What makes people think Bowe would've beaten Tyson?

Tyson was never a genius infighter. He was very passive in the clinch. Not sure I would pick Bowe myself, but he was a big, strong, durable guy who could fight inside and had genuine ability. Him beating Holyfield, Tyson's conqueror, also helps.

 

Its based off beating Holyfield.

I dont agree whatsoever.
Styles make fights and Tyson beat alot of guys very easily that would have given other great fighters all sorts of trouble.


I dont want to repeat all of my arguments that ive made in another recent thread.

If Holyfield came in that light and fought that stupid and overconfident vs the best version of Tyson, he gets smashed even worse.

Holyfield would never beat Bowe easily, its a styles thing. But i dont think he would have done any better lunging in with overhand rights and trying to exchange weighing 205 vs the mobile and long Tony Tucker for example.

Ive seen people say Bowe had an iron jaw but, theres only the Holyfield fight as proof. On the other hand he looked chinny against Biggs, Holyfield in the 2nd and 3rd fight, where he was all over the place from single punches and against the british cruiserweight whos name escapes me at the moment.

Bowe had one performance where he looks like he could beat Tyson at his worst


Tyson has 10-15 performances where he looks like he could beat Bowe in his worst 5 performances

 

Prime for prime,Tyson beats Bowe in my opinion - we're talking '88 Tyson v '92 Bowe.

 

Bowe, on surface, looks formidable due to his size, power, combination punching etc. But when you look at the lack of punchers he fought, you wonder how he would of have dealt with Tyson's power. Seems like his team avoided punchers. Despite Tyson being stopped in all his losses, he had a more proven chin.

Not inconceivable for Bowe to win that match up but at their best, Tyson has the edge.

 

I suspect you're referring to Herbie Hide.

 

I suspect not many do. Slow news day?

 

Bowe would have been chicken dancing.

 

I think Bowe was two hittable to beat Tyson when he was good. But I can’t say I fault people who say otherwise, he was big, tremendously talented, good at inside fighting. He resembles guys who beat or gave Tyson trouble. I think Tyson would win but given he was an outstanding near contemporary I don’t fault anyone for having an opinion.

 

Some people will say Bowe>Holy>Tyson which I don't agree with. Incredible match up though, you could make a case for either man winning. I'm just not a fan of people saying "Tyson has no chance" or vice versa, complete BS.

 

I never liked how much punishment Bowe took - especially given his height and reach advantages.

In terms of maximising those advantages - he was the antithesis of Lennox Lewis imo. He made for some high action fights though.

However a prime v prime match vs Tyson goes, I suspect just the one fight between the pair might’ve wrecked Bowe for the balance of his career.

His trilogy vs Holyfield certainly took its toll.

 

But Tyson didn't take Buster's punches. He didn't even take Holyfield's punches.

Bowe was one of the guys in Brownsville who used to pick on and make fun of Mike Tyson. He called Tyson "Bummy Ike" because Tyson was poor and his clothes were so bad.

Bowe was never afraid of Tyson. He even visited Tyson when he was in prison because he wanted to fight Mike Tyson when he got out of jail.

Evander was never afraid of Tyson, either. He and Tyson got into an argument over a billiards game and almost got into a fight when they were both on the US Boxing team as amateurs, but Tyson backed down.

If you weren't afraid of Tyson, that wasn't good for Mike. And Bowe and Holyfield never feared him.

Unlike Frank Bruno, who panicked before both of their fights, and Smith, who was too afraid to open up until the very end, then spent years trying to get a rematch because he realized right at the end of their fight that he could hurt Tyson.

 

Based on what? Bowe certainly wasn't keen on facing Lewis and conveniently failed to fight the punchers of his era. Also where is the evidence of Bowe ever trying to make a Tyson fight. Tyson beat guys like Ruddock and Botha who didn't appear to be intimidated by him.

 

When Mike Tyson was in prison, he had no manager or promoter. Bowe and Rock Newman went to the prison in Indiana many times to convince Tyson to agree to fight Bowe when he got out (and possibly even sign with Newman).

They failed, obviously. But there were any number of articles about it. I believe Boxing Illustrated did an entire cover story on it.

And Mike Tyson wasn't exactly keen on facing Lennox Lewis, either.

Mike Tyson relinquished the WBC belt in 1996 rather than defend against his mandatory Lewis, too. Same as Bowe.

 

[QUOTE="Dubblechin, post: 22571478, member: 107480]Evander was never afraid of Tyson, either. He and Tyson got into an argument over a billiards game and almost got into a fight when they were both on the US Boxing team as amateurs, but Tyson backed down.[/QUOTE]

There's an even better story from that time. Tyson was knocking every HW out in sparring and nobody wanted to spar with him anymore. Holyfield, all of 175lbs back then, volunteered, then immediately got into a war with Tyson before the coaches broke it up.