Max Baer -Or Riddick Bowe??

Two notable underachievers.I rate Riddick Bowe higher due to his win
over an ATG opponent,Evander Holyfield.
I would expect Bowe to be more successful than Baer in any era.Riddick
is one of the worst underachievers in boxing history.

 

I rate Bowe higher. Bowe has the better wins, and would do better if they swapped eras. And Bowe would absolutely clobber Baer H2H. It would be a total mismatch.

 

I can’t determine how either man would have done had they switched eras. Too many variables. But if I were to say who had the better career I would probably have to pick Riddick Bowe. Much cleaner record along with the big win over Evander.

 

I agree with you on both there being too many variables to sensibly predict how they'd have gotten on in each other's eras & on Bowe being the greater of the two.

Bowe was 43-1 (was losing both fights vs Golota before the DQ's), 3-1 in lineal title fights, was 2-1 vs Holyfield & beat past prime Pinklon Thomas, Tyrell Biggs, Herbie Hide, past prime Michael Dokes, Pierre Coetzer, Tony Tubbs & Bert Cooper. I rank him #18 at HW.

Baer was 68-13, 1-1 in lineal title fights, beat Max Schemling, Primo Canera, Tom Heeney x 2, King Levinsky, Tony Galento and was 1-1 against each of Johnny Risko, Tommy Farr & Ernie Schaaf. Aside from those 3, between the ages of 21 & 32, he lost to Les Kennedy (avenged, 1-1) & Tommy Laughran aged 21, Paulino Uzcdun aged 22, Jim Braddock, Joe Louis, Willie Davies 6R PTS and Lou Nova aged 30 & 32. I rank him #27 all time at HW.

 

Head to head there’s no comparison Bowe is infinitely the better skilled and more accomplished fighter.
I think his two wins over Holyfield trumps Baer’s win over Schmeling and I think he beats the crap out of Max.

 

H2H I like Bowe.

 

Although I love Baer he isn’t as good or great as Bowe.

 

I really cannot see Max Baer winning two out of three from Evander Holyfield. And I cannot see Riddick Bowe losing to James Braddock, and I can see him beating Primo Carnera and Max Schmeling (though not necessarily easily, in Max Schmeling's case). In my opinion, both of them lose to Joe Louis. Head to head, I give the edge to Riddick Bowe, but I do not see it being an easy fight for Riddick. For those reasons I rank Riddick Bowe higher than Max Baer.

 

I don’t know. I think I’ll watch more Baer but Bowe never impressed me much- like look at how intelligently he fought Golota when they weren’t inside.

 

Bowe has a better win.

Once you get past their best single opponent, it is Baer all the way.

 

Bowe. For sure.

I think both these guys are overrated but Baer is often simply horrible to look at on film. Bowe at least meant business and when he had trained properly and was in the mood, could exhibit some good technique. He also fought bigger guys than Baer did through his career.

 

I disagree. If we exclude Schmeling & Bowe from their records, then we have:

Baer:

• Record - 67-13
• Best wins - Canera, Heeney x 2, Levinsky x 2, Galento, Risko (1-1), Farr (1-1), Schaaf MD (1-1)
• Losses between ages 21 & 32 (aside from the 3 mentioned above) - Les Kennedy & Loughran aged 21, Uzcudun, Braddock, Louis, Davies 6R PTS, Nova x 2 aged 30 & 32

Bowe:

• Record - 41-0 (I'll not inlcude Golota in his best wins, as he shouldn't be credited for these wins in the usual way)
  
• Best wins - Past prime Pinklon Thomas, Biggs, Hide, past prime Dokes, Coetzer, Tubbs, Cooper

I don't see a massive difference in the quality of each fighters best wins. Maybe a marginal advantage to Baer, but barely (no pun intended). The big difference is, Louis aside (clearly we shouldn't hold that loss against Max), Baer lost 10 fights in or close to his prime years, to fighters of roughly a similiar quality to his & Bowe's best wins, whereas Bowe lost none.

 

My criticism of Bowe's resume, is that most of the name fighters he met, were not players in the division at the time.

The Holyfield wins are absolutely fantastic.

The Golota wins are what they are.

His next best name is Herbie Hyde.

Now when you look into the detail of Baer's resume, a fair few of the named fighters he beat were in the mix when the fight's happened.

Baer has got the depth end of things sewn up.