Bowe or Toney? who had the more wasted potential

Bowe

 

Bowe.

Toney had hiccups, but he had numerous fights against rated opponents on top of moving to heavyweight.

Riddick could have been so much more.

 

Bowe

 

Bowe really squandered his talents and did the unforgivable when he flat out ducked Lewis.

Toney, on the other hand, is an ATG despite his issues.

 

This.

 

I'll expand on the Bowe answer.

Bowe was a friggin huge guy with a lot of power and durability. He handily outweighed most of his rivals. He also specialised in thumping smaller dudes and avoiding punchers as best he could. He famously ducked Lewis. If he'd beaten Lewis he'd have been top 10 material.

Toney was a much smaller guy that fought his way up from middleweight to heavyweight. He was inconsistent but did not duck challenges and got probable brain trauma from the big punchers he faced. Despite this he pulled off some remarkable victories.

What it boils down to is that Bowe could have been expected to dominate heavy given his natural size. Toney should never have been anywhere near heavy and especially not in his fat version. The fact that he had some success there should be astounding.

 

Definitely Riddick Bowe.

 

Riddick Bowe IMO had pretty much already peaked by the 2nd fight with Evander. And his career was basically over after that. Toney even after he lost to Roy was at LHW and CW fighting, and was still on TV and still being talked about. Toney also had a career resurgence and technically won a HW title. Even with all that Toney left a bit on the table but he's still considered an ATG and is a HOF'er.

 

Bowe because Toney had alot of high profile wins and achieved alot in his career.

Bowe after his only real stand out win vs Holyfield got considerably worse and missed out on alot of big fights.

 

toney. I think Bowe was sadly a bit punchy and that's why he dumped the belts. His body was probably done. His mind was suffering, and I think Bowe got about what was there out of his career. I know there were potentially some Tony TNT Tucker tooting going on with Bowe too, but he sure flamed out quickly. The belt dumping is reductive. He went from 100 to shopworn after the Golota fights. He wasted a bit of time between Holyfield fights, and then he got the last of his prime beaten out of him by Golota. Really he missed a Lennox fight (L), Morrison fight
(W), and a Tyson fight (?). I don't know if those aside from Lennox help his legacy much. If you sub out the Golota fights for those 3, it would be the direction people want of him, but those Holyfield fights took a toll so how many of those does he even win.

I feel like if Toney wasn't so chronically fat and lazy and constantly Ricky Fatton'ing between every fight, smoking cigars hanging out with rappers not giving a ****, he would have been right there with RJJ in prodigiousness and probably been the consensus best fighter in his weight class. Roids, Dave Tiberi, Thadzi, getting fat, bickering and lawsuits with managers, being entitled and pricing himself out of fights he would easily win, Toney left so much on the table for how much he did. Boxers who've seen him, referring to the SKY Super Middleweight roundtable with Eubank, Collins, Calzaghe and more all considered Toney to be the most talented of the bunch (with RJJ right there at the table with them).

Bowe probably just loses to Lennox in his correct timeline. Toney could be the goat in his.

 

I say Riddick Bowe only because Toney HAD an outstanding career and achieved ATG status. Bowe could have done more if it were for two things

1. Improving his defense
2. Trained harder

 

In a weird way, Toney lived up to a lot of his potential. How many middleweights are so good that they can get fat and have success at heavyweight?

Bowe squandered most of his potential.

 

Bowe . Ate his prime years away . Would of beat Lewis in the early 90s imo .

 

I don't think Bowes lack of training really affected him so much. The version who faced Golota was suffering from brain damage imo and there isnt much more he could have accomplished previously other than facing Lewis.