It is known that boxing champion Lennox Lewis once brutally KO Mike Tyson in June 2002. Of course, Tyson was in a very bad state at the time. Although he was a year younger than Lewis, the two were one in the middle of the day and the other in the west. In fact, there is a fact that everyone may not know, that is, as early as 1996, Tyson had a great chance to fight with Lewis, but the Tyson team had the suspicion of avoiding Lewis, preferring to pay $4 million to Lewis rather than fight with Lewis.
It all started with the WBC Gold Belt. Back in 1994, then-WBC heavyweight Lewis unexpectedly lost to "Atomic Bull" Oliver McCall, losing the WBC Gold Belt. He then made a successful comeback, winning three straight, including defeating Tommy Morrison.
McCall lost the throne to Britain's "King Kong" Frank Bruno in the defending battle, after which Bruno was KO by Tyson, and this WBC gold belt was given to Tyson.
Fast forward to 1996, and Lewis wanted to regain the WBC Gold Belt. Wanted to challenge Tyson and take legal action to get the opportunity to challenge Tyson.
But Tyson, who is the WBC boxer, wants to win the WBA heavyweight championship title, when the WBA champion is Bruce Selden, Tyson wants to challenge Selden, and Lewis wants to play Tyson. In this way, Tyson was suspected of avoiding Lewis. Lewis saw that it was difficult to do so, and had to resort to the law.
The Supreme Court of New Jersey rejected Tyson's plan to face off against Selden, ruling that Tyson must first accept Lewis's challenge. But Tyson instigated.
As a result, the two teams of Tyson and Lewis reached an agreement in which Briton Lewis received a concession fee of $4 million (worth about £2.6 million at the time) to allow Tyson and Selden to play first. As a result, Tyson easily KO Selden in 1 round and got the coveted WBA gold belt. During this time, Lewis beat Ray Moselle in points to win the warm-up match.
Unfortunately, Tyson gave up the WBC gold belt and refused to play lewis. Lewis and McCall then competed for the gold belt that Tyson had abandoned, and Lewis successfully regained the throne with 5 rounds of TKO McCall.
It can be seen that Tyson was very likely to fight Lewis at that time, but Tyson chose to escape. Tyson in 1996 was only 30 years old, in his prime, and although his state declined due to being in prison, he was much better than in 2002. Unfortunately, the tournament did not start in 1996. Eventually, when the two played each other in 2002, Lewis dominated the race, with 8 rounds of KO Tyson.
Many people worship Tyson and think that Tyson is invincible, which is a childish and extreme idea. In fact, Tyson in 1996 could not be Lewis's opponent, Tyson actually avoided not only Lewis, but also George Foreman. Of course, this is all the result of commercial operations, not necessarily Tyson himself recused, may be Tyson's promoters out of commercial interests to make the decision. 【Text/Fighting Jianghu】