If both retired today who is ranked higher Riddick Bowe or Vitali K?

:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

Yes, Vitali gets a FREE PASS for not fighting the best fighter in the world, who happens to be his brother.

 

Yeah thats kind of shitty but I can understand theiir feelings on that. Its not like his brother is the tennis champion, hes trying to **** the guy up.
Still there is definitely a case to be made between them for "**** or get off the pot"

 

No. The fact that Foreman was a champion into his 40s and Ali was shot at 38 makes no difference to what happened in the Rumble. You don't win fights by longevity.

 

I wasn't comparing Bowe to Arreola so much as I was illustrating the preferred type of arcing overhand right Bowe threw and how in the Arreola fight we saw how effectively Lurch could block it. In that bout we got a very strong hint to how Vitali might nullify one of Bowe's best weapons. As for grit in the trenches, we never saw Bowe show any against somebody as focused, big and strong as Vitali. We might have had he faced Lewis.........

I believe that a plodding Bowe walks into Vitali's punches, and as the first couple of rounds prove largely ineffective for him and his preferred method, he starts reaching with that wild, arcing overhand right....missing or seeing it blocked. As he starts taking more and more chances to get inside, he starts taking more punishment from Klitschko.

 

IMO, Bowe. He proved it in big fights, and he was a better all-round fighter.

 

This is actually how I saw Bowe/Vitali going down when the subject came up in another thread a few months back. Fat or not, Kirk Johnson was quick of hand and also bombed his right in a similar arching manner only for Vitali to anticipate them pretty effortlessly. In contrast, Lewis had a sharp blinding straight cross, and still had trouble timing Vitlai with it, catching him once at just the right angle to start the cut.

Lewis was also proven as a dirty but effective clinch fighter that could fall back on such tactics when getting outboxed or in trouble against Bruno and Grant. Vitali was foolishily ill prepared for this and paid the price. Bowe was tough and could walk through punishment all night to deliver bombs but he never showed that kind of crafty resilence, only capable of doing damage on the inside against an opponent like Holyfield who was foolish enough to engage him regularly.

I think Vitali gets a brutal UD or forces a stoppage w/Bowe on his feet and taking punishment.

 

True, but it was pointed out that Bowe was "tough in the trenches". Given that, me thinks he is unable to get into the trenches with Vitali. I believe the Vitali we see today would pick him apart from the outside as he moves backwards.

 

I don't think Bowe would get a chance to, Vitali will keep him at a distance where he can time him and clinch like crazy when he does get close. Lewis made Vitali's clinch work against him by doing just as much wreslting and roughing him up with his dirty in-fighting, never really saw Bowe do lots of clinching and wrestling like Lewis did to get guys like Grant and Vitali out of their comfort zone, he only got to showcase his infighting when fighters wanted to trade with him. Gonzales and Golota(when he wanted to) neutralized his infighting effectively with their physical strength and clinching, forcing him to rely on his jab and bomb swinging.

 

That's the key here for me....and contrary to fan-boy belief it's not actually terribly difficult to get on the inside against VITLAY. Prime for prime Bowe would win this fight 10 times out of 10 for that reason alone. He would **** VITLAY up on the inside, every single time - and he'd have plenty of success on the outside too, Bowe was as big as VITLAY, had better skills and a better jab too. If the worst version of Lennox Lewis could inflct enough damage to stop VITLAY then you can bet your bottom dollar prime Bowe would have done the same, it would have been a very painful night for VITLAY for sure. As for which one will be remembered as being greater, it's a no contest. VITLAY is an interim, paper champion. Bowe was the unified champ who beat the man who beat the man, end of discussion right there.

 

fighting weight! good post. where you been man, haven't see you in some time

 

and now i'm into a bottle of scotch so my posts will be less coherent and more beligerant

 

You know that I am no huge fan of the Klits, and we have both sided with each other before, but this is a bit harsh my friend. Bowe's outside fighting game was not quite as good as even a 38 year old Lewis's. Also. Riddick's defensive deficiencies, along with his tendency to get tagged with a stiff strait jab, and struggles with men who matched or exceded him physically would be a big problem.. Vitali's chin was no wine glass either.. Had he and Bowe met on 10 separate occasions, Riddick might take his fair share of wins, but I think its rather ambitious to think that he'd take all of them....