Did Riddick Bowe have a horrible defence?

Riddick Bowe, 43-1, has never been stopped in his career, losing only to prime Holyfield. He was hurt several times, mostly when beeing "past his prime" against Golota.

For example, Lennox Lewis or W. Klitschko have been stopped, as well as beeing hurt more than two time. Is it mainly attributed for not having a good chin, or did they just fail protecting it, not applying good defence under pressure?
Despite of a highly regarded chin, most boxers end fights on the ground more often than not, ATGs as well.
Bowe didn´t.

How would you rate his defence?

 

Pretty bad. And the chin behind the defense is suspect as well. Resulted in a very very short career and a resumee suspiciously lacking in big punchers during an era that had an abundance of them to choose from

 

I'm Bowe's fan, but I must admit he was very hittable. Even it the fights where he dominated he got hit cleanly, like Coetzer, Donald, Hide. Holyfield hit him many times in each of their 3 fights. Golota couldn't miss with punch (granted, that was past-prime Bowe). Riddick's defensive skills wasn't nearly as good as his offense, heart or chin. The latter two are the reasons why Bowe was never stopped in 45 fights.

 

Haha the funny thing is that you did think that the people would disagree with this

 

Depends on what you mean by "horrible defence". Hittable? Yes, quite. But that is also down partly to tactics - someone who always wants to stand in front of his opponent and trade will get hit more than someone who plays it safe - and also if you think purely physical factors like speed and reflexes is part of a good defense or not.

Because from a technical standpoint he certainly had a good defense for such a big guy. Would slip punches and roll with them in a way you rarely see above 230 lbs. But he didn't have the reflexes and natural awareness of guys like Naz and Nunn, who in turn had worse defenses from a technical standpoint.

 

From knowing the Hide fight, i wouldn´t consider him a defensive master. On the other hand, Hide was a very fast handed sharp puncher.

I just don´t think you go 43-1 through the 90s, never been knocked out, with having a "horrible" defense. It´s just bull****. Sometimes he just looked lazy, or even arrogant, relying on his chin. Holyfield did the same vs Cooper.

Did he have a worse defence, than lets say Wlad, when beeing under pressure?

 

Yes his defense was poor. He got hit way too much for someone with his physical advantages. It's major reason why his career was over by 29.

 

And going downhill and showing signs of deterioration prior to that. And lets face it---showing those signs against B grade opponents. He had no mobility or legs or upper body movement to compensate for it either, all he could do was the same thing the same way.

 

It was fairly mediocre

So was Holyfield's

That helped make their fights so exciting.

 

I think when Holyfield wanted to he could be a fine defensive fighter particularly when he was with Benton. He was extremely sharp vs Douglas even if Douglas was out of shape. When he wanted to he could fight off the back foot quite well. Of course we know he had a real penchant for mixing it up quite often.

 

It was ok.He just was not always in shape

 

If his defense was horrible he would have been stopped by someone at some point or another. His defense was average at best. Definitely not good and it wasn't hard to land on the big dude.

 

Good call on Holyfield. Both men ate more than their share of unnecessary punches.

 

He's a brawler, like me

 

Holyfield had better defence than bowe by a country mile