Max Baer -Or Riddick Bowe??

I respect your opinion, but as mentioned I:

1) Don't see a huge difference either way in the quality of their win resumes; and

2) Think Baer lost to multiple fighters in and around his prime years that weren't better, and in the odd case not even as good as, the best fighters Bowe beat. Whereas the only fighter Bowe lost to - A) Was better than all Baer's wins and substantially better than all other than Schmeling; and B) He also beat twice.

This suggests to me that Bowe was better relative to his era, than Baer was for his.

No big deal though, one we are probably going to have to agree to disagree on.

 

I enjoy Max Baer like many but to elevate him above a second rate title holder at best is a hell of a reach ... a prime Bowe knocks Baer out.

 

I will make the observation, that you are comparing two resumes, as different as you can get.

Baer was thrown to the wolves ridiculously early in his professional career (crunch the numbers), while Bowe won an Olympic silver medal before he even had a professional fight.

Bowe was very carefully managed early in his professional career.

Baer bat a lot more contenders on his way up, and a lot more contenders on his way down.

 

Baer lost his 37th pro contest to Les Kennedy. I don't consider him a wolf. After that he lost to Schaaf, the ATG but natural LHW Laughran, Risko and natural LHW Braddock.

Bowe beat Holyfield in his 32nd fight. He was older than Baer was in some of the above losses, which should be factored in, but honestly, I see Bowe facing multiple guys on broadly that HW level and beating them all.

 

This

 

A trudgen over hand swing and its goodnight for Maxie Baer.

Legacy wise I rate Bowe 10-12. . Baer around 17-22

 

Bowe by brutal KO

 

The devil is in the detail here.

Max Baer had very little amateur career that we are aware of, and he turned professional aged 20.

A mere 18 months after his pro debut, he is being matched with seasoned veterans like Tom Heeney and Tommy Loughran.

Within two years of his debut, he is being matched with Uzcdun in a 20 rounder, still aged only 22.

Bowe turned professional aged 22, having previously won an Olympic silver medal.

He was not matched with anybody expected to give him much of a test in his first 18 months.

 

I appreciate what you're saying.

I don't typically rank fighters based on how they did relative to expectations or based on how well they did relative to their amateur career experience.

I typically rank them based on who they beat and lost to in and around their prime years. Using this criteria, for reasons I and others in this thread have given, I'm comfortable Bowe deserves to be ranked higher, though I don't think we are talking about a huge difference.