Riddick Bowe vs Lennox Lewis in 1993?

No he was great in several fights even though the opposition wasnt the greatest. For example his last great performance was Jorge Luiz Gonzalez. Gonzalez had beaten Bowe and Lennox Lewis in the olympics, he was undefeated as a pro, and ignorant as to how good he really was as a pro. He came into the Bowe fight supremely confident, and mentally prepared to kick the **** out of Bowe. Bowe took him apart from the opening bell, and Gonzalez took a severe beating. Although Gonzalez never amounted to anything after that fight, he was the best he could be mentally and physically for Bowe.
It was Bowe who took Gonzalez's mental fortitude away from him that night and he was never the same, and Im not sure guys like Tim Witherspoon or Mike Grant could have beaten him had they faced him before Bowe did.

 

Bowe looked pretty bad against Hide in the fight before Gonzalez.
Hide found him ridiculously easy to hit.

 

Thats because Bowe wasnt at his best against Hide, but he still knocked him down eight times and had no respect for him. Against Gonzalez he was focused and deadly. He took Gonzalez very seriously from the olympic experience. Eddie Futch was ready to quit, but said that because of Bowe's dedication in the Gonzalez fight, he stuck around a little longer.

 

Totally agree. It's the same stupid stuff people throw at Wlad, as if anyone with a punch can do to him what Sanders did.

Bowe is generally overrated. I don't rate him higher than Norton, who was robbed in the trilogy against Ali, he should have had 2 out of 3, just what Bowe had against Holy. Yes, Bowe had some serious talent but also too many flaws to last against Lewis. His inside game would be negated by his inability to throw a straight punch, Lewis could beat him from the outside all night long. Lewis' power troubled Bowe in the amateurs with headgear and Lewis had great killer instint when he saw that someone couldn't take his power.

 

An overhand right worked well against tall opposition like Lewis.

 

I think Bowe's generally under-rated.
His three fights with Holyfield count for a heck of a lot in currency when comparing his resume to some other men who often get called top 20 heavyweights of all-time. People should watch those fights again if they are in any doubt.

Even the Golota fights, where I think Bowe was clearly just a shell, demonstrate a tremendous and uncommon level of pure heart.

I have a lot of respect for Bowe's performances in the ring.

 

thumbsup true dat.

Now post your h2h hw list in my topic, you are on the list of people i challenged.

 

I will start with the Legend that is Tony Tubbs. Let's see, against a drug-addled version of Tubbs, Bowe got an absolute gift. So against a prime version, I take it he loses.

There, that's as high up the "Legend Ladder" as Bowe climbs.

 

LOL, Tubbs had lost a close fight to Witherspoon and lost to Tyson. Bowe on the other hand was some 8 fights away from fighting for the title?? Put in the proper perspective it was a good win for Bowe albeit a close one.

 

Bowe-Tubbs result certainly wasn't an "absolute gift".
In fact, having heard all the hype about it be controversial I was surprised when I saw it because i had Bowe winning, and I've always been an admirer of Tubbs' boxing. It was close.

It was a typical learning fight. When a young up-and-coming contender takes on a cagey established fighter for the first time it's not supposed to be easy. Also, i dont think Tubbs was any more "drug addled" in this fight than he had been in the Tyson fight, for example. And he was a bit lighter if I remember rightly. Besides, Tubbs outpointed the decent contender Orlin Norris while he had traces of cocaine in his system.

Truth is, Tubbs was undertrained and under-achieving in 90% of his fights when he was a contender, "prime" or not prime.

 

Lewis is an entirely different echelon than Bowe ever reached. By 93, he had beaten Ruddock, Tucker, Mason and Bruno, already a deeper, more dangerous resume than Bowe was to possess his entire career. These two really aren't in the same league... under any rationalization.

 

a gift none-the-less, one of the first fights I ever attended.

 

Ruddock, Tucker, Mason and Bruno couldnt carry Holy's jockstrap sorry.

 

The Holyfield who was almost crushed by Bert Cooper? The one who looked like a 60 year old man against Moorer? Or just generally the one who was on roids and HGH throughout his title "reign"?

Holyfield had a great heart and fought with passion. However, he was quite inconsistent AND he was a cheat.

 

Yeah that Holyfield. The one who kept winning. The one who got up from adversity and won in all those other fights where his performances were inconsistent, but the outcome was not. Holyfield was a far better fighter and far better barometer of an opponents credibility if they managed to beat him than a fighter like Tucker or Bruno. Bowe hurt Holyfield just as bad as those others, but he managed to finish the fight on top. Bowe beat Holyfield at his peak. Just because a fighter punches hard, doesnt make him a bigger threat than a guy like Holyfield.