Riddick Bowe's potential

Rock Newman wrecked Bowe's career...Ducking Lewis was Shameful...Newman's angry rants about 'moral highgrounds' was disgusting...He turned a lot of fans against Bowe...And having a young lion feeding on squirls for too long, it's no surprise when he loses interest and gets his ass kicked the first time he's thrown in with the big game...

And yes Bowe coulda, shoulda, woulda been great...I thought Bowe would level Lewis until he ducked him...I always assume the 'ducker' would have lost...I think prime Tyson takes out either one, with Bowe being the tougher fight...

 

You got to it before I could post. If Bowe didn't have Newman as a manager, he would have been a better fighter. Rock was an *******, and he swelled Rickick's head too much letting him feast on oldtimers like Dokes and Ferguson, and then going to Africa on some bull**** tour. Bowe lost focus because of Rock's bull****.

 

Holyfield wasn't "extremely inconsistent". He was unbeaten, undisputed champion.

 

That's not true. While he didn't fight the names you listed, there's explanations for nearly all of them (outside of Lewis) Bowe and Tua didn't even really share the same era, for starters.
McCall isn't really a big puncher, either. Bowe had a very short prime and short career in general, and on top of that was involved in a trilogy with Holyfield which took up a lot of time and stole other fights.

And Bowe faced some big punchers, anyway. Bert Cooper would certainly be described as a puncher, you don't get that close to stopping Holyfield without having power. And anyone saying Herbie Hide couldn't hit is crazy, and Bowe took his best before blasting him out. Bruce Seldon had power, too (36 knockouts in his 40 career victories). Just not a lot of heart or chin to go with it.

 

being as fair as I can, Tyson was as much "there" against douglas as he was against tucker and bruno. thats still an ATG champion in my book. Tyson started with all the usual venom against douglas, he had enough conditioning to stay in the fight and take a huge beating. Tyson just ran out of ideas because like joe louis against schmeling he was up against a guy who had a gameplan and had an answer for evrything he did.

holyfeild was still finding his feet as a heayweight when bowe beat him. nobody rated evander at that time as highly as tyson had been. like buster douglas bowe was never that good again. how can we asume bowe could be that good twice when he was only ever that good once? when he fought lewis, lennox won.
with hindsight bowe over acheived against evander nothing else he ever did equaled that. the 3rd fight bowe got lucky when holyfeild stopped fighting. it was more a case of evander losing than bowe winning. talk about taking a win from the jaws of defeat!

The best champions always delivered in key fights.

bowes key fights were tubbs, holyfeild x3, hide, golotta x2 its not that good.

 

The fact that people are defending the man's abilities with his performances against the likes of Cooper, Gonzalez and Seldon speaks volumes.

Again, the best fighter he beat was very inconsistent, even in his prime. The second best guy he beat, Tubbs, very arguably won their fight. His resume is paper-thin, especially given the available talent of the time. And Golota beat him well twice in almost every facet of their fights.

 

First of all, I don't see Bowe having such great ability. He couldn't throw a straight punch if his life depended on it, his good inside game would have been negated by all the HW's who knew how to control range (Ali, Holmes, Lewis, Klitschkos). Prime Foreman would have knocked him out if he tried that toe to toe trading hooks stuff that he liked to do with Holyfield.

But mostly,it cracks me up when people say "fighter X had sooo much potential, if only he hadn't been a food addict, drug addict, too lazy to train, to insane to stay out of jail" The absence of the right mentality IS the absence of the potential to be great. To say Bowe could have been great if only he was a totally different person is like saying Pavlik would be the greatest MW ever if he had Ray Leonards skills. Bowe was who he was, ne never had potential to be great, because that requires unusual dedication and self - control.

 

yeah he could.
but if ?? you don't buy anything with if. i mean if tyson was mentally stronger and more sane. he could also have been much better and so on and so on.
but you are right the potential was there. and IF (there we go again) he had for example the mentallity and heart of say a joe frazier he certainly could have achieved some great things and became a top 8 ATG.
at least i believe so.
but he didn't and so for me bowe isn't even top 20 HW

 

:good people forget what ludicrous natural physical advantages bowe had over holyfeild. just consider the size of each at 18 years of age...

evander worked very hard to get into that weight division.

 

This is a bad comparison.

Douglas had a great night against Tyson. Then he showed up overweight against Holyfield and got embarrassed. Bowe showed up overweight against Holyfield in their second fight and lost a razor-thin decision (and was arguably robbed). See the difference?


Beyond that, Bowe had no losses on his record, unlike Douglas.

 

Bowe beat an undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion IN HIS PRIME. How many fighters can say that?

 

douglas?

 

The Newman-Bowe partnership is an odd one, most recently reminiscent of Stoney-Ruiz.

On one hand, Newman sunk a lot of belief and money into Bowe. He would go in the trenches and fight like hell for his guy. He'd pump up Bowe's confidence and wear down others. He wouldn't let anyone contractually pull the wool over Bowe's eyes.

On the other hand, Newman's abrasive, self-aggrandizing ways worked almost too well at rubbing people the wrong way. That attitude relys a lot on being in a position of power.

When they not only ditched the WBC belt but took the opportunity to badmouth the WBC for months afterwards, it not only guaranteed that the WBC would want nothing to do with Bowe but also got the WBA and IBF onside too for fear Bowe & Rock could do similar with their belts. The WBO, still trying to make their mark, were happy to give Bowe the chance to be their beltholder and were shortly ditched when the subject of a mandatory defence came up.

So they got blackballed by the boxing orgs, but it was completely self-inflicted because Newman wanted to guide Bowe's path as he saw fit and refused to entertain the thoughts of others. HBO's Seth Abraham allegedly had to twist Newman's arm like hell to get Bowe-Holyfield II signed, because Newman wanted an easier fight first and Bowe thought Holyfield would be no challenge.

So, a help on the way up. A hinderance thereafter.

 

EXactly, Tyson was at his peak and thought of an "invincible". ....
then along came the grade C Douglas and destroyd him. :rofl

 

He had good potential and was top notch, and I think at his peak could have beaten Tyson, but his discipline was similar to the 1980's heavyweights who came a little before him. Guys like Dokes,Tubbs,Pinklon Thomas, Tucker etc etc.