Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson are in the heavyweight history books for incredible achievements.
Tyson still holds the record as the division’s youngest ever champion, and brought a ferociousness to the ring that often had opponents so thrown that the fight was won before the first bell.
Lewis famously avenged two shock losses to beat every man he faced in the ring. Until very recently, he was the last undisputed heavyweight champion – that status was held for around 25 years before Oleksandr Usyk achieved it in 2024.
Tyson and Lewis would be confident in their abilities against all-comers, however fellow undisputed champ Riddick Bowe believes both men swerved him. That is despite most feeling he didn’t want any part of Lewis, who was called as mandatory challenger but ended up elevated to champion when Bowe famously held a press conference to put his belt in the bin rather than make the fight.
In an interview with Tha Boxing Voice, Bowe stood his ground.
“He didn’t want the fight. I was ready to go, in great shape. I think what scared him was he saw the first fight with Evander Holyfield and once he saw how good I looked and what great condition I was in, he want ain’t no part of me. He fought Mike Tyson, Holyfield, why not me?”
On publicly throwing away his WBC belt, Bowe said it was the politics of the sport behind it.
“Lennox Lewis kept playing games. They were gonna give me 30 days to make the fight happen. I kind of felt betrayed because I’m your champion. How you gonna give me a deadline waiting on this clown that’s playing games? He didn’t want the fight. So they stripped me and gave him the title.”
Finally, it comes as no surprise that he predicted a clear victory had the fight happened.
“Unequivocally. My style was impeccable compared to his. Look at the guys that knocked him out. Oliver McCall. Hasim Rahman. They didn’t hit anywhere close to as hard as I hit. He knew I was gonna tap that ass so he stayed away from me.”
Bowe then discussed Tyson, who came from the same neighbourhood, Brownsville in Brooklyn. ‘Iron’ Mike has said in the past that he wouldn’t face Bowe because of their connection, however ‘Big Daddy’ believes it was because he couldn’t intimidate him.
Let me just say this. Evander Holyfield beat Mike Tyson twice right? Didn’t I beat Holyfield twice? So you tell me. It don’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
“My jab was impeccable. He wouldn’t know how to get away from it, so that would cause him a lot of trouble. My uppercut was vicious. With him being short, that would’ve got him. He couldn’t get on the inside where he did a lot of damage, my left hand would’ve kept him at bay. At the end of the day, I wasn’t intimidated by him, so that’s why the fight didn’t happen. If he thought I was scared of him, he would’ve took the fight.”
Bowe hung up the gloves with a record of 43 wins from 45 fights, with Evander Holyfield being the only man to beat him.
