Riddick Bowe, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson are some of the most legendary boxers to ever lace up the gloves.
Lewis long held the honour of being the last undisputed heavyweight champion until Oleksandr Usyk took that record in May by beating Tyson Fury. He had a fine career that included great wins over Holyfield, Tyson, Vitali Klitschko and many others, managing to beat every man he stepped through the ropes with after avenging two shock losses to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman.
‘Iron Mike’ still holds the record for being the youngest ever heavyweight to win a world title aged just 19, and was famous for his punching power with his first 12 fights all ending inside the first round.
Holyfield’s career saw him pick up all the major belts in both the cruiserweight and then the heavyweight division, which was a long held record until it was again Usyk who repeated the feat.
Bowe is also a former undisputed world heavyweight champion who held the title in 1992 after claiming the super heavyweight silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He is well known for refusing to fight Lewis, though did co-star in a thrilling trilogy with Holyfield in which he scored two victories to ‘The Real Deal’s one.
Speaking to Boxing News, Bowe was asked to rank these three heavyweight stars and picked his opponent for the top spot.
“I would have to say Holyfield’s number one. Lennox Lewis is second and then Mike Tyson.”
He was then asked to give reasons.
“Well, I know Holyfield, no matter what you do and how you do it, he’s gonna be there. Lennox I put him number two cause he’s the biggest of all of us and I guess he proved that he was durable. Mike isn’t as durable as those guys cause they knocked him out. But in his prime he was the man, he would knock anybody out.”
The last of these men to fight was Tyson back in November when he looked every bit his 58 years old while taking a points loss to the young and still largely inexperienced Jake Paul in Texas.
