Riddick Bowe - How good could he have been?

Welcome to the forum,

I think Bowe at his best was one of the most all-around talented heavyweights in history. I don't know enough about him to say whether or not he lacked the discipline to forge a great career, but on talent he was among the best I've seen of the heavyweights. Not the hardest guy to hit, but serious power, good handspeed, good overall fundamentals, and great in-fighting ability for a man his size.

 

He could have been the the best heavyweight of all time. He wasn't but he had the talent and size to be the best heavyweight of all time. He could box from the out side and fight on the inside. He should have fought Lennox Lewis right after he won the Championship from Holyfield this was his bigest career mistake. He was at his best and Lewis was still devloping into what would become a better boxer than Bowe but at the time and I know this is not a popular opinion but I think Bowe would have won If they had bet then. He bascicly threw his greatness away when he threw away the WBC belt. His only loss ws a Majority Decision loss was to Holyfield who was very good at the time in a fight that was interuptied by the Fan Man Incdiont. Sure he got rocked a few times. What heavyweight dosn't take a few good punches but I don't recall him being knocked down in his prime with the exciption of the 2 Golota fights but how much did the low blows effect/cause those knockdowns. Don't forget that Golota got his nickname The Foul Pole mostly from the 2 Bowe fights.
He also brefly held the WBO tittle and in my opinion would have beaten Michael Moorer, George Foreman, Axel Schulz, Bruce Seldon, Oliver McCall, Frank Bruno and Henry Akinwande from 1993-1996. I also think he would have beaten Holyfield with or with out Hepitittious as well as Mike Tyson at the time and Lenox Lewis at the time. Plenty of pontitional and a lot of wasted opertontites.

 

He could have gone as far as he wanted to, really.

 

yeah if he wasn't such a fat lazy coward.

 

Bowe was a lot of things. A guy who goes toe to toe with Evander Holyfield three times is anything but a coward.

Cue Lennox Lewis ducking rant.

 

Bowe was a very good fighter, one of the could have been great maybe guys. He certainly had the tools from a physical standpoint.

Maybe with a different Manger/Trainer he could have been more. We will never know, sadly he is just another boxing sad story.

 

I've always thought he was one of the most talented big men I've seen at his best, but he lacked the mentality and discipline to maintain any kind of greatness.

Great skills though, when his head was on straight. Among the best in-fighting Heavyweights I've seen (particularly the uppercuts), easily the best out of the Super Heavies. Very good outside game as well, he was skilled at jabbing, parrying, and countering and was one of the most active Heavies inside or out.

 

He had the tools, just not quite the mentality.

Which isn't to say I don't think he could be determined and focused. He just wasn't like that enough. He let it drift. The very top heavyweights in history had, frankly, a fairly terrifying level of dedication and focus which Bowe did not share.

Potentially, well, he could've been right up there with Ali and Louis if everything had gone right. No joke.

 

Bowe took alot of good punches not a few good punches. His lack of defense suspectability to a jab would always give him trouble against hard punchers with good jabs.

Take note that in a relativelly puncher heavy era Bowe avoided alot of the best punchers of his era.

 

Yep. Although in all fairness Lennox imo is the worst stylistic matchup for Bowe imaginable. Hard, long jab, accurate and hard puncher, and the size and strength to bully Bowe around and avoid getting beat on inside. We all saw him getting pummelled in the ams by Lennox so you could understand his reluctance to fighting him but he was disgraceful.

Had he been focused and determined on improving himself (defense, staying committed to the jab) he may well have been a top 5 HW though.

 

I've always found the faulting of Bowe's mentality and dedication somewhat flawed.

He isn't 100% a "What If" fighter. He accomplished a lot in a unbelievably short period of time, similar to Mike Tyson. Yet he's faulted far more then Tyson for his "lack of dedication".

He decisively beat Evander Holyfield in a trilogy. You could very well argue he's 3-0 against Evander.

From late 89' when he began fighting to mid 92' he tore through the heavyweight ranks, at which point it came down to him and Evander. How can you fault him blowing out Seldon in 1, Cooper in 2, and Ferguson in 2? None of them were world beaters but they were all litmus tests for up and coming fighters, and very few fighters ever dealt with the three of them like Bowe did.

In fact, no one else ever dealt with Ferguson like that, sans a pissed off Bowe in a "Get me the **** out of here" performance by Jesse.

And Seldon was legitimately wrecked in two rounds. No Tyson quit job there.

 

Yeah but Tyson defended his titles 10 times and unified all three in under a year. Bowe does often get unfairly critisized though, what he did accomplish puts him definently in the top 20 and maybe top 15.

 

Yeah, I don't see how you can rank someone with two wins over Evander Holyfield outside the top 20.