So this is the guy you're so sure would have beaten Bowe?

That uppercut that Bowe hit Holyfield with - my goodness
That’s gotta be in the top 5 all time, “How in the hell did he not go down?!” punches ever landed.

 

Lewis could be overly confident at times and it cost him twice, he avenged both losses convincingly. So yeah Bowe in 10 fights could maybe win 1 or 2 but Lewis beats him the vast majority of the time. Lewis wouldn't have taken Bowe lightly, it would have been for all the belts and he would have come in dialled in and focused and would take Bowe out inside 5 rounds.

Bowe ducked him for a reason. He threw his belt away for a reason. Lewis called it himself after confronting him in the ring and said Bowe would duck him and that's exactly what he did.

 

An older Lennox, in his second Olympics, stopped Bowe and won the gold medal. Bowe had the chance to avenge the amateur loss as a pro and instead of taking the fight, he literally dumped the belt in a trash can. That tells us what Riddick thought of his chances.
As a side note, Riddick dumping the belt was the biggest ***** move in boxing since Sugar Ray Leonard called a press conference to tell Hagler he wouldn’t give him a rematch, and up to Clenelo getting in the ring with Golovkin and saying Mexicans don’t **** around, and then forfeiting his belt two days later to duck him for two years.

 

People either forget or like to ignore that Bowe signed to fight Lewis in 1994 and Lewis lost prior to their bout.

 

Bowe was sure he'd lose...again lol.

 

Bowe was steered from big punchers and not allowed to fight Lewis for a reason.

 

Didn't Bowe trash his WBC title to avoid this fight?

 

True but at that point Bowe had lost his titles, so he wasn't in a strong position and needed a way back.

When Bowe had the belts, he low balled Lewis offering a 90/10 split, which Lewis even agreed to against his managements advisement only for Bowe and Newman to turn around, say too late and dump the WBC belt.

When the roles were reversed and Lewis had the belts he simply offered Bowe 60/40 split and the fight was made, no low balling, no BS, no trash talk, simply made the fight. Yes Lewis probably had one eye on the Bowe fight when he faced McCall and overlooked him and paid the price. But their differing actions when they were champions clearly show one wanted the fight regardless of who was champion and the other only did so when they had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

It would have been like Lewis-Tua had they faced from the mid 1990s, but Bowe having a puncher's chance.

Before that? Who knows

 

Posting McCall fight and Rahman fight next to each other like it was the same man is jarring to anybody who has watched Lewis's entire career. The man who fought Gary Mason, Mike Weaver, Tyrell Biggs, and eventually grew to demolish Ruddock for the WBC was an entirely different man than the emerging dominant fighter Stewart began shaping starting from the Butler and Fortune, and probably peaking during his demolition of a lidocaine-drugged Golota and through the next years. Dropping the fight against Rahman was bad, but not nearly as bad as scrolling through boxrec for red spots on the records would suggest. Those losses were far apart and happened to two different fighters, for two different reasons.

 

???

Bowe is nothing like Tua.

 

Lewis always had Bowe's number, even pre-Steward. Bowe was slapped around by Golota twice while Lewis destroyed Golota in mere seconds.

 

Yup. Very overrated, particularly head to head. Borderline top ten at best. In his own era, both Holyfield (clearly) and Tyson (more arguably) were greater.

There's a reason his management didn't have him fight either of those guys until they were on the downside - or Bowe at all - and it is found right in that shaky chinny, chin chin!!!

 

No, but the fight would have been similar to Lewis-Tua.

Bowe looking for an opening but not finding it and Lewis piling up points with his long arms and movements.

 

I somewhat doubt that. Bowe-Lewis is 81-84 instead of 84-70, and Riddick had a considerably better jab on top of Futch in his corner (and Eddie saw huge holes in Lewis leading up to the McCall fight from afar.) I reckon Tua was uncharacteristically timid that night. Granted, there is no guarantee Bowe won't be either after tasting the Lion's power