Bowe turned pro shortly after the 1988 olympics, Tyson stated to decline after 1988 when Rooney left, Holy looked unimpressive v two fighters in their 40`s and a fighter that Bowe beat during his career, was there ever a point before 1992 when Bowe had peaked enough to win a heavyweight title?
If buster Douglas took a warm up fight against Bowe before defending his title against Holyfield. Well i think he was good enough to beat an out of shape Buster, the one holyfield beat of course. I don't think he would have been ready to fight Tyson in 1989 even if mike was not 100% at that time...no way.
Holyfield did not look unimpressive against Foreman and Holmes. He looked impressive in the first Bowe fight, too.
Bowe could have beaten Douglas in late 90. Tyson is too much for an inexperienced Bowe in 89 Now the WBO titilsts during this time were Damiani and Mercer. I think Bowe could beat Damiani. A fight with Mercer in 91 (with the caveat of Mercer being in top form) would of been an awesome fight.
To me Holy peaked in the first Bowe fight. He showed unbelievable heavyweight guts, skill...the whole package. Bowe was just equally skilled...and bigger. Much. Not sure on Bowe being seasoned enough to beat Tokyo Douglas. Not at all. But I respect your opinion.
Early 90(Tokyo Douglas) I think Douglas beats early 90 Bowe. Late 90 Douglas (Douglas from the Holyfield fight) I favor Bowe as Buster was checked out and not in shape. I probably should of made that more clear in my original post.
Unfortunately true. To be fair, they both were. It was an example of Holy's Warrior heart taking over...to his ultimate detriment. Still, to me that was about as peak Holyfield as you could get...and both fighters became top 20 ATGs in that fight imo. Yeah, I think that much of it.
I think it took until the last half of the 90s for people to even begin accepting it...and then guardedly.
I think he'd have found his spots in the stripped out Hvy scene (from the crack epidemic) in the 80's and picked up a strap or two.
The Pom's were the first to buy into it...because of Eubank, Benn and the rest of the second raters...but even then I think they must have know it was BS....like us with our very own WBF!!
