Was Bowe's performance in Holyfield I the best hw display since Ali & Frazier's day?

11 pounds heavier at the weigh-in..... :think

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19921112&slug=1524147

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...ken-jones-reports-from-las-vegas-1502486.html

 

Evander Holyfield was never disciplined enough to keep it a boxing match with Riddick Bowe. He even slugged it out at times in the rematch, only Bowe was in horrible physical shape and paid the price for it.

 

I agree completely. Bowe's offense is impressive for such a big guy, but **** is he there to be hit. His defense is too poor for it to be considered a classic perfomance.

Yes, Frazier also ate a lot of leather against Ali in the early stages of FOTC. But Ali wasn't just a sharp puncher (which Holyfield also was), he was also faster and bigger than Frazier and tried to keep it at range.

 

I agree with DINAMITA.

For Riddick Bowe to have gone at that pace for 12 rounds and not only match Evander, but clearly beat him required a great performance.

I don't think it's the greatest since Ali and Frazier, but it'd be there or there abouts. Bowe was known for running out of gas, he was still relatively inexperianced, and to overcome that kind of adversity over a peak Holyfield was a great achievement.

 

It was a great perfomance, I just don't consider it to be a classic one. A classic fight, though.

 

Bowe was a real competitor. he let Evander know right away what real competition was about...that he wasnt in the ring with Foreman or Holmes, or some other relic.

Outside of Douglas' effort it was the division's best showing. He ate Holy alive on the inside, got him to lose his head early on and fight in the trenches where he wanted him.

I also enjoyed their last fight very much becuz it was Bowe who pulling out the late heroics just as Evander tried pulling RN into a street fight. The fight was over in seconds

 

:blood

 

Does it hurt that much that your hero's best perfomance (one that you for once doesn't have to pull out any excuses for) doesn't belong with the truly classic ones? Your boy shows a lot of skill and heart, but just eats too much leather against a guy who chooses to fight completely the wrong fight.

 

Could very well be the case..

 

:blood You really think he could have outboxed Bowe in that fight? The second fight was close, Bowe was coming on strong before the fan man, plus Bowe was heavier. It was not a foregone conclusion Evander would easily outbox Bowe. Bowe was good at dragging guys into slugfests, he could box and slug when needed.

 

I don't think that its a forgone conclusion at all. But, I think the point is that he didn't even try to execute such a fight plan in the first bout. In the second match, he boxed a bit more and did manage to gain better results. Now, I agree that it was a very close and indecisive win, and one that may have been different had the action not been stopped due to the parachute bull****.. Nevertheless, I think we can both agree that had Evander boxed Bowe his chances would have been better in the first match.. As it stands, it still wasn't a bad effort anyway.

 

Here comes the excuses. Right on cue.

Seriously, though, it's hard to say for sure, but when Holyfield boxes Bowe he does well. If it's Bowe that's good at drawing Holyfield into slugging or if it's Holyfield that's poor at not getting drawn in is something we only can speculate on. What we do know, though, is that Holyfield had a penchant for brawling when he really shouldn't.

As for the second fight, we shouldn't forget that Holyfield also was heavier and I never felt that the fan man-incident clearly favoured Holyfield. He was doing good at the time for the interruption.

 

If you're talking about a skillful performance against a top opponent, there are several that come to mind:

-Holmes vs Cooney
-Tyson vs Spinks
-Douglas vs Tyson
-Holyfield vs Bowe II
-Lewis vs Holyfield I
-Lewis vs Golota
-Tua vs Ibeabuchi

Yes, and i will add that Frazier had a style that always meant he was going to have to take punishment to be effective. Bowe shouldn't have, but did.

I've never really thought about it, but Lewis vs Holyfield in 1992 is quite interesting. I would pick Lewis to drag the then-lighter and weaker Holyfield to a battle of big punches which he loses... but in 1993, the one that beat Bowe in the rematch, is at least 50/50 with that fast but raw and technically flawed version of Lewis.

 

Possibly one of the better fights that never happened. Had Holyfield gotten by Bowe in late 1992, he likely would have faced Lewis sometime around May of 1993. Evander was 30 years of age, while Lewis I think, would have been something like 28. Both men would have been coming off the biggest wins of their careers, and holding undfeated records..

I don't know how much stronger Holyfield was in his later years. He was 205 lbs for the first Bowe meeting, and around 215 for the first Lewis match of 1999. Its certainly possible that being 10 lbs heavier may have had a bearing on strength, but then again, so does being 6-7 years older. I'm not sure that he was really physically stronger at that point, and even if he was, he certainly wasn't as explosive in terms of raw power, as can be witnessed by his declining tendency to put away opponents.