Prime Riddick Bowe was a monster

Bowe was actually ahead of Lewis for a couple years at pro imo. I honestly don't think Lennox could have defeated him 91 to 93.

After that, it was Lews' show every day and twice on Sunday.

Newman was a horrible agent. Instead of grabbing the Lewis fight when Bowe could have won (after Holy I), he decided to get greedy. Then he talked Bowe into doing that abysmally stupid gag with the belt. Not sure who was worse: Newman for urging such a terrible idea on Bowe, or Bowe's stupidity in blindly following an even bigger idiot.

 

Lennox also beat Holyfield (and Bowe) so what’s your point???

 

Shame his prime was just 1992-1993, a very short lived peak before his laziness won over.

 

I'm a Lewis fan but Bowe throwing the belt in the bin was a huge mistake imo, I think he would have beat Lewis prior to Emanuel Steward

 

Blud was really prime for a fight

 

If he ever had a chance it was then, as he ate himself out of his prime soon after and Lewis by the 2nd half of the 90's was a far more polished fighter. It's a shame his management and Bowe himself didn't have the balls to do what he had been contractually obligated to and fight Lewis, it's definitely one of the big "what if" fights of that era and Bowe and Newman are the ones to blame for it not happening. We can speculate all we like about who wins, reality is nobody knows. All we know is when it mattered Bowe didn't fancy it and that taints his legacy forever.

 

Had he stepped in the ring with Lewis, he could be an ATG, or he could be a guy that was just a bad matchup for Holyfield. The fact that Golota was handling him in both fights really hurts his case.

 

Obviously Bowe was a great fighter. I really have a hard time rating him H2H though, due to never facing an elite power puncher.

 

Bowe developed very quickly after the amateurs, in addition to how heavy handed Bowe was - people don't give Bowe enough credit for the skill he had, he was an unbelievably skilled boxer. Manny Steward has said in the past that Bowe had the edge in skill over Lennox.

Bowe 1992-95 beats Lennox for me, but after that Lennox has the edge.

Prime for prime? 50/50.

Both fighters would have dominated today's era of boxing, they were truly generational fighters.

 

It's possible but Bowe never faced such a skilled opponent with huge power. He survived Holyfield cause he was a lot bigger. We saw what happened to his chin when Golota hit him. Between the two, Lewis had better defense.

 

Bowes best opponent was Holyfield. Golota ruined him and he never fought the top tier of the Division.

 

Had the opportunity and threw his belt in the bin.

 

I would dispute this a bit, World Champion prime Bowe indeed didn't exist. He was one of those weird cases where it appears his prime was before he won the title with the peak being bowe/holy I. It was literally all down hill from there, including his defenses of the title

 

Lewis had a better defense than Bowe and more power.

 

lol you guys talking about Riddick like he's real but he got played by I think the rock and was ficttishinil.