Riddick Bowe vs Lennox Lewis in 1993?

Lewis, anyway, anyhow, anywhere.

 

People dont realize how naturally gifted Bowe was, and the tools he had and gained once he became a professional. He had a mean streak, he was tall, had an excellent jab (when he used his it), a good right hand, and could fight like hell on the inside. He threw short uppercuts and hooks and put his punches together very well on the inside for such a big man.

Bowe had such an advantage over so many heavyweights because of his physicaly size, the dimension to his game, and the mind in his corner. I always makes me laugh how Bowe is only evaluated by his loss to Lewis in the olympics and his fights with Golota, where he basically completely let himself go.

Bowe should be the poster boy for how not to treat your body if you're a professional fighter.

 

He was a top quality fighter on his best days, I'm not disputing that I just don't think he'd have ever beaten Lewis. He had the talent to stand a chance undoubtedly, but mentally I don't think he believed he ever could. His best chance would be against the '93 version, but I still think he'd lose. Just don't think that he'd standup to Lewis's big shots- even in his prime his defence was porous and somewhat untested.

 

I think Bowe was the better fighter then. In fact, I think Bowe was better in 1992 - '93 than Lewis ever became, at any time you want to call his "prime".

But Lewis had the power and brute strength to beat Bowe. Look what he did to Ruddock. And Lewis always had the confidence.

It's a 50-50 proposition really. Shame it didn't happen.

 

bowe would have beaten lewis between 92 _ 95 prime for prime though it would have been close .

 

I agree, this is the only unknown here, because although Bowe had never been hurt at his respective peak, Lewis was a step above the punchers he had faced up until that point, but I just see Bowe taking Lewis apart on the inside and using a lot of pressure to keep Lewis off balance, and Lewis at the time had very poor balance.

 

Bowes prime didnt even last a full fight.
His prime is about 8 rounds in the 1st Holy fight.
Never in the history of boxing as a fighter been given so much credit for doing so little and avoiding so many.
Imagine if Bowe was non American -He'd be regarded about as highly as Frank Bruno.
Maybe we could distill Brunos peak to a number of rounds, we could have him head to head beating Ali and Foreman etc

 

Nah, Bowe's prime started in 1990 and he was on the decline after the second Holyfield fight but still performed pretty well leading up to the third fight with Evander Holyfield. Bruno could never compete with Evander Holyfield like Bowe did.
I dont think Bowe was ever the same after the Gonzalez fight physically, he looked physically terrible against Holyfield in the third fight and pretty well shot against Golota.

 

The idea that Lewis would get careless is pretty silly, imo.

He got careless against Rahman and McCall, because they were small names. The only reason they get talked about this much even today is because they beat Lennox, actually.

Bowe was and is a bigger name than McCall and Rahman combined, Lewis would respect Bowe and fight accordingly.

 

at the time i would have went with bowe. with hindsight lewis was beter, he grew on me. for all his flaws lewis was just beter. holyfeild was still finding his feet as a heayweight when bowe beat him and like buster douglas bowe was never that good again. how can we asume bowe could be that good twice when he was only ever that good once? when they did fight lewis won. with hindsight bowe over acheived against evander nothing else he ever did equaled that. the 3rd fight bowe got lucky when holyfeild stopped fighting. it was more a case of evander losing than bowe winning. talk about taking a win from the jaws of defeat!

lewis was quite ruthless, worse than a scorned woman at times. Boy did he carry a grudge! he realy did not like bowe, he would have been fireing on all cylinders against bowe, lewis would have brought his a-game for sure. sure lewis got caught out when he had no respect for a guy but bowe would be a key fight. apart from against holyfeild lewis always delivered in key fights ruddock, tucker, golotta, grant the rematches mcall and rahman. for bowe to beat lewis we would have to relegate lewis to the level of the guys bowe DID beat and lewis was a lot beter than all of them.

bowes key fights were tubbs, holyfeild x3, hide, golotta x2 its not as good.

 

whatever way we look at it, bowe did avoid lewis. That tells me that he didnt fancy the job. Therefore if hes going into a fight with major doubts then his mind might not be what it should be. Lewis wins.

 

All I know is that it better not be the Lewis that fought Bruno. Bowe woulda beat the **** outta that Lewis.

 

prime-prime = lewis
93 versions = bowe

bowe was well seasoned and showed some real devil around the early 90's. i don't think lewis could of beaten Holyfield on the inside like that.

lewis was older but was pretty much a 1-2 fighter with a dodgy defence and his inside work which relied on his strength would be nullified when compared to bowe's similar weight and stature. lewis wins the early rounds until bowe comes in and bully's him out to a tko

 

Interesting matchup..................

I wonder how people feel matching a Peak Bowe up vs. the Legends.

 

i can tell you now what i think. bowe is severly over rated. its one fight, sure he was great that one fight. but bowe being a great fighter for one fight onlyis not enough by a long long chalk. he did not knock out the champion to win his title like all the real legends do. he had all the advantages and won, so what? he blew evrything else he ever did and got lucky the 3rd time against holyfeild..