-unified the heavyweight title.