The last golden age of the Heavyweights

[Mark TKO]

Man reminds you how good it was

Long for those days.I'd stay up right through and shout my dad when the fighters were coming out . He'd get up and it was always edge of seat stuff - you just didn't know what would happen

What went wrong ?!?

Robbed of Bowe v Lewis at the time - that would have been an edge of seater

[El Kabong]

Riddick Bowe was and remains overhyped....people complain that Tyson didn't fight many greats but Bowe ONLY fought Holyfield. Great record but he fought 0 power punchers, no Tyson, no Lewis, how does he get all the respect He was a deeply flawed fighter routinely giving up his height and reach against smaller fighters.

[Master]

Riddick Bowe was and remains overhyped....people complain that Tyson didn't fight many greats but Bowe ONLY fought Holyfield. Great record but he fought 0 power punchers, no Tyson, no Lewis, how does he get all the respect He was a deeply flawed fighter routinely giving up his height and reach against smaller fighters.

That is what made Bowe fun.

[El Kabong]

Riddick Bowe was and remains overhyped....people complain that Tyson didn't fight many greats but Bowe ONLY fought Holyfield. Great record but he fought 0 power punchers, no Tyson, no Lewis, how does he get all the respect He was a deeply flawed fighter routinely giving up his height and reach against smaller fighters.

That is what made Bowe fun.

So fighters are "fun" because they lack the skill/dedication to actually be good at what they do? I mean I guess that speaks to why people loved a guy like Arturo Gatti, but at the same time it shows the double standard good/great fighters are subject to...if you don't allow your opponent in the fight then people will get fed up with you.

I don't think Riddick could hold his own these days...too many guys would take advantage of his flaws and take him on the cards or just knock him out (which would have happened had he ever fought a power puncher).

Look at Bowe's career....one of the shortest primes EVER. His reign as champion lasted about as long as Buster Douglas and Hasim Rahman's!

[Master]

Bowe had the talent and skill to be a great champion but the dedication and hard work was not there.

[smashup]

Riddick Bowe was and remains overhyped....people complain that Tyson didn't fight many greats but Bowe ONLY fought Holyfield. Great record but he fought 0 power punchers, no Tyson, no Lewis, how does he get all the respect He was a deeply flawed fighter routinely giving up his height and reach against smaller fighters.

That is what made Bowe fun.

So fighters are "fun" because they lack the skill/dedication to actually be good at what they do? I mean I guess that speaks to why people loved a guy like Arturo Gatti, but at the same time it shows the double standard good/great fighters are subject to...if you don't allow your opponent in the fight then people will get fed up with you.

I don't think Riddick could hold his own these days...too many guys would take advantage of his flaws and take him on the cards or just knock him out (which would have happened had he ever fought a power puncher).

Look at Bowe's career....one of the shortest primes EVER. His reign as champion lasted about as long as Buster Douglas and Hasim Rahman's!

To be honest Lyle people in general wanna see two men have a fight when they step in the ring.

Example -

My girlfriend tried to watch Floyds last fight but after a few rounds got bored.

We stayed in got some vodka and watched Froch V Groves 1 and 2 and she loved it.

I admire a skilled fighter who shuts his opponent out but it is boring to watch.

I'd much rather watch 2 guys have a real fight than some cunt who punches and runs.

You only need to look at ppv figures from 20 years ago to what they are now for the proof that the man in the street wants a real fight and to be entertained

[El Kabong]

I understand the fucking point of boxing smashup but let's not confuse ENTERTAINMENT with TALENT.

To me, the true boxing fan enjoys SKILL. They see a counter punch not just as the punch, but the footwork, the timing, the movement, the setup. The novice fan just sees the hard punch. Novice fans don't run the sport (thank God). If people want to see mindless wild punching then go watch a toughman competition, go watch the UFC/MMA guys try to box, go watch some amateur bouts.....but never ever confuse talent with entertainment.

