Where does Riddick Bowe rank?

Why did Bowe retire

Fixed

 

This is how I remember it also. I thought holyfeild was an exciting fighter who was good enough to be taken seriously but this was a minority veiw, coming after Tyson the world wanted an explosive big heavyweight as champ. The question was could he this ex cruiser punch hard enough to get past his first real big young contender? The answer was NO.

Yes, evander may have won the world over by losing to bowe but he still lost. Bowes entire stock is built on holyfeild - a champ not taken seroiusly when he beat him. Then bowe lost to him!

 

My recollection (and admittedly this might be mainstream as opposed to hardcore) was that Tyson was seen as still the best (Jail or no Jail). Bowe was the second best (by virtue of his win over Holyfield). Holyfield was third best based on his win over Douglas and the good showings with Bowe. Lewis was third best, unproven, but he had the amateur win over Bowe and showed some promise with his win over Ruddock.

As i recall, there would not be another fighter who was seen as in the same class as Tyson, or who you would realistically expect to last the distance against these three.

Is this how everyone else remembers it?

 

He does warrant a top 20 ranking. Big strong guy who really had the ability to adjust his game under adversity.

 

Bowe's win over Holyfield trumps anything on Patterson's resume and is close to Schmeling's win over Louis. He obviously fared much better in his follow up matches against Holyfield than Schmeling did against Louis. I think his resume overall is at least on par with Schmeling's and not far off from Patterson's. He only has a single loss as well, a very close one to an ATG whom he bested in their series. The Golota fights are there of course, but there's controversy. Technically they're wins for him. For whatever points it gets him, I'd favor him to beat both as well peak for peak. I've got all 3 towards the bottom end of the top 20, Schmeling possibly right outside of it.

 

Do you seriously think this?

 

Getting his ass beat by Golota twice... in almost every aspect of the fight.

 

I don't.

Holyfield was viewed as "borrowing" the championship and was losing respect with every title defense, against Foreman (40+ old man), Bert Cooper (a Buster Douglas type almost upset) and Holmes (40+ old man). Ruddock was considered the top contender or most dangerous and Bowe was considered the top young guy or future champion. Lewis was undefeated and hadn't evolved as much as Bowe had.

Holyfield actually received more respect with the loss to Bowe.

 

This is how I remember it exactly. By the time bowe beat holyfeild he was at his apex yet as far as the world was concerned he had just beat a "stop gap champ" who was brave in defeat.

Lewis needed to prove himself but was keen to fight Bowe. The bowe-lewis fight was going to be the decider of the first champion that wasnt going to be overshadowed by Tyson. The world would have been happy to accept the winner of that one but it never came off.

 

Louis was seen as a superman who had knocked out max baer and primo carnera. already a milion dollar gate fighter.

Holyfeild was the former crusierweight champ who was taking easy fights on paper (old holmes, old foreman and cooper) and having a tough time.

 

Tyson was in jail, so we can discount him. And many people were overrating him in '91 anyway. The better 'experts' acknowledged that he was about a 50-50 proposition against Holyfield because he just wasn't fighting like he used to.
Even in the betting he wasn't a huge favourite. But he was a favourite.

But in 1992, Holyfield may well have been doubted as a champion of top quality BUT he still went into the Bowe fight a slight favourite.
I think it's wrong to say he was seen as a 'caretaker' champion, because no one could really pinpoint where this next big thing was coming from. More accurate to say he was considered mediocre in comparison to great past champions, and didn't have the appeal or the perceived greatness that Tyson enjoyed 4 or 5 years earlier.
Bowe clearly had his doubters, as did Lewis - yes, they were big natural heavyweights but neither of them were considered the next big thing to replace Tyson either.
Holyfield in 1992 is comparable to the way Holmes was viewed in 1979 - '80, and probably taken more seriously by many than Floyd Patterson was in the wake of Marciano, or Schmeling when he was champion.
A 'caretaker' or 'placeholder' would be more like Braddock or Leon & Michael Spinks,

 

Bowe´s resume is not on par with Schmeling´s. Not by quite a bit. Schmeling beat more ranked contenders, has the better top win, a longer time at the top and didn´t avoid anyone. And with Patterson it´s not even close, especially not if Patterson get´s the quarry and Ellis wins like he should. Accomplishment and longevitywise this is a no contest in favour of Patterson. Bowe may beat them in a h2h match-up but that´s purely specualtion and sorry, I don´t rank on speculation but on actual achievements. Bowe´s resume outside of Holyfield is paper thin consisting of never has-beens like Donald or Hide and past it 80s fighters like Dokes and Tubbs and avoiding dangerous challenges like Lewis and Tyson. Schmeling and Patterson on the other hand took on everyone in their division and have deep resumes and better longevity. Sorry but no Bowe does not deserve to rank with them. He had the potential but never fullfilled it.

 

Never, in the history of boxing, has so much been attributed to a boxer who actually did so little
Riddick Bowe....or Chicken Bowe as he was known as in the 80s when ducking decent fighters

 

Anyone who doesnt recognize the skills of Riddick Bowe doesnt know **** about boxing, end of story.
That being said, his body of work is not very deep and mostly consists of a trilogy with a top ten ATG heavy, but still good enough to recognize him as one of the elite heavies of the sport.

 

I agree.
But then again, people even question Bowe's HEART around here, so that's the kind of hatred and ignorance we're dealing with.