Critical look at Rid**** Bowe

I'm not confident Lewis fits category #1, and I know he doesn't fit #2, at least in the 1992-1994 time frame when they should have fought.

 

You have articulated my doubts about him pretty well.

 

Nice. Also I know Gonzalez wasn't elite but he was huge and avoided from what ive read here and Bowe destroyed him mercilessly. Bowe's determination was unquestionable his discipline is another story. 6 foot 5, 235lbs, great jab, nasty hooks and uppercuts, never say die attitude, a nightmare for a lot of fighters. A prime Bowe could only be outboxed and outslicked for so long before he got to you.

 

Lewis upper cut on the inside is one of the most deadly punches in hw history.

If he lands that it's gonna take someone special to walk through it.

As for Lewis he has been banged out twice but never beaten up. Does Bowe hit hard enough to bang him out? Most likely yes, but I don't favour him to land a ko shot inside the way Lewis himself would.

 

Bowe looked good to me early in his career. He was talented and his fight trilogy with Holyfield was electric. However as a whole, his career ended up disappointing. He simply had bad habits which led to a short prime and quite simply he was protected. In a loaded decade he fought almost no one of consequence. To me he is overrated because of that.

 

good post, but bowe could very well beat all those 9 guys you favour over him.

 

Oh, it would have been a huge mega fight in 1993 Adam. Remember Lewis beat Bowe in a widely talked about Olympic Gold medal match.

We had USA vs the UK, and I think the odds would be close to even, with lots of hype attached to it. This would have been the best USA vs UK heavyweight match of all time. $$$

Bowe opted out. When you have a chance at a big time purse in boxing, you should take it as one punch can ruin it. Bowe's team rightly so feared Lewis, who had no issues landing his right-hand bomb on him, and had better amateur experience.

 

Oh it would have been big. But not HUGE. It would have been huge if Bowe won the Holy rematch, Lewis had won several more fights and not lost to McCall, and the press had built the fight up more and more, just as they did with Tyson-Spinks and Tyson-Holyfield. That takes time.

It is revisionist history to think otherwise. Lewis had one big win - against a guy who had lost twice to Tyson and got badly beaten up in the second fight and was diminished as a result. Lewis was not a household name. Evander Holyfield was. Holyfield had been a former undisputed cruiserweight champion, the man who for years had been talked of and built up as Tyson's toughest potential test, then became undisputed heavyweight champion, the man who KO'd Douglas after Douglas beat Tyson, had defeated Foreman in a fun PPV fight, Cooper in an awesome war, and Holmes (after Larry gave Mercer his first loss) in title defenses, and then the awesome entertaining war with Bowe that only increased respect and admiration for Holyfield. So the public was going to put up very big PPV numbers for Bowe-Holyfield II, bigger than Bowe-Lewis.

Most folks overrate amateur victories. Lewis lost to Biggs in the Olympics but KO'd him in the pros. Tyson lost to Tillman in the amateurs but KO'd him in the pros. Holmes lost to Bobick in the amateurs, but how'd their pro careers go? Frazier lost to Mathis as an amateur, but KO'd him in the pros. Bowe had an amateur loss to Gonzalez, but brutally KO'd him as a pro. Miguel Cotto lost in the Olympics to Abdullaev, but stopped him in the pros.

1988 Olympics - Lewis had the far superior experience as an amateur and was three years older than Bowe. Lewis had fought in the 1984 Olympics already. Most top Americans fight in the Olympics when they are young and relatively green, and then turn pro and develop. Lewis fought young in the '84 Olympics, and lost to Biggs, but what happened when they met as pros? Different ball game. No one denigrates Lewis for being green and losing to Biggs in '84. Instead of turning pro, he remained amateur for another four years, and obtained a ton of international experience. The younger Bowe was much greener as an amateur and had just recently emerged, so I say it was impressive that he even made it to the finals. He should have lost to a much more experienced guy like Lewis. And he momentarily hurt Lewis to the body and head in the first round. Sure Lewis rocked Bowe in the second, but the referee was extremely quick with the 8 counts and stopped the contest way too early. Everyone knows the officials in the 88 Olympics were as anti-American as could possibly be. Bottom line is the pro game is different. With several more years of development, Bowe was a vastly better fighter than he was in '88.

And as much as folks like to denigrate Bowe for getting beaten up by Golota, he still WON those fights. He rose from the canvas to defeat both Holyfield and Golota. Lewis got dropped by McCall and his legs were total jello and could not stand up unless he was leaning up against the referee. He got KO'd out cold by Rahman. So one guy gets dropped and is able to continue, and the other never did. Not saying that Lewis doesn't beat Bowe in their primes, but don't think it is a walk in the park by any means. Did you watch Lewis-Holyfield II, when Evander was much older and past his prime than he was when he fought Bowe? Yet, Lewis still barely won. But Bowe's two victories over a younger fresher Evander are somehow not all that significant and courageous? Bowe KO'd Evander after Holyfield beat Mercer in a good fight, becoming the first man to deck Ray. Keep in mind also, Evander went on to defeat Tyson after he had lost to Bowe, and after Tyson had KO'd McNeeley, Mathis, Bruno (who beat McCall), and Seldon, and was a huge favorite to do the same to Evander.

 

Tyson fought two damaging wars with Ruddock, went to prison for 4 years, came out, got two pastings from Holyfield, got banned for two years, came back and still found time to beat the **** out of Golota.

Golota, the one who retired Rid**** Bowe.

 

....

 

So basically you were wrong saying Tyson's record post prison was better than Bowe's entire career....

Yeah the same Rid**** Bowe that beat the Tyson's Daddy Evander Holyfield twice, shocking fighter Bowe was.... :nut

 

Same Tyson who beat Bowes daddy and made him quit.

Andrew 'Big Daddy' Golota.

 

What folks do not realize is that although Golota ruined Bowe, Bowe also ruined Golota. Particularly the second fight, which was absolutely brutal to both fighters. Golota was badly damaged and hurt and was never the same after that fight. People incorrectly look at those fights as one-sided when in fact Golota absorbed tremendous punishment as well, which is why he fouled. To the outside looking in, Golota was winning, and he was, but inside the ring, inside his head, Golota is hearing the bells ringing when he's getting nailed by Bowe's very heavy clubbing underrated power. It is like Foreman - his one is worth your two or three. Sure Golota might have been landing 2 to 1, and hurting Bowe, but Bowe's one is enough to rock your world and give you brain damage. And when your head is ringing, you don't necessarily think about the fact that you are winning. Golota was hurt and therefore acted on pure survival instinct, which was to foul when hurt. He was a disher not a taker. And he took brutal punishment from Bowe. So do I think he was the same after the second Bowe war? Hell no. Those fights were brutal enough to ruin both of them. Sure Golota kept fighting, but he never again was quite as frisky, and he folded and quit much quicker when nailed with a good one.

 

Good post. Yes, Bowe/Holyfield II was probably bigger money for Bowe than Bowe/Lewis in 1993. Rock Newman probably saw it as the smart choice, as Bowe had already beaten Holyfield once. That said, I am not confident Bowe's team would have taken Lewis on if Bowe had won the second Holyfield fight. They could have used the excuse, "well he has just had two tough fights with Holyfield."

 

The Holyfield rematch was the last "hurdle" to Bowe-Lewis. Early 1994 was the projected date for it to happen. I remember immediately after Bowe beat Holyfield in 1992 that negotiations weren't fruitful and people saying the earliest we could see Bowe-Lewis would be 1994, which seemed like a long, long time in my youth.

I think this was Newman's original plan to give time for Lewis to be built up. If Ruddock had won there was no need since he was already established.