Was Bowe's chin really tested?

Bowe and Lewis had the power to hurt each other and bother were easy to hit in the early 90`s, Bowe said the hardest he was hit was by Herbie Hide who rocked him a couple of times.

 

Here's what we do know .. Lewis fought everyone , everyone that would step in the ring w him .. Bowe fought Holyfield .. Bowe did not fight the following punchers of his time .. Bruno, McCall, Ruddock, Tyson, Tua, Morrison, Mercer, Rachman, Briggs, Tucker .. Bowe was knocked out multiple times in the amateurs and the word was his chin was suspect .. while I think it was certainly decent from the punches we saw him take from Evander and some other guys, he was not matched against the biggest hitters and that is no accident to me ..

 

I think that his chin was very good, but I also think that a few questions were left unanswered.

 

In the first two fights at least bowe took Holyfields best shots and combo's better than Foreman did and everyone seems to think old foreman had a great chin.

 

Show me where Bowe got teed off on like George did. Bowe never took the flush multi punch combinations like George did in either fight and Foreman was only sort of stunned the one time at that anyway after a 15 punch combination. Foreman’s chin was incredible in that fight.
And why is Bowe getting knocked down and badly stunned by a single left hook from Evander in the trilogy fight being ignored? Bowe was a lot younger and closer to his physical prime than Foreman was but was still nearly KO’d by a energyless Holyfield suffering from hepatitis (apparently).
Bowe avoided all the best punchers of his era. That’s a fact, therefore his chin is largely unproven.

 

Holyfield never landed against Bowe with the volume of shots in sequence he landed on Foreman .. not even close ... and as you pretty much admitted, Holyfield had Bowe next to out in the third fight and would have stopped him if he wasn't going through his own mysterious morphing ..

 

I don’t think his chin should be in question. He was never stopped in over 40 fights and met guys like Holyfield, Golata, Hide, Cooper and Gonzalez. No, he did not face EVERY puncher in the nineties, but he did enough to prove his durability. His defense and lack of devotion to training were his real problems

 

Watch the Golota fights and tell me he lacks either chin or heart with a straight face.

 

These are really strong points, @young griffo

George didn't really get hurt that bad in the whole of the Holy fight, in fact his standing up after that one, amazing combination is near superhuman imo. I don't think Bowe could have stayed upright after that.

It might be very telling that he picked Hide as the person who hit him hardest. Hide had a quick, whipping shot...but he wasn't Lewis, Morrison, Mercer, or Tua...damn sure wasn't Foreman-level of power.

I would have been more convinced had he mentioned Cooper, but I don't think Cooper landed too much on him.

These are the points that add to the mystery.

 

Oh, he had PLENTY of heart! That was never a problem.

 

Exactly. He was a shell of himself at that point from a skill and athletic ability. But his balls, heart and chin were still there. Bowe was a very good fighter thatbis really underrated. H2H he beats a lot of dudes including some all time greats.

 

He did not fight any of the top punching , top fighters. None.

 

Would you say his chin was weak ?

 

I answered that in passage #3.