Bowe and Byrd question Tysons Legacy

Well, Bowe beat other decent fighters, including Larry Donald, Jorge Gonzales, Buster Mathis Jr., and Herbie Hide -- not exactly a murderer's row of contenders, but they were decently skilled big men.

 

Larry Donald was ok, the rest there are nothing special at all and Mathis was giving Bowe Fits. In fact Bowe should of been Dq'd.

Bowe's resume is extremely soft given the era he fought in. There's just no excuse to miss as many names as he did. He missed, Mercer, Morrison, Moorer, Foreman, Holmes, Tyson, and of course Lennox.

Golota essentially ended his career so I'll excuse him the mid and late 90s wave of talent like Byrd, Tua, Rahmen, Ruiz but in short Bowe really whiffed big time in a rich era of talent.

 

And who the hell did Tyson fight out of all those and win??? Every career defining fight he had he got his ass kicked.

 

Bowe would have given Tyson a very hard fight, there's absolutely no question about that in my mind. Actually, Bowe might well have beat him. Bowe is underrated.

Seriously, people getting all upset and sensitive over what Bowe and Byrd said, which was hardly a sustained and unreasonable attack on Tyson's legacy - it kind of suggests that there's some serious insecurity surrounding Tyson's resume/legacy. Maybe.

I mean, okay, if his best win is not Michael Spinks, then who ?
Tony Tucker ? Razor Ruddock ? Trevor Berbick ?
I think the argument that the Klitschkos were better than those men actually holds some merit.

Tyson had a great run from 1986-'89, fighting regularly, and was exciting, beating most of the world's best at that time. But that's a short window, and the opposition was not amazing. Let's be honest. He had his chance to beat Douglas and fight and defeat an undefeated Holyfield in 1990 and he blew it. He had a second chance and was battered by Holyfield in 1996. Meanwhile Bowe gets sh!t for "only" beating Holyfield, 2 out of 3 times - in fact softening him up for a comebacking Tyson !

I'd rate Tyson above Bowe, on resume, not h2h necessarily, and certainly I don't think highly of Byrd as a heavyweight fighter.
But their comments are valid, imo.

 

byrd is pretty good but his window of opportunity was unique in that he fought a champ who was relatively weak H2H despite him having massive physical advantages - I am not sure byrd would have had such success above LHW in any other era.

bowe didn't appear to have character to fully realise his potential, but certainly he COULD have been better than Tyson. He just rarely delivered.

I would say Tyson (undisputed reign, and youngest title holder) outweights them both combined.

 

I agree. I believe they were all undefeated at the time as well. Bowe took their O. This was Bowe's comeback trail and was ready to right the wrongs of his championship stint.

 

Buster Mathis jr couldn't crack an egg, Gonzalez was a fraud and Hide never best anyone of note unless michael Bentt counts. Or the ghost of tony tucker.

 

Tyson would **** up Byrd, no question. Bowe would be tougher meat though. Nether can touch his legacy obviously.

 

God Riddick Bowe both looks and sounds terrible these days.

 

No but I saw one of his last fights against Billy Zumbrun and like most people, felt he lost.