Bowe is a superior boxer to Lewis

Only a newb thinks fast feet = better feet. Back then Lewis had the same foot work as Wilder has now.
It was straight up garbage. Wilder can be classed as agile , but his feet in compassion to Bowe's is an embarrassment.

The feet of Lewis was so bad , he was off balance every time he threw a punch. He was never in any position to follow up with combos. His arms were all over the place.

Old Tucker out of rehab camp - not training camp - was making Lewis look like a journey man at times - flailing , staggering and stumbling across the ring. Crossing his feet. Tripping over his own feet. It was well known that Lewis was all over the place back then.

This is why MaCall ended him early with one punch. But couldn't do the same to Buster Douglas because Douglas had better fundamentals. Nobody is going to claim Buster was better than Bowe.

Bowe's construct as a boxer was near perfect. Balance - positioning was as good as you get. A perfect smooth transition of defense to offence .

No point taking the Lewis of 1999 when Bowe was out of the picture. The Lewis who should have fought Bowe would have been horribly out classed.

 

But the superior accomplished Wlad was a far inferior boxer to Tyson Fury. Whats going on there?:huh

 

Bowe fought him 3 times, and won twice. Some thought he deserved to be 3-0, the second fight was the closest.
No one else did that to Holyfield, and it's not as if Holyfield fought no other big heavyweights.

Holyfield was 205 - 217 pounds, solid muscle. 6'1 or 6'2.
He was comparable in size to most of the great heavyweights.

 

Age ... that, and he forgot that he is allowed to throw more than 2 punches a round.

 

Gotta hand it to Dino, he managed to mention Wlad in a Bowe / Lewis thread

 

I agree fast feet doesn't mean good foot work at all. Look at Wlad, he has very quick feet, but his actual control of distance is not great beyond his quickness. If it was better, if his placement and lateral movement were better he wouldn't have the clinch so much as he'd be able to move out of range more often rather than be forced to clinch.

But I'd disagree in your assessment of Bowe's footwork. Just like quick feet doesn't mean good footwork, good balance doesn't mean good footwork either. Bowe had good balance but that's because he didn't move his feet enough, he was a bit of a plodder, movement gave him problems, he was not good at cutting off the ring when he had to chase an opponent.

Tito is another fighter who was well balanced but he like Bowe wasn't light on his feet, didn't move his feet enough and when faced against movers like Oscar and BHop was made to look bad.

So while I agree Lewis' footwork was far from perfect and his balance was worse than Bowe's his overall footwork was better. He was quicker, lighter on his feet and moved laterally better. So while neither of them had perfect footwork, when it comes to deciding who's was better it comes down to who could control distance better and that was clearly Lewis.

Yes back prior to Steward, Lewis could be all over the place, he would over commit to shots and throw himself off balance, but the comparison to Wilder is a bit over the top. Wilder's footwork is laughable the way he was jumping all over the place when finishing off Duhaupas was laughable, Lewis was never THAT bad.

But after Lewis got with Steward his footwork while still not perfect was much better and far better than Bowe's.

 

I agree, a greater facet of Bowe's durability wasn't actually his ability to take a shot it was his heart and ability to recover. It's amazing he was ever able to hang on like he did against Golota which was more down to heart and will than his chin.

 

Subject absolutely f*cking nailed!

Yet another thread where some delusional Bowe fans with a huge inferiority complex about Lennox Lewis try to spin their tenuous theories and make these theories a more believable scenario than the real world, where Lewis' impact on the HW division was far greater, longer, deeper and far more historically significant than Bowe's fleeting impact.

 

Defense is the most important thing in boxing. You can argue Bowe had a better jab but he didn't use it better, as you state yourself. He couldn't even outjab Holy in their rematch or Golota or Tubbs. Lewis was the far better ring general.

Lewis was also stronger with better focus.

 

Then that makes Vitali statistically about the 4th or 5th best heavy of all time. It makes Wlad about the 3rd best heavy ever.

I get your argument, but as with everything 'accomplishment' needs context.

 

Relax, nobody will die by admitting Bowe was better at some things than Lewis. He was.

 

Not when the quality of the opposition is taken into account.

Waldo certainly accomplished a lot and controlled the division for an extended period. But it wasn't like he was fighting Joe Louis and Mike Tyson...

 

watch bowe - gonzales and see how bowe smashes the big gonzales all over the ring with his rocket left hand

 

hmm, bowe showed great variety of defense against holyfield in his first fight, the things i mentioned.

on the other hand, lewis defense against holyfield was clinching and the defense aspect of the jab. plus he had trunks up to his chest, disgraceful.

bowe ended up slurring cause he was lazy, disinterested and fat soon after holy fight. lewis was way more focused and disciplined, no doubt about that.

but peak4peak, bowe was a more complete boxer with better defense.

 

great post :good