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Riddick Bowe is the best heavyweight ever. Discuss.

Sorry, can't agree on that one.
Beaten by Holyfield, scared to fight Lewis, and beaten up (twice) by Golota.

SteveO said it all

He is the greatest could-have-been of the heavyweight history and maybe Bowe at his best would have defeaded any other fighter in the history. Still, he can't be considered great, because his peak was shorter than David Tua's reach.

No wonder the guy who posted this used Annonymous, I'd be embarrassed to show my face/name too

no way. could have been great. but did not reach his potential. joe borden of canada.

NO WAY. my mate steveo said it all. couldnt deal/looked poor with guys his own size capable of fighting back. (see lewis, tubbs, coetzer, golota etc)

Anonymous wrote:Riddick Bowe is the best heavyweight ever. Discuss.

No way!

Spineless waster, who avoided his biggest rival (despite what some say) & waited for Lewis to retire, before coming back after 8 years!

Had great talent, but was too lazy & ill disciplined to realise his full potential.

A Gift Decision wrote:He is the greatest could-have-been of the heavyweight history and maybe Bowe at his best would have defeaded any other fighter in the history. Still, he can't be considered great, because his peak was shorter than David Tua's reach.

Good post, and I agree.

I don't think Bowe was ducking Lewis. There were other factors at play and many have been discussed in earlier threads. But just watch their 88 Olympic match and it'll give you no reason as to why Bowe would be scared of Lewis. Bowe was stunned a little by a hard right but the stoppage was incredibly premature and before the big right hand Bowe had been winning fairly decisively. JL Gonzales hurt Bowe much worse in the amateurs and Bowe sure wasn't scared of him.

Bowe's problem was plain laziness, he was too idle to train and get himself in shape after he became champ, and much of his training consisted of sprintwork between MacDonalds and Burger King. I think that might have been part of the reason he didn't want any part of Lewis, he knew he couldn't win that fight without a serious training camp, something he felt to be unnecessary for a champion.

The best ever? He trained on his way up...and he trained for his title shot...after that...training (to him) was no longer neccessary...so if you're going to say he was the best ever...you better pick just one other guy he could beat...after that, he wouldn't train for the rest...

How about Bowe-Tyson in their primes? Bowe had a good chin and a pole of a jab. Could he have kept Mike off and done enough to discourage him?