Riddick Bowe, was he the avoider or the avoidee?

Recently I have been trying to ascertain whether Bowe's lacking resume is down to a lack of self belief/ambition on his part or whether Bowe suffered from being an avoided fighter due to his imposing stature and elite skills?

Can anyone shed some light on why various fights never materialised as my googling skills are lacking and this forum is rife with boxing historians (nerds) who will have lived through this time and can school me on what the problem was with Bowe getting the legacy fights his talents warranted.

I am aware Foreman and Tyson are on record saying they were not interested in fighting and I know about the whole Lewis fiasco, but any information or links would be helpful and very much appreciated.

 

I don't think Bowe had any interest in fighting Tyson. He idolised Tyson. Personally I think Bowe's biggest downfall was food and a lack of motivation. he could of been an even better fighter if he had the mentality of lennox Lewis. He certainly ducked Lennox Lewis. For that reason, I would always see him as the avoider. It was quite obvious that lennox had him beat mentally.

 

I was basing my 'Tyson didn't want Bowe' on an interview I saw where Mike stated he wouldn't fight Bowe as they were long time friends, I suppose that goes both ways.

Even as a Bowe cheerleader I can see its obvious Riddick wanted nothing to do with Lewis. A massive shame really as that one could have been an absolute classic.

What about the other 90's contenders Bowe didn't face, does anyone who remembers that era well recall the reasons given for not fighting the top guys like Moorer, McCall, Mercer, Ruddock etc?

 

In 93 the fight vs Lewis never materialized, everybody knows the story.

However, later Bowe-Lewis was already signed for early 95, but Lennox was unexpectedly stopped by McCall which cancelled fight.

Bowe unfortunately had short pro career, only 7 years. I think that his short prime was the reason why his resume wasn't so deep. At his peak Bowe was fantastic fighter. If only he had Holyfield's work ethic, he would've lasted way longer (to the mid 00's I think).

 

Mercer fight was scheduled but Ray came underprepared in a warm-up fight and lost to Ferguson who later was demolished in 2 by Riddick.

It's sad as win over Mercer would be much better for resume than Ferguson.

Ruddock lost his ranking after Lennox' loss therefore he wasn't considered as a top-contender and a big money fight post 92.

Moorer was official challenger for Bowe's title but Riddick lost rematch to Holyfield.

 

@Big Ukrainian - I actually remember hearing most of this in a video made by @Rumsfeld about 90's heavyweights but have a memory like a sieve so will re-watch. Although if you have any more info about Bowe's holes in his resume feel free to drop some (more) knowledge in this thread.

In sadder news, I saw Bowe and Golota posing at a face-off the last day. Seems they may be trying to drum up interest for a 3rd encounter.

 

Bowe would have taken alot of clean shots to the head(and became damaged by them) regardless. His work ethic had an impact on his fitness and how sharp he was offensively but even at his best he would always take a shot to give one(example vs holyfield where he would take holyfields lead right to dish out his own right uppercut which holyfield leaned/fell into, up close) and when i think about it if he had had even more tough fights against guys like lewis, mercer or tyson between the holyfield rematch and the golota fights, maybe he wouldve become damaged even sooner. His head(like most of us) just wasnt built for lasting at the top of pro HW boxing.
Another theory is that losing alot of weight quickly before some of his fights, and then taking headshots in a "drained" state is what ruined him. I dont think there is a way to know for sure. Either way his management was trying to make easy money with a young famous fighter figuring they could wait for hard fights later down the line(atleast thats how him avoiding Lewis in 93 came across to me) but it didnt turn out that way. I think they considered Lewis a big risk and maybe wanted to squeeze in a Holyfield rematch and possibly a Foreman fight before that.

 

If thats what theyre really trying to do, that is upsetting.

 

JFC, NO. Their brains will be turned to vegetable soup. Enough. Money isn't worth this.

 

To right! And would any one actually pay to see this? If it did happen it would be another excuse for all the anti boxing brigade to start up again.

 

There should be enough opposition from the pro-boxing brigade, Fergy. The second fight was hard enough to watch.

 

Yer, your right edd. That second fight was terrible. And listening to bowe been interviewed after! I couldn't believe it, in such a short time from holyfield one to the golata fights, how bad he sounded.

 

I think Bowe was prepared to take on Lewis in 1993 but they wanted to cash in with a an easier defence first, which doesn't seem too outrageous. I mean, just about every other champion in history did the same thing, especially if they won the title with a tough gruelling fight against someone like Holyfield.
Compare it to these modern paper champions (Wilder, AJ, for example) who win their titles from chumps and defend against chumps.
As soon as Lewis took on the WBC title his own priorities changed too. They had to face Tony Tucker and then they wanted to cash in a big UK fight with Bruno.

I believe Bowe's issues were the WBC title were just as much to do with the King-Sulaiman axis of evil rather than just avoiding Lennox Lewis.