Joe Frazier vs. Riddick Bowe

I've often seen it said that Big Daddy is a nightmare combination of styles & dimensions for Smokin' Joe. I remain unconvinced.

So...convince me. (or tell me I'm not crazy for thinking Frazier could overcome the size, prohibitively far-spanning jab, strength, uppercut, and toughness and chop him down to size with his left hook and resilient willpower seeing him through even if he must be seated a few times along the way...)

 

eelabbahreight?

 

I think my basic assumption here was prime versus prime. :thumbsup

...which is why I think Frazier as well.

I can see either man as being susceptible to getting dropped or hurt by a signature punch from the other. Bowe if he decided to hook with Frazier, certainly is getting the worst of that exchange. Frazier if he bobs in carelessly in a rhythm Bowe can time from the outside is begging to eat a big uppercut.

Then it becomes a question of physical and psychological resiliency and ultimately, though conventional wisdom is that big = bad for Joe in any match-up, I think he can soak up more of Bowe's firepower than vice-versa. Not every big man is Big George...and Riddick didn't always excel using his size to his advantage when faced with a smaller workhorse boasting lots of heart and championship level skill. (the height disparity between he and Holyfield, incidentally, was exactly the same as between Foreman and Frazier, just FYI...)

 

I could just as easily counter by oversimplifying that it's just Holyfield all over again (but with more power). :conf

I'd be no wronger.

 

Yeah. I've never understood how a guy who got his black ass whooped red by Golota (twice, so no fluke) became such a h2h fantasy darling. :huh

I've seen him picked, with utmost confidence, over Rooney-era Kid Dynamite...by many over Lennox, to whom Bowe essentially forfeited and conceded superiority via his receptacle antics...over Holmes in the midst of his long reign, and by KO no less...and in a landslide over Frazier simply by virtue of having been a super heavy and halfway decent boxer. (with the logic seeming to be that anyone significantly bigger who isn't a plodding oaf with no grasp of fundamentals smashes him to bits...and I'm sure there are some that would even tip a Willard or Ustinov over him given the prevalence of that "he can't deal with size" myth...)

Hell, I've seen Bowe given a fair chance with Clay. :blood

Really baffling. He did possess lots of tools you'd want to see in an 'ideal heavyweight', but not enough of them for him to go down as some head to head beast with the men who could beat him numerable on a single hand as he often seems to be made out...

 

:good See, I can respect this (whilst disagreeing) as it at least is more in-depth and founded in analytical rationale than what you most often see lazily parroted about this match-up to arrive upon the same conclusion.

Interesting you mention Futch, as it would've been from his mouth alone that we could get anything close to a definitive expert answer with firsthand working knowledge of either man's strengths and weaknesses. :think

 

...also, you say Bowe in the post but you voted "Frazier by stoppage"? :think Accident?

I guess in the interest of fairness someone who picks Frazier by stoppage ought to vote for Bowe to even it out and render it accurate. :yep