BOWE AT HIS BEST..............

[vatech1983]

CHAMP FOR 1 YR................

[DrDuke]

Bowe had a one of the shortest primes among the truly great boxers. His lack of dedication caused a lot of troubles for him. His managent also did a big mistake in deciding to marinate Lewis fight. Retrospectively it seems, that Bowe wouldn't lose much in a case of losing that fight, while back at the moment he had a lot of chances to win, cause Lewis wasn't at his best yet.

[Ambling Alp II]

Much has been said about Bowe over the years that really isn't accurate.

Agree that he should have been had a better career; at lest he should have been at the top of his game for longer.

His pre-Holyfield career always gets swept away. For an up and coming fighter, he fought some good competition. Better than most from the 1990s on. Gets zero credit for it.

The whole he was afraid of Lewis school of thought that some people have is nonsense. Often the Olympic fight is used as proof. But if you actually watch the their Olympic fight, you will see that the stoppage was a total joke. There was absolutely no reason for it to be stopped. Bowe was not hurt at all.
It's also often overlooked that Bowe did actually sign to fight Lewis at one time. The fight never happened because of Lewis losing to McCall.

The second Holyfield fight (his only loss) never really get analyzed. He fought a great fight; and easily could have got the decision. You almost never hear anyone mention that.

The Golota fights- the Holy Grail for anti-Bowe fans. Yes, he looked awful at times in those fights. However, you can't just disregard the fouls. That was part of the reason that he looked bad. If he had a weak chin he gets stopped in that fight. If he doesn't have guts he doesn't hang in there.
The bottom line is that at his worst and being fouled repeatedly, he still won.

He could have gone down as one of the top heavyweights ever. Maybe even top 3. Obviously due to his own fault, he doesn't deserve to be rated that high.

However, some people just blow him off. When rating him, we should not take into consideration what he could have been. He should be rated on what he did do. Which was a lot more than most. He is in the Top 15-20 range all time.

[oogiebe]

Bowe had a one of the shortest primes among the truly great boxers. His lack of dedication caused a lot of troubles for him. His managent also did a big mistake in deciding to marinate Lewis fight. Retrospectively it seems, that Bowe wouldn't lose much in a case of losing that fight, while back at the moment he had a lot of chances to win, cause Lewis wasn't at his best yet.

[Onetimeonly]

Much has been said about Bowe over the years that really isn't accurate.

Agree that he should have been had a better career; at lest he should have been at the top of his game for longer.

His pre-Holyfield career always gets swept away. For an up and coming fighter, he fought some good competition. Better than most from the 1990s on. Gets zero credit for it.

The whole he was afraid of Lewis school of thought that some people have is nonsense. Often the Olympic fight is used as proof. But if you actually watch the their Olympic fight, you will see that the stoppage was a total joke. There was absolutely no reason for it to be stopped. Bowe was not hurt at all.
It's also often overlooked that Bowe did actually sign to fight Lewis at one time. The fight never happened because of Lewis losing to McCall.

The second Holyfield fight (his only loss) never really get analyzed. He fought a great fight; and easily could have got the decision. You almost never hear anyone mention that.

The Golota fights- the Holy Grail for anti-Bowe fans. Yes, he looked awful at times in those fights. However, you can't just disregard the fouls. That was part of the reason that he looked bad. If he had a weak chin he gets stopped in that fight. If he doesn't have guts he doesn't hang in there.
The bottom line is that at his worst and being fouled repeatedly, he still won.

He could have gone down as one of the top heavyweights ever. Maybe even top 3. Obviously due to his own fault, he doesn't deserve to be rated that high.

However, some people just blow him off. When rating him, we should not take into consideration what he could have been. He should be rated on what he did do. Which was a lot more than most. He is in the Top 15-20 range all time.

[HeavyHitters]

Riddick Bowe, "I'm a BAAAAD MAN!! When I'm not eating all the time....."

[jamamb]

i defo thought holy won that 2nd fight, but one thing i will say , is that vs golota bowe was way more competitive then ppl usually say (treated like a 1 sided drubbing),, he was losing for sure but had lots of moments and hurt golota too. i was surprised because id always heard about it being like a beat down but then when i finally watched it is was competitive

its a bit like the opposite of hagler vs hearns (a largely one sided pounding treated like an ultra competitive amazing war)

[DrDuke]

Yeah, Holyfield won the rematch. However, draw score didn't seem criminal. But even in that loss he obviously looked better, than in wins over Golota. Well, the first fight wasn't too one-sided. But in the second fight, despite hurting Golota at some point better, than in the 1st fight, Riddick eventually took a beating. Golota began clearly dominating after the early rounds. Bowe should be given credit for continuing the fight indeed.

[Cojimar 1946]

In the first Bowe-Golota fight Bowe isn't fouled the first time until late in the third round. Golota had won the first round and was clearly winning the third prior to the first foul. The fouls don't explain away Golota winning prior to going low or hurting Bowe repeatedly with perfectly legal punches.

[Ambling Alp II]

Yes Golota won the first round against Bowe. That's damning evidence against the career of Riddick Bowe.

[oogiebe]

Yes Golota won the first round against Bowe. That's damning evidence against the career of Riddick Bowe.

Agreed. Getting whollopped in the gonads can severely impair one's performance. But it doesn't alter the fact that Bowe's prime, while impressive, wasn't as long as it should've been.

[Cojimar 1946]

Golota beating the crap out of him twice is pretty damning by any criteria. And Bowe avoiding all the top guys aside from Holyfield, and not fighting Lewis in 1993 long before the McCall fight.

