In their primes, who was more skilled... Lennox Lewis or Riddick Bowe?

Let's not take this thing out of context though, they both did what they did and Lewis>Bowe.

 

i agree and i want to add that i think lewis had the more boxing ntelligence of the two

 

"Skillful" is a rather abstract concept, but I'd say that Bowe was more technically skilled and Lewis more tactically skilled.

 

Bowe wanted to fight, Lewis only wanted to win. Bowe was technically more gifted at his best than Lewis ever was. His balance and abilities were something else for a big man.
Lewis was smart, and learned to adapt to his limitations and was overall more successful because of it.
Bowe could have done a lot more if he had done the same.

 

End thread.

 

not fully
60% mental
40% physical perhaps.
Changes for each fighter

 

Lewis...he was superior to Bowe.

 

I like Bowe, but his skills are somewhat overstated by fans. Bowe got hit quite a lot, looked very plodding/cumbersome against fighters that used lateral movement (Hide, Donald, Tubbs), he also used let his technique go south when he got aggressive, that said, he was an offensive beast at his best, he had an excellent inside game, a nice short inside uppercut, and agreat jab.


Lewis did not have much of an inside game, had sloppy footwork, did not have a great jab imo, that said, he did have a nice array of punches, particularly his uppercut, plus, I would say Lewis was more of a counter puncher than an aggressor, probably had a marginally better defense, was possibly a little more adaptable, also, maybe Lewis was deceptively better from long range than Bowe, he seemed to know how to zero in with that right hand pretty good, he also knew how to bring his uppercut into play, even when backed up.


I think Bowe had better fundamentals in terms of balance, technique, but maybe Lewis had a more varied arsenal of punches, that said, I might go a slight edge to Bowe, simply because of Lewis sloppy balance, average jab, average inside game.

 

I'm picking Lewis because Lewis knew how to use the skills he had better than Bowe, and at the end of the day, if you can't convert your skills to achieve a particular outcome, you never used them to their full extent. And using them to your full extent is in itself part of having a skill set.

 

What's all this 'Bowe was more technically skilled' bull****? If he was so skilled why was he so easy to hit and he had to walk through his opponents punches to land his own? Why was he often out jabbed? Why was he outboxed and outfought by a C Class Golota? Past prime or not a skilled fighter doesn't lose to Golota and no Bowe did not win nevermind what the official result was.

 

Yes he did win, he had something to do with making Golota quit. Golota became C class after the Bowe fights, but when he believed he could win like he did against Bowe, he was pretty dam good.

Your arguement is old. You obviously watched about three Bowe fights.

 

Well said. :good

Bowe had more natural talent, but Lewis made better use of what he had over a far longer period, thus achieving more.

 

Lewis was more skilled. By necessity. Improved his jab, used it to set up punches, was more aware on defense, and had better gameplans.

Bowe was much more talented. His skills from a technical standpoint are overrated, but my lord, what a gifted man.

 

He doesnt need to watch any more cos when Bowe is judged against other fighters, he's only judged from 1 fight whilst weak points are cherry picked from many points of his virtual opponents career.

 

Thats a good point.

Also, lets be real, Bowe was no Ali in terms of being a cute Boxer, sure he had a great jab, but he was flat footed most of the time, came to walk through you for you for the most part, to put it on your toes, he generally fought that way for most of his fights from what I saw, specifically he fought that way against Gonzalez, Ferguson, Dokes, Coetzer.

Bowe was a great offensive machine at his best, but a destroyer for the most part, similiar to Tommy Hearns in terms of, he was was more of an aggressive Boxer, destroyer, than a cutie or an exceptional Boxer.