The Riddick Bowe who beat Holyfield in their first fight vs Lennox Lewis who beat

I don't listen to anything Lewis said about that interview...and it's pretty dismissive of you to assume I did.

What I heard was Lewis saying he was gonna knock Bowe out, and Bowe saying "you're not the man I thought you were" and "you had help from the ref in the olympics". That doesn't sound to me like a man that wants to get it on or a man who's confident of victory.

Lewis was standing up aggresively, and Bowe's not really the sort of guy to take that normally. But he never wanted any of Lewis and that transcended through the screen to me. If you didn't feel that, then fair enough that's your take.

Chris Warren, if you put "Bowe Lewis interview" into youtube, I think you'll find it.

Some may dismiss it as irrelevant, but psychological factors are very important in boxing.

 

So were Ruddock, Grant, Golota, etc. "gassed" after 10 seconds into their fight? :roll:

 

What the hell do you base that on??

He stayed true to his word and actually fought them.

 

"Liston was giving me that stare. And I won't lie; I was scared. Sonny Liston was one of the greatest fighters of all time. He was one of the most scientific boxers who ever lived, he hit hard and he was fixing to kill me. It frightened me, just knowing how hard he hit."

-Muhammad Ali
His Life and Times, p 74,

Ali also talked about how he knew he had big fists and was scarred of getting hit by the power and big fists of Liston. Ali knew how to deal with that sort of adversity, though.

His photographer says he was very nervous before the Foreman fight.

 

Lewis by late stoppage.

 

Didn't Lewis and Holyfield draw in their first fight (bad decision)?

 

Prime Bowe versus prime Lewis would always be competitive.

The fight in the Olympics was competitive and if not for the East German ref interjecting himself into the fight it could have been a pretty good one. The 21 year old Bowe got rattled by the ref's constant warnings. I gave Bowe the 1st round.

Bowe is one of the few fighters with both the size and the skill to trouble Lennox.

I would expect quite a shoot out if they had met with huge power shots thrown in anger and while I would never count out Lennox there is no doubt that Bowe could also catch Lennox and end things. Bowe seems to be very underrated on ESB.

I rate them both of them in their prime well above either Klit on their ability by a WIDE distance.

 

pfft. One of Frank Bruno's legendary pushovers.

 

I cant tell from this whether Bowe is afraid of Lewis or not. Looks like same old Riddick Bowe to me, trash-talking.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNp12msEWqU[/ame]

Anyways, as someone already pointed out, Bowe's fear or apprehension (it is was real) wouldn't really be THE REASON for a Lewis fight not happening. Truth is, Rock Newman thought they'd milk the title a bit, and Lewis would either lose and become a non-issue, or keep winning and 2-3 years down the line the fight would be even bigger. Also, he was probably looking forward to Tyson's release, and the mega-millions that represented made any potential Lewis fight look like chump change. But the whole strategy backfired, Bowe lost to Holyfield and was never the same again.

 

The cloest Bowe-Lewis ever came top facing each other as pros was in 1993 when negotiations were started & on-going to point. If they would have fought at that stage, Bowe would won, quite comfortably imo. Lewis may have been older, but Bowe was much the mature fighter at that stage & Lewis was nowhere near the fighter he would go on to become!

Bowe's prime was very brief so anytime after 1994, I would take Lewis to stop him!

However, prime-prime I would have to favour Bowe! For a big man his inside fighting was tremendous, he had variety, was in shape & could go twelve hard rounds as he showed against Holyfield in their first encounter!

Lewis goes down in history as the better boxer & rightfully so, but Bowe could have been just as great, if not greater! Discipline was never in Bowe's vocabulary & that was his achillies heel. Even Eddie Futch admitted as much!

 

Your completely wrong Lennox fought every big puncher of his era, while Bowe ducked all the punchers of the 90s, Bowe isnt even a particularly big hitter, Lennox was. The biggest puncher Bowe faced may have been Golota and we all see what happened there

Lennox had an iron chin:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIRShCBKwng[/ame]

 

Lewis got KO'd twice by single punches. Some will say the McCall stoppage was premature but he looked gone and fell on top of the referee when he got up. And Rahman was only a decent puncher.

Lewis's chin was decent, but Bowe has enough power to throw a KO punch equal to what McCall or Rahman landed.

 

In boxing anyone can be ko'd if caught by great shots. McCall was a way bigger 1 punch hitter than Bowe. Lewis was past prime undertrained and f*cked by the altitude (Rahman got there a month before to aclimatise, Lewis only a few days before the fight).

Tua, Tyson, Rudduck, Bruno were all way bigger hitters than Bowe and none of them could KO him, neither could Rahman/McCall in the rematches. Are Bowe fans hoping Lewis wouldnt be focused or would be past prime?

Anyway were all forgeting the fight did happen Bowe was lucky he was wearing a head guard when that right hand was teeing off on him :yep