Bowe: where would he rank if he'd beaten Lewis?

Hmm...

Scenario:

Bowe beats Lewis, and already holds a win against Holyfield. He probably fights the two remaining fights against Holyfield roughly as they occurred in real life, and comes out ahead. Also like real life, Bowe's wars with Holyfield wear him down.

Tyson gets out of prison in '96 and beats Bowe. He may or may not fight Holyfield afterward. Perhaps not.

Lewis goes on to become an ATG, and defeats aging versions of Holyfield and Tyson.


Overall, Tyson benefits most from this. He'd face a worn-out version of Bowe rather than a still-feisty version of Holyfield. Evander, for his part, would never emerge from the impression that fans developed in the early '90s that he never would have beaten Tyson. He goes down in history as a placeholder champ. Bowe probably gets #2 based upon his victories over Lewis and Holyfield.

 

lewis' style - throwing BOMBS from long distance - is all wrong for bowe. bowe would not have beaten lewis.

imagine if he did...then i'd rank him...hmmm...where's my top ten list

1. ali
2. louis
3. marciano
4. holmes
5. liston
6. foreman
7. frazier
8. holyfield
9. lewis
10. tyson
11. tunney
12. bowe
13. dempsey

lewis would go down to 11. bowe would make a big jump from 12 to 7 or maybe even 6. this may sound illogical. how can one win make such a big difference? actually on second thought, it's perfectly logical, because as i said, bowe wouldn't beat lewis. but we're assuming it. anyway, if bowe beat lewis, then it says a lot not only on his accomplishment - but his versatility and ability as a fighter.

right now i'm thinking he can't handle big guys who fight on the outside or guys with knockout power. this takes away from his versatility in head to head match ups. beating lewis, bowe proves he is versatile and can fight effectively on the inside and outside against big guys. it's no more that he just bullied a smaller fighter on the inside who didn't have serious stopping power.

by the way, i think lewis was just physically very talented with punching power second to no one, excellent size & reach, and highly underrated speed. yes, he was cautious and careful (big reason for his success) but i still think that as a technician or as a "pure boxer" he was nothing special. obviously as a fighter he was very special and an ATG.

 

You got to remember that Bowe never wanted anything to do with Lewis in the pros. For whatever the reasons why Riddick would'nt fight Lennox, i think this speaks volumes and probably tells us Bowe would find it a very hard task to beat Lewis at anytime in their careers.
I always got the impression that Bowe was shocked by Lewis' physical strength in their olympic fight.

 

What you say is probably true, but something has always told me that Bowe's refusal to face Lewis had more to do with his manager Rock Newman than it did Bowe himself.. Also, while Lewis did beat Bowe in the Olympics, it really wasn't a domination.

 

On the contrary Lewis had just as much to blame for the fight not coming off.
It was obviously a question of finance, Lewis rejecting an offer from the Bowe camp citing that it was too low and taking a "title" fight with Tucker instead.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/09/s...-has-eyes-on-lewis-for-title-bout.html?src=pm

I did a thread awhile back regarding which fighter gained the most mileage from a fight not happening among the top of the list it seems as though the sentiment is that Lennox Lewis has been given the presumed win over Bowe when in fact he would have been the underdog in 1993.

I think Lennox despite his amateur background was still unpolished as a fighter and under the tutelage of Emmanual Stewart he progressed to a fighter who would simply be too good for Bowe.

But if the fight took place in 1993, I'm confident of a Bowe victory.

 

He wouldn't but if he did and Lewis achieved the same he'd be rated above Lewis and maybe top5..

 

I did'nt say it was domination, but Lewis after a bad first round came out and overwhelmed Bowe in the second. That is something i don't think left Bowe. But yeah admittedly Rock Newman may have had something to do with it, but if Bowe wanted that fight then it would've happened. Who'd he fight instead of Lewis? I think that says it all.
People also see Lennox has being too green in 93' to beat Bowe. The same was also thought when he fought Mason and Ruddock! Remember Lewis v Bowe was just as close to happening in 95/96 as it was in 93'. Which would've been even better for Lewis.
IMHO i feel Lewis knew he had Bowe's number and Riddick knew it too! No matter when they fought.

 

Bowe was a obviously Shot against Golota, all those fights did was further show the durability & heart of Riddick.

 

Shot fighters do not tend to throw 53 punches a round, and land almost half of them.

Past his best, sure. But I've never bought the 'Bowe was shot vs Golota' argument...Golota brings certain things to the table that even a Bowe at his best would have problems with.

I agree with Magoo that, naturally, it depends where Lewis goes next. It's an awful lot of history to rewrite there.
But even at worst, you'd have to think that beating Lewis would've been a boost to Bowe's overall career.

I do think Newman was playing the long game / "I'm the boss!" routine, but in a very unsubtle and clumsy way that ended up causing much hurt to Bowe's career in the longer run.

 

I think Lewis would have been rated lower had Bowe beat him but lets face it Riddick did not give up a title for nothing he did not want Lewis.....only in the era of split titles could fighters avoid the top guys and it goes overlooked

 

Shot fighters cant defend themselves, cant see punches coming and their timing is gone. Bowe along with deteriorating slurred speech, was showing all the signs of a shot fighter, moreso in the second Golota fight. His heart was what kept him those fights. Ali was shot to pieces but still managed to hang in and take punishment in the same manner towards the end of his career.

 

Good post, Ali was shot against Shavers, but still managed to take crazy punishment & throw enough punches to win.

 

Had Bowe only had one title, do you believe he still would have vacated that title and not fought Lewis?