Mythical Match Up #2: Riddick Bowe vs. Lennox Lewis (Fall, 1994)

[IronDanHamza]

I thought Bowe would knock him out then and I still think that now.

If he came in shape.

[billeau2]

I thought Bowe would knock him out then and I still think that now.

If he came in shape.

At the time....People were pretty universal in their assesment regarding this fight. Most people thought Lewis would get murdered. Then Lewis started to win and people STILL thought he would get murdered by Bowe.

Bowe did have some of that Liston "charm", I mean when he dismantled that Cuban Heavyweight it was quite a fiat!

Honestly I could never see what people saw in Bowe. I bnever saw him as being impressive by virtue of beating Holyfield, who at the time was a small heavyweight....And when Evander listened to his corner he beat Bowe.

My take on the fight is: Bowe could win by intimidating Lewis but if Lewis came ready to fight he dismantled Bowe much as he did another guy who was supposed to murder him....a guy who gave Tyson fits....Razor Ruddock.

Bowe was strong and could fight inside, but a lewis uppercut was an equalizer in that range. outside Lewis had the better jab and could hit as hard with his right.

[IronDanHamza]

At the time....People were pretty universal in their assesment regarding this fight. Most people thought Lewis would get murdered. Then Lewis started to win and people STILL thought he would get murdered by Bowe.

Bowe did have some of that Liston "charm", I mean when he dismantled that Cuban Heavyweight it was quite a fiat!

Honestly I could never see what people saw in Bowe. I bnever saw him as being impressive by virtue of beating Holyfield, who at the time was a small heavyweight....And when Evander listened to his corner he beat Bowe.

My take on the fight is: Bowe could win by intimidating Lewis but if Lewis came ready to fight he dismantled Bowe much as he did another guy who was supposed to murder him....a guy who gave Tyson fits....Razor Ruddock.

Bowe was strong and could fight inside, but a lewis uppercut was an equalizer in that range. outside Lewis had the better jab and could hit as hard with his right.

I don't think Razor Ruddock and Riddick Bowe are the same class of fighter.

Ruddock was supposed to beat Lewis and could punch and had two good fights with Tyson but he's not in Bowe's league's or any of those Top HW's of that era's league.

I think Lewis definitely could have beaten Bowe, it would have been a good fight but I don't think he'd stop Bowe from landing and at a consistent enough rate to hurt him and stop him.

[katjack]

I give Lewis a good chance after Steward taught him to box but the Lewis before might have been stopped by Bowe.

[Ham Porter]

I do not accept that Bowe ducked LL.

Kind of difficult to accept given the fact that a very legitimate offer was made towards the Lewis camp, who chose to walk away from it and instead take over half of that offer to go fight Bruno instead.

[$Bullsfam$]

If Bowe was motivated for it and fought like he did against holyfiels he wins 9x out of 10. Bowe was a beast hes one of the biggest disappointments in boxing history


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[Sugarj]

At the time....People were pretty universal in their assesment regarding this fight. Most people thought Lewis would get murdered. Then Lewis started to win and people STILL thought he would get murdered by Bowe.

Bowe did have some of that Liston "charm", I mean when he dismantled that Cuban Heavyweight it was quite a fiat!

Honestly I could never see what people saw in Bowe. I bnever saw him as being impressive by virtue of beating Holyfield, who at the time was a small heavyweight....And when Evander listened to his corner he beat Bowe.

My take on the fight is: Bowe could win by intimidating Lewis but if Lewis came ready to fight he dismantled Bowe much as he did another guy who was supposed to murder him....a guy who gave Tyson fits....Razor Ruddock.

Bowe was strong and could fight inside, but a lewis uppercut was an equalizer in that range. outside Lewis had the better jab and could hit as hard with his right.

By the narrowest of narrow split decisions! Bowe was not in his best shape (245Lbs from memory) but that he was able to fight prime Holyfield on even terms shows his class.

Just compare the Holyfield from the early 90s who had two life and death matches with Bowe (I'm purposely not including their 1995 third encounter) with the Holyfield nearly a decade later who many felt might have won the rematch with Lewis. The Holyfield and Bowe of the early 90s were in a different class.

