The Riddick Bowe who beat Holyfield in their first fight vs Lennox Lewis who beat

The best Bowe beats the best Lewis

 

Bowe was more talanted and had way more heart than Lewis. Bows problem was he was lazy and had a nut case manager

 

bowe got hit a lot by pierre coetzer and evander holyfield ....lennox lewis hits a lot harder then pierre coetzer and evander holyfield = lennox lewis tko in 4 rds ..

 

And the Golota fights and Tubbs.
Bowe got hit a lot that's a bad recipe vs Lewis.
In the early 90s I felt Bowe was the better pro- he became a finished product much quicker and Lewis was always a little clumsy. However looking back I feel Lewis beats him. Bowe's resume is so light for a stacked decade and his defense so poor I think Lewis finds a home for the right and gets him out there.

 

Thought we were talking both at there best?

 

Bowe dominated Evander in the first fight and Lewis also dominated Evander in their first fight. But the Holyfield fights are an ineffective comparison of ability as Holyfield was prime against Bowe and slightly past his best against Lewis.

If we compare their performances against the same opposition around the same time we see a clear difference. Both fought Biggs in 91 and both fought Golota with only a year separating their performances. Lewis easily crushed both Biggs and Golota, while Bowe struggled with Biggs, being hurt twice and was ruined by Golota, though he was already past prime by then.

I say Lewis at his best defeats Bowe at his best. Difference would be defence and footwork. Lewis was far better in this department, Bowe would find it harder to land on Lewis than vice versa.

Also Lewis with his quicker feet would all too often beat Bowe to the punch. Lewis would be able to step in and get off with shots before Bowe could move away and then tie up Bowe on the inside to take away Bowe's inside game. Lewis would have 10lbs of extra muscle on Bowe and would be far too strong in close, he wouldn't trade with Bowe on the inside he'd tie him up, manhandle him and bring him onto the uppercut when he could. Lewis could take away Bowe's strengths, while Bowe would only have a punchers chance.

 

Bowe is extremely overrated. For an elite level fighter, his defense was complete ****. He got hit so much he was punchy by late 20s. It's one thing getting teed off on by small lightpunching Holyfield, and a big powerpunching SHW like Lewis. Golota showed Bowe couldn't hang with an elite opponent his size.

 

I am a brit and like lewis, i also liked bowe, who incidentally i thought and still do think that Bowe would have beat Lennox.

I was very disappointed in the manner in which Lennox aquired his belt, and took great pleasure in parading it like he had won it.

He should have done the decent thing when being awarded it without fighting for it, and said thanks but no thanks, and pursued Bowe for the real right to be heavyweight champion.

But he didnt and he went his own way, shameful in my opinion.

But that aside he did go on and achieve great things.

Bowe in my opinion always lacked motivation because he couldnt get the fight "Lewis" he wanted and got fed up with it all.

Bowe by late 10th round stoppage "Ref Intervention".

 

Bowe

Younger, faster, hungrier.

 

We can spend the rest of our lives contemplating and debating the question.. But we'll never know the answer and we can blame Rock Newman for that.

 

The way you put things, you make it sound like Lewis didn't pursue Bowe. Lewis pursued the Bowe fight before and after getting the WBC belt.

They signed to fight in early 95, when Lewis had the WBC belt and Bowe had just been beaten by Holyfield. Lewis didn't need Bowe then, he had the belt, he was making good money having made $21 million in his last 3 fights, while Bowe struggled to make $1.25 million in his last fight against Mathis Jr. Yet Lewis made the fight, unlike Bowe who when he had the belt ran from Lewis after a low ball offer.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/18/sports/bowe-and-lewis-fight-is-on.html

Why would any fighter not accept a title that had been stripped from the champion for not facing them? Should Lewis have allowed 2 other fighters fight for the vacant belt while he tried to fight Bowe who had already passed on the opportunity when he was contractually obligated to fight Lewis. What makes you think Bowe would have accepted a fight with Lewis in these circumstances when he made it clear he didn't want the fight or at least his management didn't want the fight.

Bowe lacked motivation because he was lazy pure and simple. He was known to be lazy as an amateur before he lost to Lewis in Seoul and he was lazy after he won the belt.

You call what Lewis did shameful, really? Being given a belt that was rightfully stripped from a fighter who wouldn't face him, how is that shameful?

How about Bowe only getting the title shot because he agreed to face the winner of Lewis/Ruddock and reneging on that? Isn't that shameful? How about Bowe's behavior, from sucker punching opponents at press conferences, from his team assaulting boxers and the fan man, from joining the marines then quitting after 3 days and then of course the incident where he kidnapped his wife and children and stabbed his wife in the chest?

 

Bowe

Slower, weaker, far more easy to hit

 

I've no doubt (unless Lewis had one of his famous "off" nights) that Lewis would have Golota'd Bowe way before Andrew was even a 1-2 timbeeerrr on Bowe's horizon.

Let's be fair and say that if Lewis took a lackadaisical approach to the fight then Bowe was fully capable of hospitalizing him. But given their history I am darn sure Lewis wouldn't have taen half measures.

 

Or you can blame Don King.

You would you trust with your life? The humanitarian missionary man Rock Newman or the low life scoundrel King?

 

Rock Newman, the poison dwarf, or Don King, the electrified scumbag?

:think Hard choices these.