Lennox Lewis and Muhammad Ali are in the heavyweight history books as two of the best big men the sport has ever seen.
Ali was an enigma in and out of the ring, moving unlike any other heavyweight and capturing the world heavyweight championship with an unwavering confidence.
Lewis was a more typical heavy with excellent fundamentals and a powerful punch. He retired having beaten every man he faced after avenging two upset losses to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman.
One man of his era he didn’t step through the ropes with was Riddick Bowe, who famously binned the WBC belt on live television in response to Lewis being ordered as his mandatory challenger. Bowe remains adamant that he would have won the fight.
In a clip captured by Boxing King Media, ‘Big Daddy’ was recently debating the skills of Lewis with Naseem Hamed, who said the Brit would beat anyone in any era. Bowe said no, not Ali.
“I think Ali would have beat him.”
It perhaps comes as no surprise given the bad blood Bowe shared with Lewis, now reconciled, and the affection he had for the late, great Ali.
In fact, Bowe credits Ali as the reason he committed himself to the sport of boxing, as revealed in an interview with Dr Beau Hightower when discussing the moment he was surprised by him at an amateur tournament.
“When I first met him he was behind me, I couldn’t see him. I was fighting in the New York City Golden Gloves competition. He was saying ‘come on sucker, come on sucker.’ I was trying to focus on myself, on getting ready for the fight, and he kept talking. I guess 15 minutes went by and I didn’t say nothing to him cause I didn’t recognise his voice.
“Five minutes went by and I could hear the voices again, he went ‘come on sucker,’ now I was getting angry because I was trying to focus. So I turned around, it was Muhammad Ali. He gave me this big hug, man. I turned into a little girl, I cried, a couple tears came into my eyes. After he gave me a hug I knocked the guy out in 24 seconds. He was my idol. If it wasn’t for me, I’d probably be in the Marine Corps.”
