He hit pretty hard, but I don't think his power was at the level of Lewis, Tyson, Foreman or even Ruddock.
I think it matters also have cleanly they were hit. Holy, for example, said he was never hit cleanly enough by Tyson to really asses his power, if I remember correctly, and that seems reasonable to me. Bowe, though. did catch Evander with his best. I think from the outside it's quite clear that Tyson was the harder puncher, but Holy talks from the vantage point of how hard each guy landed on him. That's probably the case with some other fighters also.
He was a level below the likes of Tyson, Lewis and Ruddock IMO but was very aggressive and went all in, he wasn't afraid of taking a dig to dish one out.
He hit pretty hard, probably about the same level as Holyfield. Comparing him to other heavyweights, if guys like Lewis and Tyson were 9/10 or 10/10 hes probably 7/10 power wise. (Based on this scale a normal man is probably a 2/10)
Bowe was a big, strong guy. In his prime, everyone thought he was a very good boxer and a very good puncher. But I don't recall anyone classifying him as big knockout artist, although he had his fair share of stoppages. Let's put it this way, when Mike Tyson punched Mitch Green in Harlem when they crossed paths at night, Green's head was split between his eyes and one of his eyes was swollen shut. Bowe got into it with Larry Donald at their press conference, and Bowe punched Larry flush in the face twice, with a left hook and a right hand. And Larry was not only unmarked, but the fight wasn't called off. That's certainly not an exact science by any means (LOL), but Bowe's flush punches on Donald didn't exactly send Larry to the emergency room. Bowe hit hard enough to get the job done, let's put it that way. Probably more of a thudding puncher with weight behind them, but not shots that turned the lights out.
Fairly hard but he wasn't some "monstrous" puncher. I don't recall seeing opponents twitching on the ground or going straight to sleep like they got shot--which are big indicators a boxer is packing dynamite. As a big man of 6'5 and 230+ in his prime, like others in this thread mentioned, he knew how to get good leverage and weight on shots. But what's often overlooked about Bowe is that he wasn't a mere brawler, he was one of the best inside fighters in the HW division (possibly #2 after Frazier). Infighting means you are going to sacrifice a little bit of power as you are at very close range and you usually can't fully extend your hands to get the most pop on a punch. The benefit is that you can break guys down this way digging into the body, targeting vulnerable areas like the liver, throwing 3, 4, 5+ punch combinations with less risk of being countered, etc. On top of that, you can set up sneaky traps as the opponent's field of view may be blocked by your shoulders or head. So since Bowe spent a lot of time on the inside he was actually losing out on some of his power but it allowed him to tire out and break down his opponent and made for an exciting fight for the crowd. Win/win. When he did fight at mid range and got full extension on his punches they were no joke. A solid jab and a scary overhand right that often went straight to a guy's legs and made them buckle. However he certainly wasn't a devastating 1 hitter quitter 2 handed threat in the league of Tyson, Wladmir, etc but if enough of them landed flush he would get to most guys eventually. I'd rate his power overall as a 7.5/10.
He could punch. Power wise he wasn't anywhere near Bruno, Tyson or Ruddock. He was more like an Archie Moore or a Buddy Baer, he could drop you 1 shot, but not put you to sleep.
Bowe's decline is one of the saddest boxing pages in boxing history. He retired with a single defeat with Holyfield. With Bowe around and if Tyson and Ikeabuchi hadn't gone to jail, the Lewis empire would not have been so overflowing. I am not among those who attribute his decline to a nervous breakdown or a his mental weakness but rather to the two very strange fights against Golota. As to how Bowe hit hard I think to the fact he dropped Holyfield which neither Tyson nor Lewis could.
Larry Donald had a good chin. He was only stopped by vitali and he was a bit over the hill by the time it happened but i agree with you
The temptation is to put Bowe in Lennox Lewis bracket for power. But I don’t think it’s that warranted. Bowes power and better technique never stopped him getting hit and aside from Golotta, who he never got to grips with, there is not much examples of him handling or even knocking out another prime elite fighter with the same height and reach as himself. Lewis has these examples. The most telling was beating Tucker. I never realised it at the time but here he beat another big tall prime fighter who had never been decked and Lewis put him down twice. There are more examples. Grant. Bruno. Ruddock. so I don’t think Bowe is in Lewis’s league for power, even if Lennox never decked Evander.
Lewis was a brutal puncher. I was very surprised to see Mercer rank Wlad as clearly more powerful, would expect them to be pretty even, but then it can just be the case that Wlad managed to get the cleaner shots in. Lewis had a really difficult time with Mercer.
Mercer was well over the hill when he fought Wlad. Wlad probably does hit harder but Lewis is just a level above him IMO
Shoot, watch the Gonzalez fight. Bowe had a paralyzing shot. Not as devastating as Tyson, Foreman, Shavers. A notch above Norton's overall power though. And because he had such a good jab, he tended to get those punches in more often than the wider-swinging guys. I'm talking about the Holy I Bowe, because Bowe's right became stupidly wide after that, to the point it could be said his wide right was a good part of the reason Golota beat him.
