Newsgroups: rec.sport.misc
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:36:29 -0500 
From: Mike Molloy <mmaq+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Down Goes Holyfield! Down Goes Holyfield!
	<1992Nov16.155417.21106@aio.jsc.nasa.gov>


In Re: Down Goes Holyfield!  John Cobarruvias writes:

> Well not so fast. Bowe now wants to fight Foreman in China for $20 > >
> Million! And
> Foreman, although he doesnt deserve the fight, is willing. The WBC has told
> Bowe either to sign with Lewis within a month or get stripped. If the IBF or
> WBA had any balls they would do the same. Here is what I hope will happen:


I think that this is the feeling of a lot of fans (except of course the
zillions
of people who will pay to see any Foreman title fight, thus making
them all guaranteed big money makers).

Bowe (as well as all the other deserving contenders) has been waiting
for 2 years
for his title shot. Once he has the title, there is no rule moral or
otherwise that
says he has to immediatly defend it against the number one challenger.
(by the way, does anyone know if Lewis is the number1 challenger
in the IBF or WBA; they probably haven't met on this since the fight,
but I would like to know as soon as they do if anyone has quick access
to that stuff).
Most federations have rules that say something to the effect that
a champion has to defend againist the number one challenger within
6months or a year;
this is also reasonable morally. I see nothing wrong with Bowe takinig
the big payday with absolutly no risk to his title (except of course the
WBC version) as long as he is planning on fighting Lewis immediatly
afterwards.  This disgust people seem to have
with Bowe for wanting to do so is simply a backlash against the title reign
of Holyfield (although I realize that it was not entirely his fault; he
tried to
fight Tyson and then Damiani before Cooper, and I'm sure that he expected
Mercer to beat Holmes and thus get that title shot.)

It is no secret that the WBC is not as full of integrity as it could be.
The statement by the WBC that they will strip him if he doesn't fight Lewis
is nothing more than the ongoing attempt by Don King to make Razor
Ruddock champion.  Although King has no official ties with Ruddock,
Murad Mohammed is incapable of promoting big fights and has needed King's
help on most of Ruddock's recent fights. Ruddock as Champion was King's
best bet at having a lot of power in the Heavyweight division again
(unless Bert Cooper takes the belt of course).

This started earlier this year when King told the WBC to make Razor the
number 1 contender, flip-flopping him and Bowe in their ratings.  They
then stated
that Ruddock had to get the next title shot or They would strip Holyfield
of his title. They weakened that to the next shot after Bowe. (Note:
I was all for this even though I realized that it wasn't really on the
up-and-up
as I am Ruddock's BIGGEST fan).

Then Ruddock decided to fight Lewis, and theysaid that the winner would
get the next shot.  Remember, this is only the WBC's statement. not
anyone else's
although the boxing world loved the idea of a tournament between Holyfield
and 3 of his top challengers.

This by the way, is what really hurt about Ruddock's loss to Lewis. HE
DIDN'T HAVE TO FIGHT HIM!!! The WBC would have denmanded that he get
the next shot anyways.  Ruddock has always made a habit of fighting other
dangerous top contenders out of personal pride( he is the only contender to
do this rather than take guaranteed wins until he gets his shot. And don't
say Lewis does, without the Rudduck fight he had a LONG wait before he
would get his
shot; he had everything to gain and nothing to lose),  This habit finally
hurt him bad!!!  Dokes paid off; it made him a superstar( except made
everyone but Tyson afraid of him), and   his losses to Tyson also made
him a bigger contender in
the public's eye because of Tyson's inability to knock him out.    I was really
worried about him taking on someone as good as Lewis while he was still
learning all the newstuff that Floyd Patterson was teaching him.
Although he won his 2 previous fights,
he looked clearly awkward as a result of trying new stuff.

My point is, that Bowe has no obligation to fight Lewis first and not
take the big bucks, as long as he fights the number 1 contender SOON.

By the way, the Foreman/Coetzer fight was doomed as soon as Bowe won. There's
no way that Foreman will fight Coetzer first and risk losing, hence
seriously hurting his
marketability. If he did fight him, it would be a big win by Coetzer.
Pierre is capable of laying a slightly worse beating on him than Stewart did.
On top of that, he also has the self confidence that Stewart was missing in
the first couple of rounds that put the fight out of reach for him.

Just my thoughts,
Mike
Newsgroups: rec.sport.misc