What if Bowe had faced Lewis in his first defense

Please take into consideration the event leading up to the Golota fight. At that point Bowe was in horrible shape from gaining so much weight between the previous fights. Eddie Futch had just about had it with Bowe and really wanted to leave Bowe at that point. Bowe spent his entire camps dropping weight, and his skills had eroded terribly. He abandoned his jab and his right hand became a looped mess. Bowe vastly underated Golota at the time calling him a chump and a robot. That was pretty much the beginning of the end for Bowe.
The purpose of this thread was to discuss how a greener Lewis would have faced against a well conditioned well seasoned Bowe, coming off a huge win with Evander Holyfield, and Lewis demolition of a twice Tyson brutalized Ruddock.

 

**** that would've been a good fight. I also give the advantage to Bowe as I feel he was the more complete fighter at that time. And he was a much better infighter than Lewis by a wide margin, which i think is where the fight would've been won as they were evenly matched from a jabbing distance. Many people forget how good Bowe was at that time because he went downhill so quickly after the title binning incident.

 

i have posted re this fight several times...i actually believe that bowe would have won wether it was a boxing match or a brawl....bowe had better movement, better jab and loved the roughhouse infighting with that big upercut of his...it is intriguing cos he would be facing a man more than physically his match, but at that point i dont think lewis had the sheer ability, or belief of bowe...could you ever see bowe gettin ko'd by oliver mcall...at any point in his career..??..everyone always says bowe ducked lewis....bowes managemant perhaps ducked lewis with their eye on a bigger paycheck later, but bowe, at that point in his career would have had too much for lewis.....lewis became a better fighter later, for sure, but at that point, bowe had all the tools and would have stopped lewis around 8 or 9......and all this **** re tha amatures......diffrent fighters...henry tillman beat tyson...duane bobick beat holmes...gonzales was ko'ing guys left and right.....none of them made a big noise in the pros......bowe right after holyfield with futch training him was no easy ride for any hw...

 

I personally think that since Bowe was legally bound to fight Lewis and gave up his title rather than fight him, HE felt he would have lost. Certainly the demolishing of Ruddock along with his loss to Lewis played big roles in this. And having already felt Lewis' power in the amateurs he likely didn't think he could have dealt with it. There really isn't another way to interprete his decision to dump the belt rather than fight Lewis. It's not like they never had the chance to fight.

 

Well if Bowe actually believed what you do, why didn't they fight? In addition to Bowe being obligated to fight it was bigger than any fight he ended up taking and if he thought he could win, why wouldn't he have wanted to avenge his loss in the Olympics. Most people aiming for a Gold metal in the Olympics take winning it very very seriously, I would assume he would have loved to knock Lewis out for taking it from him if he thought he could. And the only reason we didn't see them fight was because Bowe refused to let it happen.

 

THis is exactly what I believe. Too many people read into the hype and BS that surrounds a fight by managers, promoters, and media, that have their own agenda. The fight didnt happen because of the greed of the sanctioning bodies and management of the fighters, not because Bowe was scared of Lewis.

 

Lets flip it around. If Lewis had just won the title from Holyfield, and Bowe was the #1 contender, would Bowe have just kept his mouth shut and fought someone else avoiding his title shot? Or would he tell everyone who listened he wanted the fight and Lewis was avoiding him if Lewis looked to make two other defenses?

 

c'mon bro..now your suggesting that fighters get to fight who they want when they want.....like it or not, its the management/moneymen who control the fighters.....a coupla impressive wins for em both then a unification and the public clamour for the fight would have been huge, and it would have been financially massive......this didnt happen, so you gotta say that bowes handlers gave him the wrong advice.....but hey, we will never know, but my opinion, seing as i was asked for it, is that bowe would have beat lewis at that point in their careers..and as another poster suggested, history would judge em both differently.....bowe was, literally, a huge waste of talent.....lewis was a great champion who has beaten every man he ever faced in a ring......i prefer bowes gung ho style of fighting so my judgement may be clouded.....i remember thinking holy would mullah bowe in their first fight and that was the fight that made a beleiver of me........the kid had huge natural talent and could fight...

 

Link or STFU

 

There must be good reasons why Bowe dicked Lewis.

I can only base on what we all saw:

1. Lewis kod Bowe in the Olympics
2. Golota (the first big skilled Bowe fought) beat up Bowe
3. Lewis disposed Golota like a bum

Feel free to draw your rational conclusions...

 

bowe after beating ferguson 23 wins 137 losses (10 ko`s)
in hugely impressive fashion shocking the bookies who had made bowe a 1,000,356,000 to 1 on favourite duly went on a few months later to lose to evander holyfield.

mcguigan said after the second holyfield fight

" i cannot beleive i picked that fat/unmotivated /slow tub of lard to have beaten lewis "

 

yeah...but we are debating if lewis had fought bowe before golata aint we??....hell, i coulda beat bowe after golota mugged him...

 

..ok so maybe i couldnt have beaten bowe, but y'all catch my drift...we are taking about a prime, peak condition bowe vs a ll who was still to realise his potential.......

 

Thats right.:good

 

stupid post as always from a career (old boxing.com) Lewis nuthugger.