There's plenty of room for guys to be entertaining in the sport don't get me wrong, but special fighters, great fighters don't allow their opponents to work their way into a fight. Novice fans won't see the tactical brilliance of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and how he negates what an opponent is attempting to do, novice fans obviously don't care about just the KO either as Wladimir Klitschko breaks down and beats down his opponents but the novice fans see nothing special in how the end comes about for those opponents.

If fight fans truly wanted phone booth fights then the promoters would give them that. In the end boxing has been and will always be The Sweet Science, the main goal is always "Hit and don't get hit"


Master, Riddick Bowe had talent, but his lack of attention to detail shortened his career. If Bowe fought more like Lennox Lewis or Wladimir Klitschko he may have been one of the best ever....but he didn't so he's not.

[bradlee180]

Yeah?
Well, too bad because Boxing is entertainment sold to the public, so it's about 90% casual fans instead of true fans, and the casual fans want ACTION for their money! (Most of the time anyways; floyd's the only one's managed to make bore-fest after bore-fest actually pay off! It's inexplicable, but these casual fans somehow keep paying.)

True fans might appreciate skill over entertainment, but there's not enough true fans to make the sport economically viable on their support alone... especially considering that most "true" fans don't really support the sport at all because they're the worse culprits when it comes to seeking out free illegal livestreams of PPVs instead of showing the real support of the sport by actually paying for them!

Oh well, it's the promoters took it down that route by making every $#!t-show a PPV....

[mikeeod]

Riddick Bowe was and remains overhyped....people complain that Tyson didn't fight many greats but Bowe ONLY fought Holyfield. Great record but he fought 0 power punchers, no Tyson, no Lewis, how does he get all the respect He was a deeply flawed fighter routinely giving up his height and reach against smaller fighters.

I don't think Bowe was a hype job, I think he was lazy and let success get to his head. The Bowe that beat Evander the first time was special. All you have to do is watch that performance and see how great he could have become if he stayed disciplined. Even out of shape he gave a prime Evander his toughest test. While he didn't stay on top long, Riddick was special and his fight vs Lewis not happening is my biggest regret as a fan. More than Quartey vs Tito and Manny vs Floyd.

[Spicoli]

Miss it and loved it! When you think about it what speaks even better about the early 90's was the fact that it was great with even some top flight fights falling through..Tyson-Holyfield x2, Mercer-Bowe, Bowe- Lewis..in a word the division was deep! It had sub categories of top matches ffs. Young guns actually fought and risked the '0', journeymen and second tier guys rose to the occasion and made impact. As crazy as it sounds the epitome of divison to me, in terms of competiveness and available match ups was the Jeremy Williams vs Doc Nicholson showdown of young pro green and highly visible hopefuls. Both flawed in hindsight, single digit pro records but promoters willing to risk a showdown. The era was just..FUN!

[bradlee180]

Yeah, there was so much talent, I think we took it for granted.

There were terrific bouts between contenders, and you were excited waiting for the big fight the way you do for World Title fights, but they were just fights between two contenders, often on free network tv.

Lennox Lewis vs Ray Mercer.
Ray Mercer vs Evander Holyfield.
Evander Holyfield vs Alex Stewart.

Mike Tyson vs Razor Ruddock

Smokin Bert Cooper vs Michael Moorer.
Tommy Morrison vs Ray Mercer (WBO wasn't seen as a real World Title).
Tommy Morrison vs Joe Hipp.
Razor Ruddock vs Tommy Morrison.

Riddick Bowe vs Elijah Tillery.
Andrew Golota vs Riddick Bowe.
Samson Po'uha vs Andrew Golota.

Ike Ibeabuchi vs Chris Byrd.
Ike Ibeabuchi vs David Tua.
David Tua vs John Ruiz.

Jimmy Thnuder vs Tim Witherspoon.
Maurice Harris vs Derrick Jefferson.


Just some that come to mind.
Terrific bouts.

Nowadays, they protect them, protect that "0".
A guy gets a Title shot and hasn't developed his skills enough for world class because he was too protected.