Better all round fighter Max Schmeling or Riddick Bowe?

For skill and ring smarts I’d say schmeling

 

Yeah, we don't seem to agree on very much around here.

 

Lmao. Just Haye and Schmelling by my reckoning. Maybe it's just the 180-200 pound type fighters haha

 

The Baer fight?

 

That's true. A couple of things then!

What do you agree with in the aforementioned statement, if anything?

 

Baer overwhelmed him imo. He was a beast at that time.

 

He didn't have a terrible gameplan for the Baer fight, but he got a bit thrown off by Baer's rough housing and it led to him making some key tactical mistakes that led to the defeat. It's often happened that more textbook boxers have run into troubles against wild swinging brawler types, and against Baer he was fighting a considerably bigger and harder hitting opponent than he was used to, and one whom he couldn't seem to put a dent in.

 

I think he was definitely an athlete given his size and frame tbh.

Yes that's what I meant, fully agree with what you said about the Holy fights. Bowe never had a game plan. He just tried to beat his opponent by doing better than them.

Bowe had a different type of jab to most SHW fighters though, he used it to close the distance rather than keep the distance. I actually think it was a key part of his arsenal. But in terms of these two fighters if Max tried jabbing with Bowe he'll get backed up against the ropes.

 

If so, only because he was bigger though. Schmeling actually outjabbed Sharkey who had better jab than Bowe and he dealt well with Louis jab. He usually outworked opponent's left hands.

 

Yes but Bowe jabbed the way he jabbed because of his size and style. He wanted to get inside, he wanted to dominate up close.

It's hard gauging his jab on its own merits removed from his dimensions imo

 

I'd like to see him against someone bigger who was good. I just think that a lot of his strengths are related to physical advantage and he would be no longer great without it. That's why I believe that Schmeling was better all-around fighter.

 

Yeah, his jab was more like a weapon to bust his opponents up while he was coming forward. It had its uses, but it was nowhere near as versatile or essential to his success as Schmeling's. Key to Bowe's success were his size advantage, his physical toughness, and his heart and workrate. Key to Schmeling's were his jab, his footwork, his angles, his head movement and his timing and shot selection. When Bowe abandoned his jab he still had success. When he lost his ability to take a punch or impose his size/weight on opponents he became useless.

 

We saw that in both Golota fights.

 

Maybe. Sometimes Bowe is a bit of a myth.

But even still, I believe the version of Bowe we saw was just a better fighter than the version of Schmelling we saw.

 

Fair enough, I just prefer smarter and more skilled fighters.