THE WBC eliminator between Lennox Lewis and Donovan ‘Razor’ Ruddock had been part of a four-way agreement in which Riddick Bowe would be permitted to challenge Evander Holyfield for his undisputed world heavyweight title. The understanding was that the winner would then defend against the winner of Lewis–Ruddock. When, just 13 days after Lewis’s crushing victory over Razor Ruddock, Bowe relieved Holyfield of his belts via a 12-round points decision in Las Vegas, it was generally accepted that Bowe would make his first defence against Lewis.
In order to reinforce this, and to show they intended to honour the prior agreement, the WBC stated that the new champion and the Lewis camp should reach agreement by 13 December, or a further 15 days would be allowed while the bout went out to purse bids. Failure to comply would result in Bowe being stripped of the WBC title and Lewis being declared champion.
However, even before the bout, Bowe’s manager Rock Newman had given signals that they might not go through with the original agreement. The month after his victory over Holyfield, with both Bowe and Newman in London, the manager accused the WBC of being corrupt. Before they could respond by stripping Bowe of their title, the American got in first by organising a press conference during which Bowe relinquished the WBC crown by throwing a replica of their belt into a rubbish bin. Bowe said that if Lennox Lewis wanted it, then he was nothing more than a ‘garbage collector’.
Whatever the reasons behind Bowe’s relinquishment of the title, the WBC were quick to react. On 14 December 1992, they announced Lewis as their new champion. The decision meant Britain, at long last, had a world heavyweight champion to call their own.