I think Bowe-Holyfield II is often overlooked as a very close championship fight that could have gone either way. I think this had to do with how much people admired Holyfield at the time and how Bowe and his camp (strangely) chose not to complain too much about the decision. Bowe could have gotten the decision without any real controversy. In that case, the history of the division in the 90s may have been completely different. What happens to Holyfield? Does he retire? Does he decide to give it another go if he is guaranteed a rematch? Would he bother continuing on with no hope of a rematch in sight? How about Bowe? After he lost the title, his camp was kind of left out in the cold. He never got a shot at any of the major belts for the rest of his career. What we saw was basically uninspired performances against mediocre fighters. Without a title to defend and without any meaningful opposition, Bowe's already questionable conditioning got even worse, and his bad habits got out of control. The only really good performance we saw from him was his fight vs. Gonzalez. Even though he won Holyfield III, he looked sloppy and I'd say he won mostly because there was somethign clearly wrong with Holyfield. If Bowe retained the title, would the story have been different? Or would his bad habits get the best of him anyway? Maybe with a title to defend, he'd stay in better shape and constant weight gain/loss cycle wouldn't have robbed him of his skills at such a young age (we saw how far he'd slipped against Golota). I think Bowe would have beaten Moorer in the first half of 1994, won a few more fights against guys like Morrison or Mercer or Foreman (if Big George wanted to get in the ring against him). I can't see an inspired, in-shape Bowe being seriously challenged during that period by anyone other than Lewis, who wouldn't have gotten a shot having lost to McCall. That would bring us to Mike Tyson's release from prison. No doubt Don King would have secured a WBC title fight for Tyson. But Bowe would hold two belts and be recognized as the legitimate, lineal champ. Tyson would have to fight Bowe. I wonder if Tyson would have gotten into the ring with Bowe in mid 1996, or if he'd want some more serious tune-up fights before taking on such a challenge. What do you all think would have happened?
michael moorer would have gotten first crack at bowe cause he was ranked #1 by the wba/ibf so we woulda seen bowe /moorer instead of holy/moorer
Maybe beating Holyfield while fat would allow him to think he could win while fat and he's show up pudgy for his next fight and lose
In that scenario Bowe beats Moorer in 94, by KO. Then he faces someone like Botha, Frank Bruno or old Tony Tucker and beats them by KO, too. Foreman won't fight for Bowe's title, instead Foreman tries to get WBC title shot. I believe Bowe fights Gonzalez as well in 95. Then if Holy retires the only 2 fighters that Bowe could lose to would be Lennox and Tyson. It would happen in 1996. Bowe therefore gets 4 years reign, better overall resume and higher rankings of all time.
Very well could've happened like this, Who knows if Bowe got the decision and stayed motivated he may have become a consensus great heavyweight. Perhaps though he would've continued to decline in a similar fashion and this could leave him vulnerable to being upset.