Bowe never fought a real puncher and Golota exposed his chin is this the real reason he never fought Lewis. Maybe if Lewis won't come out of retirement to fight Bowe after being called out, Golota could fight a trilogy with him.
Bert Cooper was a puncher. Ask Evander Holyfield, Ray Mercer, and Michael Moorer. More to the point, I think Lewis was avoided because Bowe's manager, Rock Newman, wanted no part of him. It's true, Riddick went along with the programme but I think he would have given Lewis a much tougher fight than even Ray Mecer gave him. Bowe could be hurt, we saw it as he was coming up, but I don't think his chin was suspect to such a degree that he was unable to beat a puncher. Lewis was just a great Heavyweight, and for a time, so was Riddick Bowe.
Holyfield was the best of the quality fighters who had a punch and he put Bowe down. Lewis in the Amatuers and Lewis stopped him after 2 standing 8's...I dont know what happened in the Golota fighter except that Bowe took a beating and Andrew had a Lose Wish with his last shot to the balls in a fight he could not lose...excuse me 2 fights he could not lose......
Bert doesn't count- such a small crusier agaisnt such a massive fighter, the physcial advantages were just too great. And Bert ran hot and cold. He was capable of wars like Holyfield, Mercer or Moorer, or absolute, abject surrender like the Foreman fights, and if I remember correctly, the ever formidable Samson Pa'hua. Bowe is as damned an enigma as ever entered a boxing ring. Two wins over ATG evander Holyfiled, only one loss on his record to the same and yet, with his crappy fights against Golota and Tubbs, his meltdown against Tillery, his cowardly "defenses" against Dokes and Ferguson after throwing a belt in a trash can to avoid Lewis, and his genral lack of any other impressive fights on the resume, it is really difficult for me to think of him as anything other than minor great. If put him in about the same general range as Floyd Patterson, Vitali Klitschko, Ken Norton, Joe Walcott- that range.
Bowe was a ***** he didnt really fight anyone fulstop apart from Holyfield who nearly knocked him out and Golota who beat the **** out of him I thought he was the business at the time but now in hindsight its plain to see that he had the benefit of a lot of US hype, he was the best heavyweight at the time as a certain Lennox Lewis was still quite green, but Lewis would have ended him His chin wasnt bad but his defence was average and his jab was not in the same class as prime Lewis'
He threw a belt in a trash can that Tyson had worked so hard to unify and Holyfield had tried so hard to keep unified. Then he fought Dokes and Ferguson. We all wanted to like him, and it turned out to be such a waste. Hell, I just started a thread on him in the general. I would still like to get a good fight out of him.
Riddick Bowe still beat a prime Holyfield, something nobody else did. He was a very good Heavyweight in 1992, and would have beat post-prison Tyson and given Lewis an absolute war. He was a great athlete, a great fighter, who made a few bad career moves.
He would've fought Mercer if Mercer beat Jesse Ferguson but he didn't. Instead he fought Ferguson. I think announcers brought that up in the RJJ/B-Hop fight.
I agree. I don't hold grudges on Bowe. I'm sure he regrets a lot of what he did and didn't do. People make mistakes. I think a lot of people are just disappointed because they saw so much more to him than he did justice to. Certainly Eddie Futch seemed to think he had as much unfulfilled potential as any HW. It is disappointing.
I can understand that. In the first Holyfield fight, Bowe would have beaten quite a few really good Heavyweights throughout history. That was the best possible Evander Holyfield. No heart problems, he was in ridiculous shape as always, but he was just beaten by a man who really, really wanted to become Heavyweight champion of the world. Have a side by side comparison of that Bowe to the one that fought Golota is night and day. For one night, Bowe was great.
I would not be surprised if the force of those shots was felt on the chin. He got a lot of leverage on them.