Had Lewis met and beat.....

Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson IN THE 90'S how much of a difference would it have made to Lewis's ATG status?

Still a travesty that Lewis and Bowe was not made when it should have been made mid 90's and Tyson was slap bang in the middle of his full blown public personal breakdown. So if we employ a little creative license and ignore the obstacles then what would 2 wins against these 2 great heavies have realistically done for Lewis's standing alongside the great heavies?

Sorry very brief I know......

I'm not Chris......

wish I was tho.

I think he'd have a top 3 shout.

I'd say even with losses he'd be a nailed on top 3 heavyweight, he's got a good record as it is but not sure how many could compete with having Bowe, Tyson, Holyfield and Vitali on top of all the other good names.

His losses wouldn't be completely forgotten but you could then make a reasonable assumption that he rose to the big occasion which in fairness he did tend to do.

A win over Bowe would have elevated his status (I think he belongs on the fringes of the top ten). That would have been the defining fight for both men. It was perfectly set up for '93 (after Lewis ruined Ruddock and Bowe overpowered Holyfield), however, Bowe's manager Rock Newman steered Bowe away from the fight in a bid to secure him financially while affording him a rest after the arduous encounter with Holyfield.

The only opportunity to face Tyson (realistically) was around '96 (when Lewis took step aside money so that Tyson could mop up the alphabet belts). Had he faced and beaten the Tyson who gutted Bruno and Seldon, Lewis would have been accepted in the US far sooner than he eventually was.

Surely with those 2 wins he would be regarded as the Ali of his era?

Lewis wouldn't have beaten Bowe in 93..........If a sage like Steward could spot Lewis threw his right hand from two blocks away whilst wide open.........An even greater sage in Futch would have spotted it a mile off......

Futch always thought Lewis was an easy night whilst Bowe was champion...

However I'd pick a Steward-Lewis to beat Bowe......

Beats prime/peak Bowe and Top 3 for me too..........As for Tyson I think he'd always have been on the wane by the time Lewis fought him..........Pen visit or not..

In a word no.

For starters Tyson and Bowe are no Frazier and Foreman, nor would Lewis have been facing a man nobody thought could be beaten in Foreman nor would he have been years past his best having to adapt his style because of his loss of speed.

I guess it depends on the timeline. Had Lewis beaten Bowe in '93 (like Truss I doubt whether that happens) and ruled throughout the 90's (meaning he'd have likely faced a better Holyfield than he eventually did) and then beaten Tyson in '96-97, then he'd have been in the argument for a top five place.

If he had beaten Tyson before the prison controversy and Bowe in 93 n before and had he avoided the loss against Rehman then yes i would have rated him just behind Ali as the 2nd best fighter of all time.

I also felt he got too much credit for beating a junk yard Tyson late in his career, and a no rematch against Vitali in my view dented his status a bit, when Holyfield fought and won in mid 40's why can't Lewis just do 1 more of a rematch and that too against an opponent who is just 4 1/2 years younger?

Lewis is one of those Luckiest fighters to catch most of the legends and great fighters at the wrong time, nothing to take of from him I would still give him a top 10 rank of all time and I guess thats the best he deserves and rightly in that slot.

Lewis and unbeaten Tysons careers are different eras. Lewis was a 7 fight novice when Tyson lost to Douglas. In other words, he never would have beaten Tyson before he went to jail. Lewis not facing Bowe meant the public were robbed of, what would have been, one of the best heavyweight fights in history.

Top 10 fighters of all time is a push for me.....id put him top 20

I rate Lewis highly but even if he had beaten Bowe,(I feel Bowe was a very good fighter but not a great), I would be hard pushed to put Lewis top3 definitely in my top 10 though.

Lewis was class on his day but Holyfield was pretty past it when they fought, Tyson was absolutely shot to sh1t. He would have needed to beat Bowe, Holyfield and Tyson before 1995 or 1996 to get them anywhere near the best.

Curse that wretched bin!! If it wasn't there the Bowe may have walked on with his belt in hand

Between the bin and the fridge Bowe really wasted his career. Have you seen the state of him now? Hes like a punch drunk homeless person.

