Riddick Bowe vs Lennox Lewis 1993

That's what I've been saying but some people here cant bring themselves to admit it. Bowe was simply superior

Lewis got nothing but leftovers from Bowe & Holyfield. Bowe's leftovers were of course, Holyfield himself and Goleta. Are you kidding me? Two fights against Bowe? What do you think's going to happen when you fight a shell?

Bowe softened him up for him, that's why he was so easy

The fresher, younger fighters he couldnt do that. I'm talking Mercer, who I thought beat lewis, and Vitali. The only way Lewis could beat him is on cuts. He couldnt knock him off his feet. If they fought ten times, he couldnt stop Vitali, just as he couldnt stop Holyfield

Lewis of course, was only able to get a draw against Holy, Lewis not able to get a clean knockout the way Bowe did

And then there's Holyfield's leftovers, Mike Tyson who, was probably never the same after his outing with Douglas and his two year stay in prison

between the two, it was Bowe who really stepped up when it counted. His first fight with Holyfield, THAT'S what fighting is about!

round two saw some of the best rumbling I've seen since Jersey Joe went head to head & chest to chest with Marciano

anyone think Lewis could do that?

Bowe KNOWS how to get down!

I didnt even like Bowe until I watched that fight but afterwards, I became a believer!

Then came round 11, where Bowe upped the pace to unbelievable & unprecendented levels that had Holyfield gasping and trying to hang on in desperation

anyone think Lewis could do that? I don't

in fact, Lewis wouldve been OUT OF THERE!

reasons I think Bowe would win:

Bowe is just as much behemoth as Lewis

Lewis cant fight on the inside where Bowe would keep it

Lewis cant keep up the same pace as Bowe

Bowe's chin is a hellava lot better!

 

what are you, stupid or something? You didnt see the fight?

Lewis NEVER knocked him out. that's myth! the ref stepped in after one shot landed and AWARDED Lewis the fight

now contrast that with both McCall and that other guy whoever he was, putting Lewis on his back

How can you say Lewis' chin problems are overrated when he had been physically flattened and stopped twice?

also, this isnt about the length of each man's career or their current state of health. it's about how the match would go head to head in 1993

 

if his power is legendary, how come so many including Holyfield, twice went the distance, including a 12 round draw

that's 24 rounds and no knockout against the same man who three years before, was lying in a crumpled heap vs Bowe

it's Bowe's power that has to concern Lewis, not to mention his infighting abilities which lewis doesnt have, nor Bowe's endless stamina

 

you got to be shitting me. what fights were YOU watching? Vitali was cleaning that goon's clock! He just ran out of time before his face fell apart

and Holyfield was likewise fighting an uphill battle. In fact, the first round he won was the sixth when he dumped Bowe onto the canvas. It was the FIRST time the tide had been turned

but guess what happened? he couldnt keep Bowe there, unlike Lewis

Bowe is simply INDOMITABLE and would refuse to lose

and if you're looking for excuses to hang your hopes on, then what happened in the first fight where Bowe walked off with Holy's title?

Face it, Bowe was the best heavyweight on the planet even by 1996

 

I stand correct then. I had heard that Lewis annihilated Bowe then watched the actual fight on you tube. I'm no expert so I just went along with the conventional wisdom that since Lewis had licked Bowe in the amateurs he would do it again in the professional ranks. Now in retrospect after actually seeing the fight for myself instead of just believing what I'd heard my opinion changed and I think a prime Bowe would have had a great chance to lick Lewis.

 

The fight that actually happened and not the one Vitali's fanboys have convinced themselves happened.

Holyfield won the 1st round quiote convincingly. Bowe landed nothing of substance. The 3rd was back and forth action with Bowe landing the more telling shots, the 4th was back and forth again but Holyfield landed the better shots this time, and no one could argue that Holyfield didn't win the 6th.

I'm in no way saying Bowe wasn't a worthy winner, but it was a very competitive fight.

