bowe could have achieved alot more than he did, he had a lot of talent. ali in his prime certainly beats him, the FOTC ali is 50/50 i would say, and ali after that i would favour bowe but only just in a competitive match against frazier it would be similar to frazier-foreman, against foreman i think bowe could easily win by boxing george, but bowe loves to in-fight which could possibly go in foremans favour, but i favour bowe in a tought fight shavers bowe would ko bowe would beat young by points or late stoppage
Against Norton's more notable opposition: (and assuming a prime or relatively prime Bowe all the way through) he loses to Ali and Holmes. Bowe alwayd has a problem asserting his jab when someone could jab with him, and his rounder, more over the top motion would not serve him well against crisp, straight punching that Ali and especially Holmes could deliver. Foreman is a bit of a question mark. I think Bowe starts out boxing him and does well, but gets drawn into a wild firefight and after that it's up in the air, although it's to bet against Foreman if someone is standing and fighting with him and they're not named Ali. Quarry, Bobick, Garcia, Stander, all get KO'd. Young loses by either boring decision or KO. Shavers gets boxed carefully at first, weakened for a TKO after the first few rounds. He beats Tex Cobb by UD and Cooney by UD or mid to late round KO.
Quarry- Bowe by early round TKO, maybe round 3 or 4 Young- Bowe by SD or MD. Young gives Bowe trouble, just as he gave Ali, Foreman, and Norton trouble Foreman- Foreman by decision or late round KO, Bowe give him trouble but eventually Foreman takes control Ali- Ali by decision. Ali has trouble, Bowe is that good, but Ali prevails Holmes- Holmes by decision, Bowe would do well but come up short Shavers- Bowe by mid-late round KO Cooney- Bowe by late round KO. Cooney puts up a very good fight but Bowe proves to be too much Bowe stops most of the other guys Norton fought with a possible exception to Tex Cobb... who Bowe would beat with ease. H2H? I'll take Bowe
Bowe beats Jose Luis Garcia. A prime 1992 Bowe loses to a 1973 Ali. He drops a close decision to the Ali of the first Norton fight,but loses heavily on the cards to the Muhammad of the Inglewoods rematch. Bowe gets stopped by a 1974 George Foreman. Bowe wins on points against a 1976 Ali. Bowe loses to prime Jimmy Young. Clear decision. Bowe loses heavily to Larry Holmes,but beats Earnie Shavers. Obviously,if we took Bowe's erratic career in 'real time' he does badly against all of these men,but in trying to be fair to Riddick,I've estimated these fights in featuring the Bowe of the first fight with Evander Holyfield.
Some of these responses are pretty ridiculous. Do people actually realise Bowe could box on the outside? he was damn good at it when he wanted to. I'm certainly having mutual feelings with hookfromhell in that Bowe could very well beat all of Norton's opposition. Bowe would be far to good for Young, this isn't a Foreman that slugged all fight long. If Bowe sticks to the outside jabbing he wins it. Ali was still good when he fought Norton, but in 73 Ali hadn't seen anything like Bowe before. Ali would really struggle and would be wobbled by Bowe, however the reality of it if Bowe won all 3 fights against Ali, he probably would only win 1 on the scorecards. Foreman and Holmes are the only 2 I'd take to beat a prime Bowe. Riddick just wouldn't be able to resist getting into a slugfest with Foreman. Although Bowe had power, it wasn't in the same league as Foreman and despite Bowe's iron chin, I think Foreman would stop him in a war. Holmes on the other hand has a jab that would cause huge frustration for Bowe. His accuracy and straight punches would lead to Bowe trying to finish the fight with one big punch, which is the wrong way to go fighting, a slightly green, but a finely physically tuned Holmes. Holmes by MD
I cant see how he could possibly go undefeated - He struggled with much worse opposition - To take his best performance and overlay onto every fight of his career is just giving a false picture - We could then say Buster Douglas would go undefeated against Nortons opposition. Taking there signature wins at the same time Peak Bowe who fought Holy 1 would probably lose against 73 Ali and his next 2 fights agaisnt Dokes and Ferguson would be replaced by Ali and Foreman - He would lose these 2 as well Bowe would win a few then but would the Bowe that was put on ***** street against Herbie Hide beat - debatable but I would give him the edge. Move on a year and would Bowe of the 3rd Holy fight beat Ali of Norton 3 - I think Ali would win this too going 3 - 0 with Bowe Then how would the Bowe of the Golota fights fare against Young and Holmes - 2 losses I would say! And If Bowe carried on I cant see an older version beating Cooney or Shavers. That would be 8 losses for the real Bowe not the mythical 1 fight Bowe.
Assume that the unprofesional Bowe would at some point turn up unmotivated and cop a beating (Golota) or avoid some of these guys by throwing whatever belt he has (his trouser belt if he doesn't have a title) in the bin
I would take Bowe KO1 Bobick. Even if he was around the 2nd Golota fight (or worse retired) by that point 'Prime' Bowe takes Bobick early anyway. The Shavers that wasted Kenny would have a lively battle with Bowe as Riddick could take a couple of rounds to really get into it and his defence was porous and he could be hurt, if not easily finished. He'd come back to waste Shavers in 5 or 6 rounds.
FOTC Ali thrashes any version of Bowe, in my opinion. He still couldn't get away from the jab or a throw a straight right to save his life. He was great against fighters that came at him. Quick/slick boxers troubled him. Hell, an old Tubbs went even with him over 10. Bowe would be game, but Ali would win a very wide decision.
