Bowe never fought a puncher

I just watched Bowe vs:

Seldon (1991)
Dokes (1993)
Hide (1995)

I know it's a cliche to talk about a boxer's prime, but in Bowe's case, his decline was so fast and extreme that you can't drop his name without specifying the stage of his career. Against Hide, he looked totally uninterested, slow on his feet and purely getting by on his strength and size. I never really understood how Hide got genuinely hurt by grazing punches and jabs... but if that bout was scored under the amateur system, then Hide won by 50 to 5 or something. Bowe really took him out with a few landed punches.

Dokes and Seldon were a different story. The one thing all of his fights have in common, though, is that he always got hit a lot. His defence really is his weakness, although career-wise, his biggest weakness was his behavior and focus.

 

Hide was a monstrous puncher coming into that fight. I think he was just completely intimidated by Bowe for some reason. I think Bowe knocked him down by 6 or 8 times. That was just Bowes fight, he liked to put pressure on his opponents and mix it up, and I dont think Hide was really ready to face a guy as physically big as Bowe.

 

Hide could whack for sure. Very fast hands and quick with his combinations. His problem was that his mindset (and chin) didn't match his other physical gifts... Bowe at his best would've blown him out the way Vitali Klitschko did. If Bowe fought Tyson just coming from prison instead, he would've been hammered. Mike wouldn't have back up down, been intimidated or put on ***** street by the first jab that landed.

 

Would anyone even have guessed Hide would still be around, fighting at CW and being mentioned reasonably high in the rankings no less? I mean, after Bowe and Vitali...

 

He just never fit into that new mold of super heavies. He was a good puncher but he didnt have a super great chin and he was small compared to the likes of Bowe and Vitali. Hes better suited at cruiser.

 

Bowe was the one elite guy I'd back a post-jail Tyson to beat.

Holyfield beat him at his own game.... Lewis would have jabbed his head off to force a merciful stoppage.

 

I dont know if Bowe was elite in 96, but Bowe had a horrendous uppercut. Funny enough I ran into Bowe immediately after the Bruno Tyson fight, and laughed at how bad Tyson looked and referred to him as looking like he was stepping in post holes he was so open. He said he would have killed Tyson had he been in there.
Tyson although still finishing fights quite dynamically, was a technical mess for most of his comeback.

 

The world 'elite' in boxing is pretty subjective.

I guess in his case it is open to debate, I mean... he was winning all his fights - albeit the Holyfield III win is questionable with the revelations of Hepatitis etc.

Tyson wasn't all that in his comeback, I agree..... I think Ron Borges summed it up best win he said his comeback up to the Holyfield fight was full of dry rot.

The Bruno win looks good on paper, but having read Frank's book it's clear he didn't really want to be in there. He achieved his dream in beating McCall, and was getting $6m.... he was 34, had a history of eye trouble and already had suffered a bad KO loss to Tyson - not saying he quit or didn't try etc, but something wasn't right.

 

Well their KO records consisted of a bunch of has beens and never were's but it was there. They still were some sort of punching threat. You dont knockout everyone if you dont have some sort of punch.
I would say Mike Grant wasnt in Lennox Lewis class, but he could still punch pretty good.

 

Maybe Golota exposed Bowe as a fighter in general, but if you really think he exposed his chin you need to rewatch those fights. Anyone surviving almost ten rounds of continuous beating from Golota must've had good chin. Some rounds were like target practice for Golota... and Bowe was still standing.

 

And just what top heavies did Golata ever ko anyway? And he went into that first Bowe fight as a guy barely on the radar screen fighting on USA network. That's a lot different than a can't miss pedigreed heavyweight prospect everyone is watching on their way up.

 

The two always hated each other. I remember Tyson laguhing at Bowe after he truend pro and saying: "Bowe never could fight."

 

Cmon Bowe was a good fighter and a crowd pleaser thats why I dont understand why so many dislike him so much. If you followed his career it was his lazy ways that did him in.