One thing I should also note about this match up. In their primes there skills were comparable what I think would give Bowe the edge was his great will and determination. One thing about Bowe though he was known to be lax in training when it came down to in the ring fighting he was as determined and tough and they come. I think he'd outwork and out fight Tucker to get the edge in many of the rounds.
This is a tough call, Bowe was only ever great on one night, being his first encounter with Holyfield and he rarely showed that form again. Tucker stopped Douglas, went the distance with peak Tyson and was competitive against Lewis. If Bowe shows us the form he did in his initial match with Holyfield, he beats Tucker, any other night he gets worn down and stopped late on. Toss up basically...
Bowe neglected his jab your right, but he had a set of skills unique to super heavys, he had a great inside game. He wasn't overly concerned keeping distance or relying on the jab. Big waste of talent imo though. Far more natural/fluid than Lewis, that's why his shots looked better, but h2h its Lewis if they faced off
Bowe would shackle him. Douglas would have handily beaten Tucker if he was better conditioned. Bowe will never fade out like Douglas did.
Tucker took Tyson`s best shots Bowe may have been stopped by a prime Tyson because he had a dreadful defense unless he stopped Tyson first.
Lewis improved after the Tucker and Bruno fights because he got beat by McCall and went on to fight while being trained by Manny Steward.
This is not an easy pick. A prime Tucker, to my mind, would have been the next best opponent that Bowe had faced, after Holyfield. Bowe had some tools and could put them to effective use, when he shook off the sloth. But, were they the right tools against a very, very good heavyweight, who would have been able to fight his fight at range; who could jab and move like Tucker? I can’t see there being a KO ending so, it’s down to the wire for a thin decision. I’d lean towards Bowe slightly - and this is only because, on a hunch, I’d favor him to go for this, grit it out and nick it.
Absolutely, the Bowe who fought Holyfield in 92/93 was very good and would have either decisioned Tucker or stopped him late on.