Best all time inside fighter

I have whats available on Burns

 

I think Riddick Bowe was better inside than Lewis.

 

I pick Dempsey as better than Marciano inside ,from the heavyweights.

 

Bowe was one of the best inside Heavyweights ever at his best IMO.

 

Bowe was very good inside for such a tall heavyweight. He wasn't exactly athletic either. Certainly nowhere near the Lewis of the early 90's who moved well, although technically he was far from the finished article which he became during the late 90's. Bowe's fights with Holyfield showed that he was better than Lewis inside. Holyfield's brief success against Lewis in their first fight was done inside. The second fight, well the 7th round tells the story. Lewis was just about out on his feet when Holyfield reeled out a left hook at close quarters which caught him flush.

I'd still take Lewis to beat Bowe. My thinking is that it would be an outside affair for the vast majority of the bout. Lewis' speed gives him a slight edge when pulling the trigger.

 

So would most people who know either of them well.

 

Most definitely!

 

I think the difference between Bowe and Lewis, was that Lewis maximised his potential.

 

Bowe was better when they were both champions and there was talk of them meeting during 92. If Bowe did fight Lewis instead of throwing the WBC title away, IMO he would have beaten him. He was peaking around this time, while Lewis did later on after McCall beat him and he hired Steward. If you watch Lewis before Steward was his trainer you'll notice his balance wasn't there. He became one dimensional. Lots of jabs, and loading up with the right hand. Long punches usually.

If Steward had got Lewis under his wing earlier his progress as a fighter would have been quicker. And lets not forget that Steward never had the athletic Lewis that Correa had around the Ruddock fight. Lewis was leaner, thinner from head to toe, and quicker in 92/93.

 

To be honest, I quite liked watching Bowe more than any version of Lewis. He just seemed a better fighter at his best to me, though it didn't appear that way in the end.

 

I think Bowe was more entertaining than Lewis as well.

It is true that Bowe was a very good in fighter, but that may be all that he was very good at. Bowe's punches, from long range, have a little extra motion on them. They're not straight to the point. This is a reason Golota was able to out jab him, and had success on the outside. This is a reason why the smaller Holyfield could outjab him, at times, and also find success on the outside.

I believe Bowe was a fighter at heart, much like Diego Corrales. Corrales is another example of a tall fighter that care's nothing about exploiting his height and reach, and would rather mix things up on the inside.

Riddick Bowe may have come across as a bis softie, but there was a lot of bite behind that soft bark. Larry Donald experienced it up close and personal at one of their press conferences: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5LxagKJ1PA Gonzalez tried to talk the talk going into his fight with Bowe. Gonzalez came within an inch of Bowe crashing a glass water pitcher off his head at one of their pressers. Bowe had a competitive, and mean, streak inside him. Bowe really wanted to be close, and hurt his opponents. In their classic 2nd encounter, Andrew Golota had Bowe in serious trouble in what I believe was the 4th round. It was Golota trying to quit on his stool between rounds.

 

Prime for prime ,I would not have been suprised to see Bowe top Lewis,and I also preferred to watch him ,he remains a "what might have been "to me.

 

I think Bowe at his best had a very good jab as well. I don't think he was near his best when he faced Golota either.

 

I loved it when he spanked that big bullying Cuban, Gonzales,especially after the way he tortured Snipes.

 

Duran and CHavez are the two best inside fighters I've ever seen.