Personally, I've always believed Bowe tends to be a bit underrated on the whole. This is me trying my best to objectively make that case. This content is protected
Bowe is underrated. People tend to see him as best nights type of guy, well in a way so was Joe Frazier. Bowe's problem was he was not always in good shape ( Neither was Frazier ) . His pre title work was a little under rated. ( so was Frazier's ) Its too bad he never got shot vs Mike Tyson in the 1990's as IMO Tyson would be facing a better Buster Douglas in Bowe. Looking back at his career, bad management and Bowe pissing away his prime were the biggest problems.
He's hurt by not having most of the big names of the 90s on his record bar Holyfield. Holyfield is an all-time great but Bowe had considerable physical advantages over him. He never beat a quality fighter his own size. Officially he beat everyone he faced, but really he got the living daylights beaten out of him by Golota twice over before Golota saved him by having a meltdown. Bowe himself could easily have been DQ'd a few times as well if he didn't keep getting fights that ended thanks to a blatant foul turned into an NC or a DQ for the other guy. For what it's worth I thought Bowe won Holyfield II last time I watched, though I also thought he was lucky to beat Tubbs, who did a number on him IMO. So, a great series with Holyfield and some other decent wins/performances but a lot of missing big fights, a few controversial results, poor discipline in and out of the ring, and pretty much finished by the age of 28. Ultimately he's one of those fighters you have specify being "at his best" in a fantasy fight, which is usually code for he wasn't at his best very often.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. Not sure that a fight between him and Tyson was ever truly in the cards. The timing was just bad for that. By the time Tyson defeated Bruno, Bowe would soon be facing Golota, so by the time Tyson was once again fighting at the championship level, Bowe was pretty much near the end of the line. Not that I wouldn't have loved to have seen it. I just don't think there was a time where it could have realistically happened.
