How would Riddick Bowe have fared if he had fought 20 years earlier?

Bowe was always going to be a candle that burned brightly but briefly.

I can't see him dominating any era.

 

Spot on.
Basically when you miss fighting all of Tyson, Lewis, Mercer, McCall, Moorer, Bruno, Morrison, Foreman, Ruddock etc even though all were contemporaries then something is amiss.

Even old comeback Foreman whose second career is considered to be highly stage managed managed to meet two of the aforementioned punchers beating one.

Bowe was protected for a reason but still ended up punchy which adds weight to your theory about him being damaged after leaving the amateurs.

 

Bowe was a food addict. Rock knew his window was gonna be short.

He has the size and tools to give Frazier problems. His inside game was unique.
Enough power to get Joe's respect. Frazier would score punches on Bowe. It would be a battle of attrition. Both in peak condition its a distance fight. With a gun to my head Frazier outguts Riddick. Both take damage.

 

It depends which Riddick Bowe shows up, even though Muhammad Ali was years away from his 25 year old 1967 form, he would out box Bowe. Against Smoking Joe Frazier in 1972, Joe was relegated to fighting Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, this following that brutal March 8 1971 title defense against Muhammad Ali in The Fight Of The Century.. Joe was spent by then, Bowe stops Frazier in round 12 after an exhausting fight for Joe. I think that he would have beaten Oscar Bonavena, Mac Foster, and Floyd Patterson. He would have had his hands full against George Foreman, who was unbeaten, and Jerry Quarry. A good fight would have been against Joe Bugner, but Riddick wins on points.

 

Thanks for the cut and paste but I remember what occurred.
We’re talking about Bowe and not Bruno here but no Bruno was always more likely to stay at home for a higher profile, higher paying grudge match with Lewis.

But it’s a moot point. Bruno definitely deserved a shot ahead of Jesse Ferguson or Michael Dokes but Frank was big and punched hard. Bowe didn’t fight guys like that as his record shows. His best wins were smallish heavyweights Holyfield, Seldon and Cooper. One of those was a journeyman and the other only slightly better. Gonzalez was trash and everyone knew that going into the fight so Bowe doesn’t get too many props for beating him either.

Bowe was talented but in a talent rich era like the 90’s his resume is extremely thin besides Holyfield.

 

I could see Bowe potentially knocking out Frazier late but that's about it

 

I won’t disagree with that Mark.

 

As well as the last time this thread was made.

 

70s heavyweights get overrated a bit because people always go off the name than their actual performance through the decade. Bowe at his absolute peak would lose to the best versions of 70s Ali and Holmes, 50/50 for Frazier and Foreman imo. Hes probably not losing to Norton, Lyle, Shavers etc so let's replace Frazier for Holyfield as the only elite guy he fights and he could probably have a similar career.