A thread on Bowe in the general forum got me thinking on this one. It's generally agreed upon that Bowe has a very weak resume, but is it really as bad as advertised? I mean look at his pre-title run: Cooper, Biggs, Tubbs, Thomas, Coetzer, Seldon. Sure, some of these guys were past their best, but this is a rather impressive set of names for a challenger going into a title fight. Then he beat Holyfield of course. Defended against Dokes. Sure, an easy defense, but he deserved one after ripping Holyfields title away from him in a war. Nevertheless, Dokes was a good name on a 9 fight winning streak. He was scheduled to fight Ray Mercer, but Jesse Ferguson got in the way of that by outpointing Ray in a dull affair. So Bowe destroyed Ferguson, before fighting Holyfield a second time and losing. After losing to Holyfield, Bowe fights Mathis (14-0), Donald (16-0), Hide (26-0) and Gonzalez (23-0), before beating Holyfield in the rubbermatch. Then he fights Andrew Golota (28-0) twice and retires. One loss in his career, which was avenged twice. Was Bowes opposition really that weak?
It's not so much that it's weak. It's that it isn't strong enough to justify his talents. I mean we have a man who beat everyone he ever faced. A SHW who can infight with just about anyone. An iron chinned warrior who was able to take the zero off one of the best fighters in modern history. This should be a man lauded as an ATG, but then you look at his resume and can't help but be underwhelmed. His manager didn't want Lewis to have a good split, he was never able to negotiate a Tyson fight, there's just too much lacking.
I think the biggest issue is that he was forced to retire too early. When you take into consideration that he had only been pro for 7 years before his initial retirement, his resume is actually pretty good. Not only do you have 2 wins over an ATG in his prime, but a whole lot of other decent contenders on his resume like Tubbs, Biggs, Seldon, Hide, Golota, Mathis, Donald etc. If he had been able to go on another 10 years, like Lewis and the Klitschkos were able to, he might have gone down as one of the best to do it. He just didn't have the time.
His resume is good, but that's all that can be said about it. You wouldn't look at that resume and think "top 10 material" but then you watch him fight and you would think he could be. I remember even in 95, after he beat Holy h's was considered the best HW in the world going into the Golota fights. But then he spent a year getting beaten up and never did anything again. No one who sees him fight will think his resume has done him justice, and that's because it hasn't.
Strange career, Bowe's. Seemed to be the best in the world, then ruined by Golota --in two fights he technically won. And then nothing after that. What would have happened if he stuck around longer? I think Lewis would have beaten him, and so would have Vitali K.. And maybe a few up-and-comers too. He was clearly pretty dangerously shot after the Golota fights.
I personally suspect that Bowe was weak for a SHW, and would have lost to a lot of guys just 10-15 years later. Gave up his height, good but overrated power and chin. I feel like Golata exposed what would have happened against other SHW's. We'll never know. I feel like I give him good credit putting him in the top 25 all time and as the 4th best HW of his era. Some of the guys he fought early were good names, if old and past it, and Hide and Donald were good wins. As you mentioned, his resume wasn't bad for the length of time he fought, but he took a ton of damage with his fighting style and I don't think he could have improved upon it if he'd stayed around.
It's ok. It could have been a whole lot better when you take into account there were a lot of good heavies around at the time that he didn't face for one reason or another.
