If Fury retires now, the parallels with Bowe are enormous

To me, there are a lot of parallels between the two. A lot of this is predicated on Fury talking retirement again. Fury can certainly improve his legacy, but if he quits now, he is basically Bowe all over again, and the two will over time come to be remembered as very similar in status and story. Here goes:

THE TWO MEN WHO WON ALL FOUR BELTS
A lot of people forget that Bowe won the WBO belt against Hide.

BOTH HAVE ONE GREAT WIN, AND TWO GOOD SUPPORTING WINS
Bowe has Holyfield I, Fury has Klitschko. Bowe has Holyfield II and Hide, Fury has Wilder I and II. The Jorge Luis Gonzales, Pierre Coetzee, Derrick Chisora types fights can be counted up if you like, but I think it is safe to say that they are both defined by these three fights each.

BOTH ARE DEFINED AS MUCH BY WHO THEY DID NOT FIGHT
Bowe fought in the best era ever, got in there with Holyfield twice, but famously also threw a belt in the trash rather than face Lewis. He also missed out on Mercer, Morrison, Moorer, Tyson, Ruddock etc. For his part, Fury missed out on a big fight with Haye, and is talking retirement with both Usyk and Joshua on the horizon. Also, his mid-level wins are pretty thin, and names like Price and Thompson come up a lot as guys that he almost fought.

SIMILAR RECORDS, WITH ONE BLEMISH
Fury is 31-0-1. Bowe is 42-1. So Bowe has 10 more fights, but he's got that "1" on the other side balancing it out, whereas Fury has only the dodgy draw most felt he should have won.

BOTH HAVE RECEIVED SOME GOOD FORTUNE
Bowe should have DQ losses against Tillery (for hitting after the bell) and Mathis Jr (for hitting him when on the ground). The Tubbs fight was seen at the time as an either-way fight, and, whereas DQ wins are legit, he was losing to Golata both times when the latter melted down. For his part, most people felt Fury lost to McDermott, and he had to use some shady tactics to beat Cunningham. Whereas I am hardly a long-count idiot, it would have been within the ref's privy to stop the first Wilder fight when he was on the canvas not moving. Similarly, another ref might have stopped the Wallin fight for the cut. Fury won these fights fair and square, but he was lucky that he had a ref who knew what he is capable of.

BOTH ARE THERE OWN WORST ENEMY
Bowe's main problem was that he loved food and hated training, but he also had the legal problems regarding kidnapping his estranged wife. I could have sworn that I heard somewhere that a lot of his money went up his nose, but a number of people have told me that I am just plain wrong about that. Similarly, Fury notoriously ballooned up to almost 400 pounds and quit boxing when UKAD popped him with a suspension for cocaine use.

BOTH WERE WILDLY ENTERTAINING OUTSIDE OF THE RING
Fury's antics are legendary, and Bowe loved to play at being Ali.

BOTH ABANDONED TITLES
Fury surrendered the WBO/WBA/IBF straps. Bowe famously threw the WBC belt in the trash, and think he gave up the WBO belt. Rare in boxing unless a guy is moving up in weight.

THEIR TITLE DEFENSES DON'T ADD MUCH
Bowe's defenses against Dokes, and Ferguson were embarrassing, and I think Gonzales was a WBO title defense. Fury has managed on 1 against Wilder who he shellacked in the last fight out, unless you count his last six as defenses of his "linear" title.

Finally...

BOTH WILL BE REMEMBERED AS BIG MEN WITH UNUSUAL STYLES
Bowe, a huge man for his day at 6'5" (he always looked bigger too, with those tree-trunk legs) is remembered as a tough infighter. Fury, at 6'8" or so, of course changes his style like socks, starting out as a brawler, switching to being an ambidextrous boxer who moves like a cat, and recently learning to fight in close.

What say you?

 

Bowe was a shame of talent, that, if not wasted, was not fulfilled. I think he might hav been a bit punchy coming out of the amateurs, which is why he was so protected at time. Never did face a world-class puncher.

 

Cooper...meh. Hide and Cooper were hard-pinching cruisers. The power went down in proportion to the quality of their opponents.

Gonzales was a bum.

But point taken. Maybe I should modify myself to say that he never fought quality puncher. I'll even give you Hide, who was a pretty good heavy. Point taken there.

Fights were Mercer, Morrison and I think Ruddock were discussed. And of course, Lennox.

 

Some consider Bowe to be so.

If he retires now, their records and accomplishments are very similar, as has been derived for you. I like Fury, but lets not be fanboys, here.