Riddick Bowe was one of the four kings of the heavyweight goldern era in the 1990s, he was a two time heavyweight world champion and was even undisputed at the weight for a period in 1992 – and has now revealed who was the greatest fighter he ever shared a ring with.
And in an interview with RingTV, he explained that Evander Holyfield – the man he shared a legendary trilogy with – was ‘unequivocally’ the best fighter he ever fought.
“Holyfield – Unequivocally. Evander was smart, he was a thinker, he was in great shape, he had all the attributes to make him a great champion. That’s why he and I fought against each other so hard and so well.”
The three fights with Holyfield are widely regarded as the pinnacle of Bowe’s career, holding two wins to one majority decision defeat, as well as the accolade of being the first fighter to stop the all time great.
However, there is a consensus that ‘Big Daddy’ was still somewhat a case of wasted potential. He never shared a ring with either Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis, famously vacating his WBC title and throwing it into the garbage after Lewis was called as his mandatory challenger.
The four were the consensus top dogs at heavyweight throughout the mid 1990s, a period considered a golden age for the division.
Although there has not since been heavyweight era to rival the days of Bowe, Holyfield and co, the signing of an undisputed fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk has gone some ways towards kicking some life back into the blue ribbon division, which had been somewhat stagnating