Despite only sharing the ring with Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe has offered his take on where ‘The Real Deal’ would rank in a conversation involving Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.
Bowe and Holyfield delivered three captivating heavyweight spectacles between 1992 and 1995, with the former coming away from their compelling trilogy as a 2-1 victor.
Perhaps most notably, the rematch, which Holyfield won via a majority decision, saw the infamous ‘Fan Man’ come crashing onto the ring apron during their encounter for Bowe’s IBF and WBA world titles.
It was in 1993, too, that Tyson was serving his six-year prison sentence, meaning the timing for a clash between him and ‘Big Daddy’ was never quite right, along with the fact the pair were also childhood friends.
During that same year, Bowe had binned his WBC title – refusing to face mandatory challenger Lewis – and instead fought Holyfield for a second time.
That trilogy with Holyfield was ferocious enough for Bowe to rank his former foe above Lewis and Tyson in an interview with Boxing News.
“[With] Holyfield, no matter what you do to him, or how you do it, he’s going to be there.
“Lennox, I put him at number two because he’s the biggest of all of us – I guess he proved that he was durable.
“Mike, he [wasn’t as] durable as those guys [Holyfield and Lewis] – because they knocked him out. But, in his prime, he was the man that was knocking everybody out, so I make Mike number three.”
Many would be tempted to place Lewis at the top of a list involving all three legends, especially given that he should, in truth, boast two points victories over Holyfield.
Their first encounter, in 1999, saw both men come away with a highly controversial draw, before Lewis claimed a unanimous verdict in their immediate rematch.
Then, in 2002, ‘The Lion’ secured an eighth-round stoppage victory over Tyson who, at that time, was considered well past his best.
But still, most would likely regard Holyfield, who twice beat Tyson in convincing fashion, and Lewis as being the two flagship heavyweights of their era.