Holyfield never had Lewis down, Holyfield never came close to knocking Lewis down. Lewis was knocked down twice in his career.

The first time was against a McCall specially trained by his all-time-great trainer to take advantage of a flaw in Lewis's style. Lewis got up and wanted to fight on but the ref decided he wasn't capable of doing so. I am making no comment whether I think the ref was right or not I am simply stating the facts.

The second time was against Rahman in South Africa. Lewis arrived about a week before the fight and gave himself no time to acclimatize, he did practically no training or sparring and thought so little of Rahman that he filmed Oceans II instead.

Have I ever said Bowe didn't deserve to beat Holyfield in the first fight or that there was any reason Holyfield didn't do better there? No I have not.

The best heavyweight on the planet...

A man who ran away from Ruddock and Lewis, a man who chose to defend the belts against no-hopers Dokes and Ferguson before losing to the man he won the titles off, a man who struggled to even land against Buster Mathis Jr and got himself disqualified because he couldn't handle it, a man who needed six rounds to end Herbie Hide, and a man who got beat pillar to post in two fights by someone Lewis ended in 95 seconds.

I dont buy it.

 

well, I dont buy your story that Lews came in one week early and still didnt acclimatize, nor did any training. Couldnt you come up with better excuses?

the problem wasnt his lack of training or the altitude, it was Lewis' china chin

you dont prove yourself the best heavyweight by defending against two time victim Razor Ruddock or china chinned pretenders to the throne. you prove it against the top man Holyfield

Lewis just gets everyone else's scraps then expects to get recognition for it

if the ref stopped a fight that had Lewis on the losing end of it, it's for a reason;

its cuz he was F*CKED UP!

and like all f*cked up fighters, they all want to put on a show they can continue (but know they cant)

 

you paint a far different picture than the one we watched and even comentators were concerned over Evander's condition up until the knockdown. if they were concerned, it was for a reason and it's not cuz it was a two sided fight

even the commentators back up my account. it was all Bowe and then Evander came alive and caught Bowe napping with a sudden spurt

but Bowe not only had guts, he had brains even while hurt

someone here said Bowe couldnt adjust in a fight if he had to. However, Bowe showed he could becuz when Holy tried taking the play away from him, Bowe wouldnt let him

the next time Evander tried to rumble, Bowe was ready for him, dug his heels, and got down with him in a street fight. street fighting with Bowe is a dangerous gamble and is only a matter of seconds before RB takes them out

 

Rahman had been in South Africa for a month acclimatizing to the high altitude of the venue which 5,200 feet above sea level. Lewis trained in Las Vegas - 2,100 feet above sea level - so he was close enough to film his part in Oceans 11. Lewis arrived in South Africa 12 days before the fight. These are not excuses, these are facts.

And there were people accusing Holyfield of ducking Ruddock in the early 1990's and Bowe certainly duck Ruddock around that time. Ruddock was considered the most dangerous man in the division once Tyson went to jail and favorite to win that mini-tournament for the world titles. He was about as legitimate a world level as you could get at the time

And Lewis would have fought Holyfield in 1993 or 1994 if Holyfield hadn't lost to Bowe and Moorer respectively. The failure of this fight happening earlier than 1999 rest, in a large part, on Holyfield's inability to keep hold of his titles.

The big name American didn't want to fight Lewis because they could get as much recognition fighting each other with the added bonus of more money. The problem was that Lewis was a fighter who claimed to be British but wasn't accepted by the UK, and he wasn't accepted by Canada either and, worse still, he based himself out of the US so didn't have a big following and wasn't a big draw on PPV. He was the highest risk-lowest reward fighter in the Heavyweight division for a long time and none of the Americans but Holyfield wanted him. Holyfield admitted that he got his top spot in the Heavyweight division in the 1990's by fighting the guys who didn't want to fight Lewis.

