Bowe is better than Lewis due to how he handled Holyfield in their initial contest, that is basically what you said, right? Styles are often what determines the outcome of a fight & Holyfield was a good match up for Bowe, whereas Lewis would not have been. Using the common opponent approach, Lewis certainly handled Golota & Biggs far easier than Bowe, though that doesn't necessarily make Lewis better, nor does Bowe's handling of Holyfield. Bowe against Lewis is an unbelievably close match-up against two olympic boxers, both of whom could really fight & are separated by the finest of margins, it could go either way, though i think Lewis would have beaten him & Bowe knew it.
I think Lewis is indisputably a greater hw champ by a large margin. And at their best, I'd favor lewis to win. But i do think it's funny how many people are 100% sure that a Lewis who was less than a year from getting knocked out by Oliver McCall would have definitely beaten Bowe, who was in his brief prime at that point. Again, not saying Lewis doesn't win. He would have been confident while also not looking past bowe which he probably was with McCall. But even if bowe was scared of Lewis... Foreman claims he was terrified of Joe Frazier. Sometimes fear paralyzes a fighter, sometimes it lights a fire in them.
These folks likely have an agenda. It would be a 50-50 in my mind. If Bowe catches Lewis with that overhand right it is all over.
Seriously people need to actually watch the Olympics match. The stoppage is dubious. I feel like people just look at the record and see a stoppage win for Lewis and go "Lewis would have just knocked him out again." A fighter who was never knocked out with a lot of power. It's a tough fight for Lewis. I think he's glad it never happened. I think Bowe feels the same honestly. I think neither of them is actually that confident they would have won, and now they both get to claim it loudly while plebs like us speculate. This content is protected
Watching Tyrell Biggs’ fight with Bowe is enough to convince me that Lewis would beat the **** out of Bowe. Lewis could always get chinned, but the same would be true if he rematched Shannon Briggs.
In fairness, I was a little harsh calling them "club fighters", so I stand corrected and I apologize. By "club fighter" I take it you, or most, would consider the likes of Levi Billlups or Jose Ribalta club fighters. So yes, in comparison to them, they were better than that.
Bowe fought Butler in his second pro fight. I actually agree with your point overall but this is an anomaly. Butler in your second fight shows some guts and self-belief.
We will never know how Bowes chin would have held up against an elite puncher because he never fought one. And Lewis could do many other things besides punch hard.
The most that you could say for Bowe, is that his theoretical ceiling might have been equal to or greater than Lewis's. The reality is that he accomplished a fraction of what Lewis did.
Extremely dubious. Even the announcers were stunned by it. The Bowe who beat Holyfield in the first fight would have stopped the Lewis of that year. No other Bowe could have done that, and to be honest I don't think even 1992 Bowe could have beaten the Lewis who knocked the hell out of Briggs and Grant.
The only theoretical prime here is Lennox Lewis’ Like it or not, Bowe possesses one of the great championship performances in the division’s history. What exactly has Lewis got to rival that? His showings against an ancient Holyfield were hardly anything to write home about. Prime this prime that. Bowe put it all together for one evening to produce a brilliant display of infighting, complete punching, strategy, endurance and heart. When has Lewis ever put a complete performance together like that? No the corpse of Tyson or glass chinned Rahman do not count!