Wladimir Klitschko vs. Riddick Bowe. Prime for Prime. Who wins?

If pushed, I'd pick Wlad to beat him. But I think Bowe's very dangerous right to the end, and if he forces Wlad to fight hard from Round 1 all the way through, who knows.

After all, as Wlad fans say, it's not his chin that caused 2 losses, it's his stamina.

So if Riddick makes him fight every second of every round, Wlad could be in trouble late. Bowe was a pretty hard man to stop.

 

If you remember, MANY trainers etc. had MANY glowing things to say about Jeff Lacy at the time when he was the pride on the cover of the Ring magazine.

 

Really, which ones? Any of Futch's caliber? Any stating he had the potential to be the GOAT? I'm genuinely curious. Let me know.

 

If there was ever a paper win, those two are it. Bowe was outclassed and won it on will, chin and Steve Smogger like reffing. Bowe spent 50% of his time hanging on the ropes and getting pummeled, with all kinds of combinations. Frankly, I've never seen Wlad let his hands go in thesame way as Golota in those fights. In the second round of the second fight Bowe used the ropes exclusively as a prop not to fall. Cotton should have issued warnings and force him off the ropes and that would have been the end of the fight. Golota's chin was actually very good, but not great enough to keep him on his feet. Still everytime he got bombed by some of the hardest punchers (Lewis, Bowe, Tyson, Brewster) he got up in very short order. People need to realize that all those stoppages were ref initiated after the 2nd or 3rd consecutive knock down and Golota getting to his feet (except for the Lewis KD in which he got tangled between the ropes). Golota's chin shows very well in the Bowe, McBride, Mollo and esp. the Corey T Rex Sanders fight. The latter was a bloody war of attrition and a great fight to see. By the end of the fight Golota's white shorts were basically all red.


As for Wlad-Bowe it really depends on who asserts their style. If its an inside fight, Wlad gets smoked in short order. If its an outside fight, Bowe prob gets outpointed, but will still manage to give Wlad scary moments. Overall slight adv. to Riddick. Bowe is much better prime to prime, Wlad is a bit better resume/career wise.

Btw. did you lose an avatar bet or something? You can probably count on one hand how many people support this guy on ESB and for a good reason. An early version of Golota mops the floor with any version of Ruiz and the one time they did face Golota was punked by the judges.

 

:good

 

I make Bowe the favorite, but not with the utmost confidence. A slight favorite.

Bowe who would eat Wlad alive on the inside, but how much of the fight will take place there? Wlad is good at controlling the distance the fight is fought at. Another question is how much fighting in and out of the clinch the referee would allow.

Bowe had a lot of tools: good power, excellent in-fighter, nice jab, terrific uppercut, hard overhand right. However, his defense SUCKED for a world class fighter. He'd slip a shot here and there on the inside but was a total sucker for straight right hands and jabs. Coetzer hit him with consistency, so did Holyfield, of course later on so did Golota with frightening ease. While I think he'd slipped by the Golota fights, it isn't as if he was a good defender before then. He seemed to have a good chin, but didn't exactly face a lot of big punchers. When he did, he was often hurt because of how frequently and cleanly he got tagged. Holyfield (not a huge puncher but he's hurt many tough guys due to timing and accuracy) rocked him in the 10th round of the first fight, in the 5th in the rematch, and nearly took him out in the rubber match. Hide hurt Bowe everytime he hit him clean. If Golota wasn't such a shitty finisher, he would've stopped Bowe.

I just wonder how many clean right hands Bowe would be able to take from Wladimir, or if he could stop him before Wlad stops him. Bowe of course had his own booming right hand, he could throw a straight one but seemed to prefer an overhand one, sort of like the one Tim Witherspoon liked to use. In this case due to Wladimir's height, it might be ideal for him to throw it at that angle.

In no small part due to his right hand I favor Bowe, but again, not with that much confidence. I'd call it like a 60/40 fight.

 

In regards to Golota and heart, he actually showed a lot of heart in his fight with Mollo. He gutted out a decision win with his face looking like this.

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It's unfortunate that he lacked either the mental stability, heart, sanity...whatever you want to call it, for so long in his career, and then guts out a tough win near the end of his career and shows these qualities.

 

Prime Wlad has no chin, the current Wlad has only jab against skilled big Hw as was Bowe.

 

Prime Bowe was almost a complete package. The one thing wasn´t that good at, was using his size and reach, that´s probably why some people tend to favour Wlad. But Bowe would´ve found a way to come to Wlad. He had more speed than the Brewsters and Peters of this world and his power was comparable to them. He would´ve knocked Klitschko out, no doubt. Vitaly would be different though.

 

Wlad's jab is very good especially against smaller opponents. But Bowe is almost as big as Wlad and that jab cannot keep Bowe from throwing his (Bowe) powerpunch. Wlad is not known to have a granite chin so the most probable outcome of this fight is Bowe by TKO.

 

Agreed. Prime Bowe stops Wlad. It is so clear cut IMHO.

Prime Vitali - prime Bowe is a war with Bowe winning on stoppage due to cuts around round 9 with Vitali ahead on points.

 

LOLZ at the people who feel Bowe was in his prime vs Golota.

It be interesting prime for prime. I'd go with Bowe and his ability to take a shot. It's really a toss up though.

 

Footwork-Bowe
Power-equal
Hand speed-equal
Jab-equal
Defence-Bowe
Left Hook-equal
Right Cross-equal
Uppercut-equal
Ring IQ-equal
Chin-Bowe
Stamina-Bowe
Conditioning-Wlad

:nono No way is Bowe's jab, footwork, left hook, ring IQ or defense equal to Wlad's. No way is Wlad's uppercut equal to Bowe's.

 

When in shape Bow had stamina. I would say more so than Wlad, in terms of punches thrown.

 

Agree on 100%. His stamina improved over the years though.