Lennox Lewis vs. Anthony Joshua Feud Escalates

By Scoop Malinowski

It’s no secret that Lennox Lewis has sided with Deontay Wilder

and Al Haymon in their heavyweight feud with Anthony Joshua.  Lewis has constantly favored the Wilder and Haymon side while constantly doling out cheap shots at Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn.

From blaming Joshua for not pressing hard enough to make the fight with Wilder, to demonizing Hearn as another Don King untrustworthy crook, Lewis has shown what side he’s on and it all started precisely when his employment began as a PBC TV commentator, checks paid by Haymon. The logical assumption is that one of the requirements for Lewis to keep his job with Haymon and to keep the paychecks coming is to protect and build up Wilder while discrediting and blaming Joshua. Media manipulation 101.

The most blatant bias Lewis showed was when Hearn and Joshua offered Wilder a four-fight contract earlier this year, to fight two patsies of his handpicking and two AJ fights for a total of $120,000,000 guaranteed. Wilder and Haymon totally ignored the gargantuan offer and opted to fight Dominic Breazeale for a few million. Obviously to keep Wilder protected in house with more guaranteed wins.  What was Lewis’s reaction to that obscene duck by Wilder and Haymon? Nothing. No response, no comment at all.

But Lewis still kept on cracking his whip on Joshua. After Joshua lost his titles earlier this year to Andy Ruiz in New York, Lewis again went against Joshua. Hearn and Joshua had the guaranteed rematch clause to fight Ruiz again.  As a voluntary challenger, Ruiz signed a three fight deal with Hearn, giving Hearn the right to promote his next two fights and to set all the details, location, Ruiz signed the contract to get $9,000,000 for the rematch. Lewis knows this. He went through a similar situation after he lost his titles to Hasim Rahman. Lewis had the immediate rematch clause and forced the rematch. Don King tried to duck the rematch for Rahman to fight a patsy in China, but Lewis took legal action and forced his rematch which he won by KO over Rahman in Las Vegas. Just weeks ago, Lewis strangely suggested Joshua should fight the Ruiz rematch in Mexico, fully knowing Hearn and Joshua are contractually bound to pick any location for the rematch they want. Lewis sticking his nose into the rematch contract was suspicious and most likely more media manipulation trickery devised by Haymon to support Ruiz ducking the AJ rematch.

Joshua has kept his cool for a year about Lewis’s constant bias against him but finally exploded this week, calling Lewis a clown, said they are cut from a different cloth and he does not respect Lennox.

On social media Lewis tried to defend himself: “Disappointed in AJ’s words but I understand that this ‘jealousy’ narrative was only fabricated AFTER I criticized them for Wilder negotiations. All of the sudden i’m a hater. Ask who benefits from such a simple minded narrative? Not AJ. Not me.’

The replies to this Lewis Tweet were heavily in favor of Joshua…

You brought this on yourself Lennox. You can’t talk so much shit and not expect backlash.

Stop playing the victim to circumstances you created.

You give him untold grief at every opportunity mate.

The narrative only started when you got a job with the PBC, it’s not a coincidence.

About time he said something back, all you’ve done is slate him.

U been hating on AJ for a while.

You’ve always slated AJ, always. One thing I’ve noticed with you is EVERYTHING you say about him is negative. Like come on we get it, he’s a superstar in this day and age, in your prime you weren’t even that big a name? You’re jealous of his superstardom and you know it.

It’s was only a matter of time before he was going to push back. I think that he has held on for so long in my opinion. You can’t say you are disappointed, surely you must have expected this sort of response.

Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but truth be told, you have never been positive towards AJ. Your comments has always been harsh with some signs of hatred. Even during Wilder negotiation time, your opinions we’re lopsided against AJ. For once, pls be positive about him.

******

Deontay Wilder is a classless, protected fraud misfit character, everything against what Lewis stood for during his glorious reign where he was the white knight who got rid “of all the misfits” in the division. But now suddenly Lewis embraces Wilder and constantly admonishes the true class man of the division, Anthony Joshua.

The worst hypocrisy of Lewis on this matter was trying to publicly pressure Joshua to rematch Ruiz in Mexico. He knows AJ controls the terms and details but tried to undermine the contract by forcing AJ to go to Mexico. Lewis knows Joshua does not care to rematch Ruiz in Mexico and by pushing him to do it absolutely proves Lennox has a sneaky bias against Joshua and for Haymon’s empire.

By Lewis supporting Ruiz and wanting to see AJ go to Mexico is further evidence that Lennox is now just a media manipulation shill for Al Haymon. And it’s damned obvious now Haymon and Ruiz do not want to honor their signed contract to give Joshua the immediate rematch for the amount they agreed on, $9m.

It’s time for Lennox to get out of this alliance with Haymon, Wilder and PBC, because it’s making him look bad and it’s damaging the integrity and sterling reputation Lennox has created via his honorable career and post career activities and philanthropy.

Nobody likes or respects a sellout who sells his opinions to the highest bidder.

There’s no way out now for Lennox other than to distance himself from PBC, Wilder and Haymon ASAP.

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Source: ringobserver.com