What Could Riddick Bowe Have Accomplished If He Wasn't Lazy?

I think it people honestly take Bowe's resume, and take away the three Holyfield fights, then list his next best wins/performances, coming up with .......

Tony Tubbs, Herbie Hide, Tyrell Biggs, Pierre Coetzer, Bruce Seldon, Larry Donald, Jorge Luis Gonzalez, Michael Dokes, Bert Cooper etc.

..... then go look at the resumes of men like Dempsey, Liston, even Foreman, and it wont be far down those "ATGs" lists' than you'll start to find names/results on a par.

But of course, Bowe's trilogy with Holyfield should be included and not at all diminished by the fact that those results stand out as far better than the rest of his.

 

He could've been an ATG. But he didn't have an ATG mindset.

 

I do not doubt that Riddick would have done better if he had stayed focused and motivated.

BUT, I still think that his career wouldn't have stretched beyond 1997-98. Because I do not think that Bowe was a very durable guy. Being lazy is one thing, but I do not think Bowe would have been a durable guy even had he stayed focused and in shape.

Bowe was an exceptionnaly skilled big strong man, he had all the tools of a
perfect HW, or so it might seem, but we mustn't forget that the era he fought in was packed with other great HWs. The 90s were a golden era, just like the 70s.

So what if he had won the rematch with Holyfield? It would still have been a war, and it would still have left its marks on Bowe. Then other tough fights would have awaited him, Ray Mercer, Mike Tyson, Michael Moorer, George Foreman, Tommy Morrisson, Shannon Briggs... all potential wars. Not to talk about the clash with Lennox Lewis, which would inevitably have come somewhere down the line.
Now I have enough confidence in Riddick Bowe to say that he would probably have won all these fights, if he stayed focused. But they would all have left their marks on him, and Bowe is no Holyfield who's had one tough fight after another and just kept going. All of these fights would have taken something from Bowe. And at one point Bowe would have become washed up, shot, well conditioned or not, and that's the point where somebody like a Golota or a Botha, or even a Brian Nielsen, would have beaten him.

 

Bowe destroyed his body by not staying in shape. Had he kept himself in better condition between fights he might have not had to take so much punishment in those fights.