Send in your 1899-1929 heavyweight to KO Riddick Bowe

Dempsey is the only one I’d favour. I sometimes think Bowe gets under-rated (his own fault). His brief prime was pretty impressive, & I’d give him a pretty good shot at winning this, but his non-existent defense & tendency to neglect his own jab would, for me, give Dempsey the edge to put him to sleep.

 

I'll throw in a wildcard .. Sam Langford ... Sam had issues with large men that boxed off their jab and Bowe, who was both hittable and without the world's best chin, wasn't the sort of big man ... the vastly underrated Harry Wills may have been another ...

 

I assume we're taking Bowe on the night he fought Holyfield the first time? Jack Dempsey. That's all I got -- and he's probably being knocked out after some mayhem. Bowe was too good in a scrap that night, especially for an era with smaller dudes.

An interview I saw with Holyfield sticks with me. He said that while the single hardest shot he was hit by was thrown by Foreman, but that nobody hurt him like Bowe did. He said everything Bowe hit him with hurt and that, up to that point, he'd never experienced anything like that.

You consistently hurt a dude notoriously tough like Holyfield, you get my attention.

 

Very good point on that last sentence. The reason I favour Dempsey is only because Bowe was extremely hittable, & Dempsey could do far more damage than Holyfield.

 

Dempsey and Johnson.