Where does Riddick Bowe rank?

Great fighters have left stones unturned. Could think of a million examples

 

Lennox lewis destroys bowe at any stage it is why he kicked his ass in the amateurs and avoided him as pro , it is called facts.. What you said is pure fantasy and blahblah

 

I can't rank him among top 10 great HW's let alone top 50 ATG all weight classes. Yes he Beat some really good fighters. But only one great; Holy. If I take that name off, I can't find reason to rank him even though I loved watching him fight.

edit- Great of his era yes. ATG? top 20...I guess off the top:
Sullivan, Corbit, Johnson, Tunney, Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, Liston, Ali, Walcott, Frazier, Foreman, Tyson, Lewis, I'd even rank both Klitchkos over him based on how long they ruled + their KO%

Take a Michael Moorer for instance...let's forget for a second we seen him fight ok? Same with Bowe..put them just like Corbit or Sullivan...fights we never seen of them so we go by their record, how often and scorecards...
if, so, Bowe is 2x HW, but so is MM & they both got wins over Holy.

The argument is so simple-most counter with Moorer's chin. again with a weak chin he still did the same as Bowe which was win the title 2x. Floyd Patterson as well.

 

I guess that would depend where you set the bar on great.

 

Didn't look like anyone got their ass kicked in the amateurs...even the commentators heavily criticized the referee's performance both before and during the stoppage. And it's hard to believe a boxer was hurt when he's dancing around with both gloves in the air. Looked fine to me. Bowe easily won that first round, all Lewis did was get a few good shots in on him in the second. Bowe was clear eyed and bouncing. Watch the video.

No fantasy about the money situation, but hey if you choose to disbelieve even the easily-researched facts more power to you. It does make you look like a troll. Go on Google and look up the money offers given to both Lewis and Bowe in the 90s. Easy search.

 

I don't see Holmes there.

 

No it really doesnt. Is jack Dempsey great? Tunney? Both left an entire race of stones unturned

 

There's obviously Dempsey ducking Harry Wills which will always, correctly be thrown at him but what question marks do you see with Tunney Pete ?

 

His skills were already declining by 95 Hide and a sick Holyfield had him out his feet. His lazy tendencies in between fights caused his skills to erode rapidly. He's not really an ATG to me though he could have been.

 

Lol

 

Is your argument really that there were no black fighters worthy of fighting Tunney at the time? The claim was great fighters leave NO stone unturned. Clearly this is false. I'm no historian but I think refusing to fight any colored fighter counts as a stone unturned

 

If you're talking about the top 25 or 20 HW's, he is there.

 

How you rate Bowe has a reasonably solid affect on how you rate Holyfield and vice versa.

Bowe was an extremely good fighter obviously. He had the ability to really be something but fell short of this in his application.

His record has so much filler and he missed so many fights. He had a short time around the top and faded rapidly. In short he just didn't have it to be great like so many others. He lacked the desire and dedication.

For the short time he did have it together he was one helluva fighter tho and a tough night for anybody.

 

To me he was easily the best in the world during his winning and reign as champion. Holy and Lewis were second and third.

It was only, what, less than six years later Lewis and Holy were kings. Bowe was getting his head kicked in by lame Golota.

A terrible shame, because I'd put the Bowe of the first Holy fight up against any of the ATGs above him...and I'd think he'd beat more than a few of them.

 

I'm not convinced he would have beaten even that green version of Lewis. Emanuel Steward said Futch admitted as much to him so they kept him away.

Emanual Steward -

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