You only have to watch Bruno out jab and fight Lewis on even terms in 1993 to wonder what even an out of shape Bowe would have done.

I'm not dissing Lewis, he was just not ready in 1994. The Lewis of 1997 with Steward in the corner vs the Bowe of 1991/92 would be a terrific fight. To repeat what I said in an earlier post, their primes never collided.

[billeau2]

I don't think Razor Ruddock and Riddick Bowe are the same class of fighter.

Ruddock was supposed to beat Lewis and could punch and had two good fights with Tyson but he's not in Bowe's league's or any of those Top HW's of that era's league.

I think Lewis definitely could have beaten Bowe, it would have been a good fight but I don't think he'd stop Bowe from landing and at a consistent enough rate to hurt him and stop him.

People thought very highly of Razor....of course the pundits almost immediately noticed that Ruddock was a one armed fighter. But he had a chin and I am not so sure he doesn't give as well as he gets with Bowe.

Bowe had more weapons but lets look carefully at those weapons compared to RR:

a) Both guys could take a punch...not going to split hairs on who could absorb more

b) Jab....Bowe was a "pawer" wasn't he?

c) Inside game...RR had game inside. He actually tired Tyson out inside and almost beat him late in both fights. Bowe was however better inside.

d) punch selection....Bowe was better

e) footwork. Both guys were slow.

The thing is I trust Futch and he was positively giddy on Bowe.

[billeau2]

By the narrowest of narrow split decisions! Bowe was not in his best shape (245Lbs from memory) but that he was able to fight prime Holyfield on even terms shows his class.

Just compare the Holyfield from the early 90s who had two life and death matches with Bowe (I'm purposely not including their 1995 third encounter) with the Holyfield nearly a decade later who many felt might have won the rematch with Lewis. The Holyfield and Bowe of the early 90s were in a different class.

You only have to watch Bruno out jab and fight Lewis on even terms in 1993 to wonder what even an out of shape Bowe would have done.

I'm not dissing Lewis, he was just not ready in 1994. The Lewis of 1997 with Steward in the corner vs the Bowe of 1991/92 would be a terrific fight. To repeat what I said in an earlier post, their primes never collided.

I agree with a lot of this however I do not think Holly was better as you do. When Holly first came up to heavyweight he was a blown up cruiser and fought like a cruiser. Beating Bowe proved that he could fight at that level but, his strategy and lack of heavyweight experience caused him problems (IMO). As a matter of fact, regardless of Bowe's condition, Holly beat Bowe by boxing him....Not a natural proclivity for Holly! When Holly fights Tyson he beats him by putting iron Mike on his heels (unbalanced) and attacking him. To me this version of Holly is stronger, wiser, and more experienced as a heavyweight.

Holly always was a puncher/swarmer masquerading as a boxer. his apex in the heavyweight division was contingent on getting enough experience as a heavyweight, developing his power (he may have been the same weight but his muscle mass/roid mass? was greater in the version that fought Tyson) and being able to combine that with work rate. My point is that Bowe had a substandard version of Holyfield to work with.

[IronDanHamza]

People thought very highly of Razor....of course the pundits almost immediately noticed that Ruddock was a one armed fighter. But he had a chin and I am not so sure he doesn't give as well as he gets with Bowe.

Bowe had more weapons but lets look carefully at those weapons compared to RR:

a) Both guys could take a punch...not going to split hairs on who could absorb more

b) Jab....Bowe was a "pawer" wasn't he?

c) Inside game...RR had game inside. He actually tired Tyson out inside and almost beat him late in both fights. Bowe was however better inside.

d) punch selection....Bowe was better

e) footwork. Both guys were slow.

The thing is I trust Futch and he was positively giddy on Bowe.

No way in hell was Ruddock's chin on the level of Bowe's. Not even close. I wouldn't consider Ruddock to have an overly good chin.

Bowe definitely had a better jab aswell.

I don't see a single area that Ruddock was better than Bowe.