So by fighting the much higher regarded than Lewis, Holy again.........He wasted his career..

Yes he did like his food.........But no one thought Lewis was as good as Holy back then so hardly a duck was it...

A good business decision..

Yep a duck. He ditched his title to take a couple of easy fights against a past it Dokes and Jesse Ferguson. Lewis had looked impressive beating Ruddock and they didnt fancy it. Not to mention Bowe knew first hand what losing to Lewis felt like. All ducks are justified as business decisions.

If Lewis had of Beat Bowe and an earlier version of Tyson and also avoided the Rahmann loss, I would find it very hard not to have him in front of Joe Louis who many regard is either 1st or 2nd.

The thing to remember here in the fight that never was against Bowe is that Bowe HATED Lewis. And despite what everyone is saying about how Bowe was a better fighter at the time (I actually make it much closer than most), the very fact that he would've been facing the man who took his Olympic Dream surely would've had an effect on his strategy.

Regardless of what the trainer might say, Bowe could have been wanting to take Lewis' head off. The very fact that he threw the belt in the bin speaks volumes to me. Bowe may not have been scared of Lewis, but he certainly had his doubts that he could beat him. If Lewis was actually as poor as Bowe's people reckoned, then it should've been a standard defence along the lines of Dokes & Ferguson.

Bowe definitely had concerns about Lewis and chose not to fight him. I doubt it had that much to do with money.

catchweight wrote:Yep a duck. He ditched his title to take a couple of easy fights against a past it Dokes and Jesse Ferguson. Lewis had looked impressive beating Ruddock and they didnt fancy it. Not to mention Bowe knew first hand what losing to Lewis felt like. All ducks are justified as business decisions.

Holy was more money and a much bigger fight......and Lewis would have started a big underdog anyway.......

Mate the Bowe from Seoul and the one that beat Holy were two different fighters...

Eddie Futch thought Lewis was an easy night and I believe he meant it.......Ko magazine had a head to head and all four experts picked Bowe....

Bowe went for a more lucrative fight and left journeyman Mccall to clean Lewis up.....By just waiting for the sloppy right.........He knew would come.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:So by fighting the much higher regarded than Lewis, Holy again.........He wasted his career..

Yes he did like his food.........But no one thought Lewis was as good as Holy back then so hardly a duck was it...

A good business decision..

Not sure about that one Truss. Holyfield was viewed as being too small to compete with the new breed of super heavyweights (in Lewis and Bowe) and looked positively pedestrian in his comeback fight against Alex Stewart (many questioned whether his time had come). Newman viewed the fight as easy money (many feared for Holyfield's health heading in) .

Holyfield of course surprised everyone in the rematch and Bowe was given the cold shoulder for years due to the way Newman had conducted himself during Riddick's brief reign (which is why they ended up going cap in hand to Barry Hearn and Herbie Hide).

Holy was a 1/2 favorite for Bowe 1 and I believe It was the fight of the year....

So I don't know who thought he was too small..

Bowe wasn't all that great really when you think of his lucky wins against Galota and I remember Herbie Hide giving him a bit of trouble early on in their bout but he didn't have the power to hurt him. Bowe's best results were against Holyfield and if Holyfield could put Bowe on his back,just imagine what Lewis would have done.He had the potential but didn't live up to it and I don't think he would have beaten Lewis at any time in his career.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Holy was a 1/2 favorite for Bowe 1 and I believe It was the fight of the year....

So I don't know who thought he was too small..

I thought we were talking about the rematch (when Bowe took Holyfield rather than Lewis)?

TRUSSMAN66 wrote: Ko magazine had a head to head and all four experts picked Bowe....

I'm sure none of the four were biased.  

The first fight was fight of the year Haz..

Dealing with the hard punching 250 Pound Foreman and 240 pound Buster hardly shows he couldn't beat bigger men than Bowe

The head to head featured Clancy and Dundee as I recall....I don't think they'd be pro -US for the sake of it..