‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed recently met Riddick Bowe out in Saudi Arabia and asked him why he never fought his long-standing rival and the last undisputed heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis.
American heavyweights Bowe and Lewis first met in the Olympics in 1988 when the Brit won the gold medal.
The pair later fought parallel to each other in the professional ranks though, for various reasons from each side, never stepped into the ring. At one point Lewis was made mandatory challenger to Bowe’s WBC title, but Bowe threw it in the bin.
In an exchange captured by Boxing King Media, Naz asked Bowe about the famous incident.
“Just tell me one thing. Everybody loved watching you fight. And everybody knew you was one of the best if not the best. But listen, when the fight came along with Lennox and you put the belt in the trash can, why did you do that?”
Bowe recalled his unhappiness at how the WBC was treating him.
“That was the WBC. I’m the heavyweight champion of the world and they, out of nowhere, wanted to make him the mandatory, and it didn’t work that way.”
Nas reiterated that Bowe was supposed to fight Lewis. The heavyweight then again explained why he did what he did.
“No, they carried on like he was the champion instead of me so I put it in the garbage.”
Nas probed once more, asking if Bowe regretted his decision, which he has admitted before, and did again.
“I should have beat his ass.”
