Riddick Bowe vs. Ray Mercer

I see this fight going similar to Bowe's fight with Bert Cooper, but Mercer lasts a bit longer than Bert. If Mercer is gonna come in and try to bull Bowe, he's gonna be eating Bowe's wicked one-two until he falls.

Bowe hit just as hard as anyone apart from Shavers & Foreman.

 

Larry won that fight more with old man cannyness than his jab. A 33 year old Holmes would have fought Mercer completely differently.

 

Bowe hit plenty hard but not as hard as the elite punchers of the 90's. He just wasn't one of those, old Foreman, Lewis, Hide, Morrison... Numerous opponents testified to this.

And given Mercer's chin, I don't think he Bowe has a prayer of stopping a prime Ray. And Ray had a well-schooled defense and fighting heart (minus the weird Ferguson 1). He is two levels above Cooper.

 

That's all fine but I believe Bowe's right is just as powerful as anyone except the two I mentioned.

Ray would take too many hard shots & get stopped, probably by TKO. Bowe is the perfect guy to beat Mercer.

 

Lennox Lewis, who actually had a powerful right hand, couldn't dent that concrete chin. It took an aggressive Wlad, who again had a far harder right than Bowe, against a 40+ yr old Mercer to make a mark on that thing.

Mercer is gonna be there all night, with that great shotgun jab, putting the pressure on a Bowe who dropped defense like a hot potato once a brawl started.

 

It's a shame this fight never happened. It could have been a classic.

 

If Lewis couldn't budge Mercer then Bowe isn't going to, Lewis had a better right hand and was a harder puncher than Bowe.

 

I agree, except I think where Lewis had a more powerful and straighter right hand, Bowe had the edge in terms of the jab, I'm not sure even Steward-era Lewis had that good a left. And Mercer could be given trouble with that punch.

I do think it would have been a really good fight, Bowe would have been rocked more than a couple of times. i just don't see Ray winning though, not over the Holyfield Bowe.

 

Yes well we are in disagreement about Bowe's power no problem. Bo is far more aggressive than Lewis and would be on Mercer hitting him much more often with much more hurtfully intended punches than Lewis would and he would KO Mercer probably TKO and Bowe has equal power to Lewis in his right hand.