[jamamb]

how would ppl rate bowes best wins outside holy, just curious. still some recognizable names aside from vander

[Cojimar 1946]

I would say Tubbs was probably his second best win, I think Tony Tubbs was still probably a top 10 heavyweight at that stage. He's the only other elite Bowe has on his record except maybe Golota but those "wins" don't really enhance his legacy.

[Ambling Alp II]

Golota beating the crap out of him twice is pretty damning by any criteria. And Bowe avoiding all the top guys aside from Holyfield, and not fighting Lewis in 1993 long before the McCall fight.

He didn't avoid them. He signed to fight Lewis, it fell through because Lewis lost. He was supposed to fight Mercer but it fell through when Mercer lost. Foreman wanted no part of him.
He fought Holyfield three times, and looked better than Lewis did against a shot Holyfield.
He beat several other guys who had WBS titles and pretty records which always seems to mean a lot when you are trying to favor one of your guys.

[Cojimar 1946]

Lewis lost in September 1994. This has no bearing whatsoever on Bowe not fighting him in 1993 after winning the title from Holyfield. That would have been a perfect time to make the fight and there was considerable public interest given Lewis had beaten Bowe in the Olympics, was also undefeated and had just decisively beaten Donovan Ruddock. Instead he defends against Jesse Ferguson and a shot Michael Dokes, fights holding little if any interest to the general public.

[Onetimeonly]

He got 10 million for those fights and the holyfield rematch was more lucrative than Lennox. Doesn't change his resume anyway. He won 2 out of 3 against a top 4-8 all-time heavyweight with two of the fights smack dab in evanders prime. Those victories are rare air.

[Cojimar 1946]

He could have fought Lennox rather than Ferguson and Dokes. A fight with Lewis would have been vastly more important from a legacy perspective than either of those fights and it wouldn't have prevented him from taking lucrative rematches with Holyfield later if he cared to do so. There was little demand he face Dokes and Ferguson and tremendous interest in a fight with Lewis.

Taking rematches with Holyfield doesn't excuse him from wasting his time on numerous fights with fighters like Buster Mathis jr, Pierre Coetzer, Jesse Ferguson, etc.

[oogiebe]

I'm still convinced that if Bowe weren't with Rock Newman, his career would have been much better.

[Cojimar 1946]

Ironically, Bowe's cherry picking ultimately backfired. He took Golota thinking Golota would be another easy payday against someone who wasn't world class and he'd get paid well by the gullible public for yet another pointless mismatch. Didn't turn out to well for once because Golota was better than his record indicated.

[Contendeh]

Ideally, a champion should fight the consensus number 1 challenger within a years time and Holy is an easy argument as being that person at that time.

Winning the championship against Holy and then giving him a rematch within a year’s time is perfectly respectable.

Ferguson isn’t too bad of a defense considering he beat Mercer, who Bowe was going to fight had Merciless not lost.

[Onetimeonly]

He could have fought Lennox rather than Ferguson and Dokes. A fight with Lewis would have been vastly more important from a legacy perspective than either of those fights and it wouldn't have prevented him from taking lucrative rematches with Holyfield later if he cared to do so. There was little demand he face Dokes and Ferguson and tremendous interest in a fight with Lewis.

Taking rematches with Holyfield doesn't excuse him from wasting his time on numerous fights with fighters like Buster Mathis jr, Pierre Coetzer, Jesse Ferguson, etc.

Dokes and Ferguson were mismatches HBO paid him bank for. Oh shit, I just realized whom I'm talking too. Lmao

[Cojimar 1946]

Yes, I'm well aware that Bowe was well compensated for making title defenses against two guys who had no business getting title shots. However, that doesn't exempt Bowe from criticism for taking the fights in the first place. Vital Klitschko is routinely criticized for not fighting better opponents. Because it made business sense doesn't mean the fights can't be criticized from a competitive standpoint. Lewis was from the same era and fit in guys like Tua, Bruno, Ruddock. You know, actual ranked contenders that he had business fighting.

[Cojimar 1946]

Also, I'm not quite sure how the Golota fights demonstrate Bowe's great chin. Golota's power generally didn't translate well against the divisions elite.

[Ambling Alp II]

[quote=Contendeh post_id=5156940 time=1557797462 user_id=144651]
Ideally, a champion should fight the consensus number 1 challenger within a years time and Holy is an easy argument as being that person at that time.

Winning the championship against Holy and then giving him a rematch within a year’s time is perfectly respectable.

Ferguson isn’t too bad of a defense considering he beat Mercer, who Bowe was going to fight had Merciless not lost.
[/quote]

Exactly.
He was going to Lewis in 1994 lost to McCall. So in less than a 12-month period, he was going to fight Mercer, Holyfield, and Lewis. It's not his fault that Mercer and Lewis lost.

Yes he fought Ferguson and Dokes after bigger fights fell through . So what?
He is now getting criticized for fighting Coetzer before he ever got a title shot? Really?
Now his chin wasn't good because of the Golota fights? wow.

Before Bowe ever got a title shot, he fought Pinklon Thomas, Bert Cooper, Tyrell Biggs, Tony Tubbs, Bruce Seldon, and Coetzer. Obviously these guys were not legends, but for an up and coming fighter that is a lot better than most prospects fight.

From 1993-1996, in 7 fights he fought 5 unbeaten fighters. Again none were legends, but he could have taken on far weaker competition. The other two fights were against Evander Holyfield.

Compare Bowe's opponents up to the Golota fight to who Lewis was fighting(or anybody but Holyfield for that matter)