How do you view Riddick Bowe?

One can only rate Bowe based on what was seen and on his record and speculate, as I do, that he let a great deal of his potential slip away, unfulfilled.

That part of his career which saw him become champion, as a diligent disciple of Futch, is also the stage during which he was developing as a fighter. He effectively peaked at the point he won the title and tailed off from there, in my opinion. Could he have achieved greater heights?

To this day, I consider him to have been a huge offensive threat, who might have gone much further, had he remained focused - but it wasn't to be. So legacy-wise he has suffered, leaving some questions about what could have been.

Ironically, however, I think the best version of Bowe remains a hard man to beat when considering him head-to-head.

 

I remember him best for having a refrigerator fitted in the bedroom of his new mansion to save him the trek to the kitchen. Massive wasted potential IMO.

 

A great boxer who was difficult to beat.

One of those guys you needed to box from the out side to beat when on his prime.

He was a tank.

But he was also a wasted talent. Not fighting Lennox Lewis and then getting bossed by Golota as the other poster said, will in the end be his legacy that he will be remembered for, other than his place in the IBHOF.

A fight between him and George Foreman would have been super interesting in around 1991.

 

Overrated.

 

He had all the tools to become top 5 ATG, but it appears all he cared about was actually winning the title. I think that was his life peak and he didn't think it was meant to be a particularly enduring thing, only that he won it. He also listened to a total bonehead like Newman (without Newman the belt/trash thing wouldn't have happened. He was pretty damn dumb to follow along with it, at that stage he would have beaten Lewis imo).

I was WAY into Bowe after Holy I and even the rinky (but devastating) title defenses. I started getting weirded out Holy 2, and by the time the 3rd Holy came out I (and most of the fans I knew) were getting concerned about how slowed down he was getting.

The second Golota fight was one of those "shoulda been stopped" deals where Bowe experienced massive head trauma. By that time I was much more interested in Lewis and Holy.

 

At his best I would put him in the top ten h2h heavyweights

 

You could tell that by just his appearance that he was already shot or close to shot by the time of the 2nd Golota fight

 

Frail-looking, yes. But the brutality he stood upto proved anything but, even if his performance was still probably overall affected.

 

Skilled fighter with a short prime, probably caused by his lack of discipline outside of the ring.

Damaged his own reputation in the eyes of history with the stunt of throwing the WBC belt into the trash to avoid having to fight Lewis, which, added to his quick decline and his terrible performances against Golota, kind of relegates him to second teir status amongst the champions of the era - he had a couple of wins over Holyfield, and was undisputed champion for a bit, and picked up the WBO belt off of Hide, but other than that has little to show for his career when his potential suggested he could have achieved so much more and been big player for much longer than he was.

 

50 pounds less... FFS!
He could have fought Butterbean instead of Golota.

Bowe should have stick to hotdog eating contest...

 

Bowe was getting wobbled with every punch it seemed his punch resistance was not there he seemed to take Golota's punches far better in their 1st meeting despite being fatter.

The only thing that kept Bowe standing in the 2nd fight was pure heart and determination because he was literally a shell of himself.

Really the fight should've been stopped in the 2nd round Bowe took over 70 punches in round 2 which is just cruel, especially when it was 240 pound man hitting him consistently no wonder he ended up with brain damage.

 

Very good fighter… could have been better

 

Overrated

 

I don't...and neither do most real boxing historians...

 

That is the saddest part. Bowe was not interested in boxing anymore and the sensible thing to do was to leave as soon as possible. But for whatever reasons he stuck around with terrible consequences.

I wish Bowe had been smart enough to pull a "Buster": after beating Holy, he should sign to face Lewis for the biggest purse possible, then take a dive and laugh all the way to the bank to cash his retirement check.