 

they may be the facts but none of your facts would lead to the reason Lewis was ko'd. that's why I call them excuses

I've never seen a champion who passed out during a round becuz of the altitude

I think it was more like, McCall hit that boy on the chin and wrecked him for the night - same as Rahman did later

Sardu was honest with me, why cant you? HE said that he later viewed the tape of Lewis-Bowe in the amateurs and concluded the KO win was bogus. you can get kayoed in the amateurs for almost any reason

Duane Bobick kayoed Larry Holmes in the amateurs but in reality, Larry was just too tired to fight and kept holding, then the ref stopped the fight and awarded the fight to Duane

You hear that Duane stopped Larry in the amateurs but you have to actually see it to know what happened

and Ruddock, he was just a some overhyped contender, same as you're doing right now to put him over Bowe and make Lewis' win seem that much more credible

i've seen Ruddock twice vs Tyson and all I can gather from that is that he lost to him twice

so where was the big threat in him?

 

Bowe knocks Lewis out.

The fights I pray to see some day...one day...wherever it may be...

- Dempsey vs Johnson or Dempsey vs Marciano
- Louis vs Liston
- Holmes vs Foreman
- Tyson vs Holyfield '91
- Bowe vs Lewis
- Wlad vs Vitali

 

No, my point was to show how little Lewis thought of Rahman and how little he prepared for the fight. Lewis didn't think Rahman was a threat and, in typical Lewis style, he got complacent and didn't prepare properly and got stopped. One of Lewis's biggest flaws was complacency. Rahman took advantage of that to land the best punch he'd ever thrown to knock Lewis out, that's to his credit and Lewis's shame.

Becuase I've said nothing about the Olympics except that Bowe wasn't motivated by it in any way.

You seem to be mistaking my relaying how Ruddock was seen at the time he fought Lewis with how I rate him overall. I did not rate him above Bowe, and I dont in all time list, but the WBC at the time did, and he was rated with Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe as the four best heavyweight in 1991 by the Ring. My point about Ruddock was that he was as legitimate as world level as you could find in 1991/1992 - which you seemed to be implying he was not - not that he was better than Bowe.

 

If he would have always ko'd him, why didn't he when he had the chance? In a big pressure bout for all the marbles as an amatuer. Lots of pressure and one of the biggest fights of his career. So he had an opportunity to knock the guy out. He did not do it.

Some folks don't like the stoppage. It's the ref's opinion that counts. And I sure didn't see Bowe himself arguing with the ref the way Lennox did in a nanosecond in that McCall #1 fight. Additionally, his corner didn't even come into the ring to protest it.

That result changed a lot of things for Bowe back then. The pre-fight expectations dropped a ton. No more big money backing to start the career for a tko victim silver medalist. What he finally got was a former disk jockey with minimal boxing pedigree to back him.

As for Lennox getting hit easy by right hands. Wrong.

You could catch him with right hands, but he was not that easy to hit with them. More like a guy vulnerable to traps is what I always thought. There is a window.

The guy open for right hands is Bowe. And it sure didn't take an Eddie Futch to pick apart his game to find the flaws.

That's why opponents had a 50% connect rate on Bowe.

So he was open for rights. And lefts. Morrison said he was so easy to hit with left hooks when they sparred. That's why he always wanted a Bowe match.

How that applies to Lewis is the guy had a nice left hook early on, pre-Steward. Better with Davenport than Correa, but he threw far more left hooks back then.

I also think if a bout had been signed, Correa was out. He was on borrowed time anyway and never a good fit for Lewis. There certainly were other good trainers around at the time to turn to and going up the ladder from a Correa was not that hard to do.

And I wholeheartedly disagree that Bowe had a great overhand right. Or our defination of the word great sure does differ. I call it decent.

It was a wide looping type and the guy could never throw a straight right hand if his life depended on it. That punch would help a ton in a Lewis fight--a straight right to throw after landing a combo. But it wasn't there. Just a looping shot that missed a lot and tended to land almost like a rabbit punch.

 

Bowe was not 17 when he participated in the 88' Olympics, he was 21 & was favoured to win gold but didn't..