After Lewis beat Tyson in summer 2002, the # 1 contender for his IBF title was Chris Byrd. First the unconfirmed rumours came out that Lewis had accepted the Byrd fight. And some folk were looking forward to seeing how Lewis would deal with the tricky Byrd southpaw style. Then the news came out shortly after that Lewis had accepted a million dollars and a car from Don King to hand over his IBF belt which King then put up in a title eliminator between Holyfield and Byrd. Byrd proceeded to win the title but then looked unspectacular onward in his title defenses against Oquendo, Golota and McCline before being slaughtered by Wlad. So now the question is, was Lennox a coward for ducking Chris Byrd? Or was Lennox right all along when he said "Chris Byrd is of no challenge to me!" What would have happened if Lewis had taken that fight against Byrd? Would Byrd have humiliated him like he claimed he would have? Or would Lennox have slaughtered the mouthy little lamb worse than Wlad did?
Who cares about Byrd? What if you call out Lennox tomorrow? Just cuz he doesn't bother to go and kick your ass doesn't mean he's scared. Lewis ran from vitaly not Byrd.
Well Lennox gave up his IBF title to avoid Byrd. So that's why this is more relevant than the example you gave.
You don't think so? Vitaly gives Lewis one of his toughest fights ever. A fight with a million questions unanswered and Lewis retires? Cmon buddy if Lewis knew he'd beat vitaly in the rematch he'd take it.
Yeah, I think Lennox didn't like the resistance in the first fight and thought he might as well just hang it up than go through another intense training camp against a guy who seemingly had no fear of him in Vitali. Although I do recall Lewis was set to make his biggest purse for the rematch at like $30 million or something. But that was just a rumour.
I thought you said he gave it up for a million dollars and a car. Sounds pretty resonable to me. Especially since Lewis was 100% correct in saying Byrd wasn't a challenge for him. Let's see, Byrd fought 3 super heavyweights and lost to 2. The one he beat, Vitali was beating Byrd from pillar to post until Vitali quit from injury. Lewis could have come in to the fight in the same shape he fought Rahman in and would have still beat Byrd. The only people who ever try to argue that Lewis ducked Byrd are hardcore Lewis haters. By the way there is no way Lewis can be criticized for not rematching Vitali. He was at the end of his career and was obvioulsy having trouble getting up for fights. People often call Lewis a softy who likes to box and run, yet he beats Vitali in a slugfest and people still want to criticize and downplay the victory.
I think Lewis should have fought him,.. it would apparently be, the first time he'd ever have faced a southpaw. I don't know if it was just coincidence, or if he deliberately avoided them his entire career,.. but by not facing another lefty, one can't help but be a little suspicious.
I'd agree if Byrd was a hard hitting southpaw, but he had so little power he really wouldn't have been a threat. Would have been cool to see how Sanders would have done however had he beaten Rahman.
