Mike Tyson vs Riddick Bowe

I wouldn't exactly say being the only man to stop Michael Spinks and Larry Holmes who both had over 100+ fights and 30+ title wins between them as "mid tier" wins.

Yes Bowe has the best single win over Holyfield but still Holyfield only weighed 205 pounds at that time and is not noted as a big hitter. So overall Bowe with his suspect defense and having considerable size advantage over Holyfield matched up well vs him.

That doesn't mean Bowe has the same success against a much bigger puncher in Tyson with his leaky defense. As I said Bowe got away with it vs Holyfield because he outweighed him by 30+ pounds and Holyfield is not a big puncher.

As for who's career I would want ? Definitely Tyson he was the number 1 Heavyweight for 4 years and made 9 title defenses during that time. Bowe was the number 1 Heavyweight for like a year and then was hit and miss until Golota ended his career. I'll give Bowe props for the Holyfield win but I still think that win inflates peoples estimation of him. Holyfield was the perfect stylistic match up for Bowe a smaller Heavyweight who liked to engage and who was not a big puncher.

Tyson when he fought Holyfield was considerably past his prime and fought a much stronger roided up Holyfield who weighed between 215-218 pounds for both fights which is a big difference.

 

Larry Holmes was coming off of a 2 years retirement with only few weeks to train for Mike, and Michael Spinks was never really good at heavyweight.
Just to remind you, boxing is so much more than just weight and power.
Yeah Holyfield was heavier and juiced hard when he beat Tyson, but he was overall clearly much better and faster in 92.
Bowe didn't defeat prime undisputed because of his weight advantage.
Holyfield is arguably the best counter puncher ever and Bowe just went on a relentless war with him showing spectactular skills too

 

Holyfield was the perfect stylistic match up for Bowe a smaller Heavyweight with average punching power who liked to exchange punches.
And as I said I think people's estimation of Bowe gets overrated due to that.

Bowe never proved he could beat an elite Heavyweight of similar size nor did he prove he could beat an elite Heavyweight with genuine KO power.

Don't get me wrong Bowe's win over Holyfield was a very good one and I think Bowe was a very good Heavyweight in his prime. But I still think there was alot of unanswered questions about Bowe, and his poor defense especially facing off against a big hitter like Tyson who is an excellent finisher don't fill me with alot of confidence.

 

Good post. What if it’s post-Tokyo (pre-prison) Tyson does that change anything for you?

 

Bowe had a bizzare prime and he was only at his best in the first Holyfield fight, but he is not some bum Tyson fought who just stands tall and is extremely easy to knock out.
Bowe doesn't have the best defense but he is terrific on the inside.
And you are very wrong about Holyfield he also hit very hard and you forgot that he also fought the same heavier, more juiced and powerful Holyfield that Tyson fought.
Not only that, but Tyson in his prime went the distance with complete nobodies and with an injured Tony Tucker, while Bowe easily has one of the best chins of the 90s.
Tyson doesn't stand a chance Imo

 

I don't think you can claim Bowe has one of the best chins when he didn't fight any notable punchers of that era like Morrison, Ruddock, Bruno, Lewis, Mercer, etc. He has an above chin for sure but he can be hurt with single punches a past it Biggs had him on rubber legs after one left hook, Holyfield damn near knocked him out with a single left hook.

Tony Tucker is hardly a nobody he was undefeated 6'5 with good durability and unlike Bowe he fought a cautious defensive fight. It's not like Bowe is going to fight anything like Tucker is it ? Mostly the fighters who went the distance with Tyson fought to survive except for Ruddock. Bowe is going to be engaging with Tyson on the inside and with his defensive lapses as I said it doesn't fill me with great confidence.

I also think Tyson's chin is more proven than Bowe's he took hellacious shots off a huge puncher like Ruddock without going down or without ever really been in serious trouble.

PS you're calling Tucker a nobody but the funny thing is a prime undefeated Tucker would be Bowe's 2nd best win of his career and that is a fact.

 

Wait a minute, my friend, Holmes and Tyson were 38 years old, which is the same as Usyk, and the 2-year break, as he claimed, allowed him to regain his freshness. and yet Tyson dominated him like no one before or since. Did Larry also train for two weeks for Spinks? how long did he train for Carl Williams? and how much to Trevor Berbick, who after 15 rounds he called the strongest fighter he had ever met? What do they have in common? the fact that Larry didn't hit any of them the full distance and Tyson needed about 7, maybe 8 minutes on all of them. TOTAL!! otherwise we wouldn't consider them garbage.
Styles make fights, and in 1996 Tyson had clear problems with his mentality, timing and cardio. Holyfield's Tyson would probably have lost at least some of the 37 fights he fought in the 1980s.
Oh, if Michael Spinks wasn't a great heavyweight boxer, how come he had 2 equal fights with someone like Larry Holmes??

 

Prime for prime I think Tyson's power get's him the win barely

Bowe's defence isn't the best and he was floored by Evander so could he withstand Iron Mike's onslaught

The real question is why such a big money fight never happened during the 90's

 

By the time Bowe made his mark beating Holyfield in 1992, Tyson was already in prison at that stage.

And when Tyson go out of prison in 1995 Holyfield was beating the prime out of Bowe in their 3rd fight. And then Bowe's career was over in 1996 when Golota battered him twice.

There was never a real window of opportunity for this fight to happen. Even in a perfect world if Tyson never went to prison I'm not sure they would've fought anyway. I heard they were friends and grew up in the same neighbour. I believe Tyson even wrote Bowe a letter from prison wishing him good luck vs Holyfield.

 

I know the window for the fight was small but still a shame it didn't come to fruition even in 95-96 would have been interesting

 

Maybe because Larry Holmes declined heavily since 1983?

 

You have a great logic, but you are discrediting the amount of damage he managed to absorb from Holyfield.
Yes Tyson might have enough power to knock him out, but it doesn't mean it would be easy. Holyfield was not as powerful but still extremely dangerous and they went on a crazy all out war which proved Bowe has a spectactular chin.
Bowe is not stupid and he would soon realize he can become cannon fodder if he does the same with Tyson.
So I believe he would use his amazing jab to frustrate Mike for most of the fight, and try to finish him when he gets tired

 

Tyson had more one punch power post prison imo, the right he put Botha away with is the prime example, also listen to the first round of the first Tyson Holyfield fight when they open up absolutely banging, can you really tell whose punches are whose, Holyfield's power gets downplayed/underrated imo, he was never focused on being a single punch KO guy but he likely had more power in his combos than Louis

 

Maybe, maybe.. but what year did he fight with Trevir Berbick? If he fell so significantly in 1983, it's a bit strange that in 1991 he quite easily defeated prime Ray Mercer, who was unable to defeat prime Lennox Lewis. He also showed he could be competitive with Evander Holyfield in 1992 and in 1995 with the guy who had just swept the floor with Lennox Lewis... I can't understand your logic. Even fat Tony Tubbs, whom Tyson easily beat and who years later Mike called a freak of nature and the best boxer he had fought with Riddick, was even fatter and broken and gave him a competitive fight.

 

Holyfield hit harder than Louis!? Not even with a baseball bat.