Bowe's Ring-rated opponents

Thanks everyone, all handy to have.

Mmm, I got Herbie...he was all the way up to #6 on the 1994 year-ending ratings, so made an assumption that was a pretty good bet he was still around there for when he fought Bowe in early '95. It's 100% at least he'd still have been in their top ten, since it was only March.

 

Here's everything I have at the moment, including any ABC rankings. I also checked some of the fights in case rankings were mentioned by the commentators there, which they were in a few cases.


Seldon - #23 WBC (McCall loss really hurt his ranking)
Coetzer - #1 WBA
Holyfield - Undisputed champ, so #1 all round including #1 Ring
Dokes - #8 WBA, #11 IBF
Ferguson - #12 WBA
Holyfield II - don't know...? I'd assume he'd be #3 Ring or close to that, plus a top ABC ranking
Mathis Jr - #7 IBF, #8 WBA
Donald - #5 WBC, #8 IBF, #11 WBA
Hide - #6 Ring, WBO Champion
Gonzalez - #9 Ring (at least he was at the end of '94), #1 WBO
Holyfield III - can't find any rating...certainly no ABC, what about Ring?
Golota I - #6 IBF, #12 WBC
Golota II - no idea about ABC rankings, but became the Ring #5 for the end of the year...did he have a Ring rating before the Bowe rematch?


That's all I could find.

 

So Donald was ring rated at the time? Those Williams and Cooper wins must've really helped him out.

I'm surprised they had Holyfield all the way up at #2 by Nov '95, too. They must've dropped Foreman a ton when he had that controversial win over Schulz, or rated Mercer a lot higher than I'd have thought after the poor 93 & 94 he'd had.

And Golota did get himself a ranking by the time of the second Bowe fight, #6?

All very valuable, thanks a lot! That's probably a pretty definitive list now with those added. Cheers!

 

Which caused a lot of critism at the time, and the WBO even took their belt away from Mercer (which Mercer didn't seem to care less about) in protest of him fighting old Holmes.

Heh.

 

All I've got for Ferguson is the #12 WBA ranking they gave him for beating Mercer. No ranking from the WBC or IBF (no idea about WBO). Mercer's stock took a big hit from the Holmes loss.

But Mercer still managed to get a #8 Ring ranking at the end of '92.

Perhaps if someone has the Ring rankings for April or May 1993, they may be able to confirm whether Ferguson got in the Ring's top ten for beating Mercer or not?

 

It does look like The Ring gave Golota a top ten spot by the time of the rematch though, so they must've relented. He definitely wasn't Ring ranked beforehand.

That's excellent confirmation for a few stats though, particularly about Mercer-Ferguson, thanks also for that.

I should probably put up the list I have now just for posterity , I'll sort it when I get home.

 

Belatedly then, here's all I had for Bowe:

vs Ring rated top ten:
6-1 (3)

vs Ring and/or ABC rated top ten:
10-1 (6) plus 1 NC


Ring opponents:
UD12 Holyfield I (#1)
L-MD12 Holyfield II (#3)
UD12 Donald (#7)
KO6 Hide (#6)
KO6 Gonzalez (#9)
TKO8 Holyfield III (#2)
DQ9 Golota II (#6)

ABC opponents:
TKO7 Coetzer (#1 WBA)
TKO1 Dokes (#8 WBA, #11 IBF)
KO2 Ferguson (#12 WBA)
NC4 Mathis Jr (#7 IBF, #8 WBA)
DQ7 Golota I (#6 IBF, #12 WBA)


I just thought it might be interesting, as Bowe is so identified with the Holyfield trilogy above all the rest of his career, to see just who else was considered worthy at the time he fought. Pretty good numbers.