Lewis (prime) vs. Bowe (prime)... Honestly!

I see Lewis for exactly what he is. Why does he get a pass for every contender he ever faced being in the worst fight shape of their career?

 

From my notes on Bowe-Golota I...

Sadly Riddick was a visibly very flabby 252lbs, with jiggly manboobs rather than pecks & a belly rather than a solid torso, so it was evident his conditioning was simply awful. As Bowe said before the fight: "Larry why do I need to train so hard to fight a bum?!" Also, George Foreman said during the fight: "Riddick Bowe is just not in-shape, that's all there is to it, from the opening bell this guy has not been in-shape, he underestimated this fighter & he's getting whipped."

In such absolutely dreadful shape, Bowe took 2/6 rounds & made Golota quit with his determination & pressure. I think the severe punishment Bowe took in the first Golota war, while in atrocious fat shape physically, ruined his body for good. This meant, no matter how much effort he put into training for the rematch (questionable still, as he looked gaunt & weight-drained at the weigh-in, as noted in the commentary), he would never remotely recover from the brutal damage he took to the body, balls & head when they first met. It wasn't just the first Golota fight which did this to Riddick though, as it's clear the 32 rounds of brutal war with Holy will have contributed to his physical deterioration, as did his ever increasing gluttony.

 

Holyfield, Tua, Golota, Ray Mercer (never that good to begin with), Tommy Morrison (HIV and never very good to begin with), and Mike Tyson.

All of these fighters at the tail end of their careers or in the worst fight shape of their careers, as was the case with David Tua coming in at his career highest weight looking terrible. Tyson at the end of his career, wouldn't beat another fighter of any caliber and would lose to Danny Williams and Kevin Mcbride. Tommy Morrison would find out he had HIV and be kicked out of the sport.

Just face up to the fact that these fights could have happened earlier when these guys were contenders yet Lewis waited for the opportune time to fight the, when they were so far past it that they were near the end of their careers.

 

So let me just get this straight, a shot Golota completely outboxed and dominated Bowe

 

This fight does get written off way too much though. Golota almost beat him to death and I feel that even that version of Bowe would have been competitive with most other top fighters.
But he wasn't with Golota and there's reasons for that.

 

I have no problems with your posts FJAY. :good

Lewis was clearly undertrained for Rahman I, because he only gave himself 2 weeks of training at high altitude, so he was gasping for air & lethargic in that fight. I think Lewis & Steward underestimate Rahman, & thought he was a pushover because Lennox had already whitewashed Tua who stopped Rahman. This is similar to when Tyson thought Douglas was a easy pushover, because he already widely decisioned Tucker who stopped Buster. Manny shouldn't have let Lewis take the "Ocean's 11" role which gave him less time to train. I believe Lewis was in somewhat less poor shape for Vitali at 256lbs, than he was at 253lbs for Rahman I.

Conditioning needs to be analysed by more than just exact weights, such as as visible solidness/softness of body, if they are energetic/lethargic & punch-output must be examined. I mean, Lewis was in Peak shape at a solid 251lbs in McCall II & looked quick & sharp, but he was lethargic & lazy Rahman I, at a soft 253lbs. This can be compared to Bowe, who was in superb shape at 243lbs for Gonzalez, but a flabby 252lbs & sluggish for Golota. Notice the weight differences for those two comparisons are small, but the level of conditioning varies by a significant amount.

 

Perhaps a reason could be they had very similar styles & size, but Golota was supremely conditioned at his Absolute Peak & most likely roided to the gills, whereas Bowe trained for that fight by eating donuts & sitting his fat ass in saunas. So one was super sharp & quick with excellent timing, & the other was listless, lethargic & his timing was off.

 

I dont think Lewis should be held accountable for any of his opponents problems, but there were clear problems that cant be ignored. Tua was not in top shape when he faced Lewis. There were reports from Golota's trainer Lou Duva that Golota was no where to be found the night of the fight and was mentally unstable leading up to and after the fight. Holyfield was well past his prime. Tyson was photographed smoking weed in Hawaii while in training for Lewis.. I think Lewis faced the best possible opposition that was avaialable. Its just he didnt face the best versions of fighters and hes often over ranked because of it.
Whether or not Golota was beating up Bowe, Lewis faced a fighter who was scared to enter the ring that night and mentally quit a lot faster. So how do you compare that common opponent? Golota quit in both fights, he just quit before he entered the ring against Lewis. Does that make Lewis' performance better?

 

There is no doubt Golota had good boxing skills. He was one of the better european skilled fighters. He had size, a good jab and good power, but he doesnt have the balls to be a champion level fighter. I think mentally he believed in himself a lot more leading up to the Bowe fight, but in previous fights he showed that mental kink in his armor. He headbutted Danell Nicholson. He bit Samson Pou'oua on the neck, both when the fights started to get rough, so when Bowe turned up the heat and wouldnt go away, he got himself out of the fight.
So even if Golota was a better boxer than Bowe, which he wasnt, that most important intangible, that he didnt have, was mental toughness, so you cant say Golota was better than Bowe, or that Lewis performed better against Golota, because it was crystal clear that Golota was in a similar state of mind before he even entered the ring against Lewis, that he was when he decided it was time to foul out against Bowe.

 

I keep repeating it because it's fun laughing at the Bowe apologists, but Golota completely outjabbed, outboxed Bowe twice on the outside and counter punched his wild swings. And this is the guy that was supposed to be the finnished article when LEwis was 'raw'

 

This is a popular theory these days, & a trap Sam Peter certainly fell into. Short fighters now often bulk up to ridiculous levels to equal the weight of men who are vastly taller. Of Course, this is a terrible idea since they end up plodding their sluggish asses into the jab all night, without the quickness to slip it & close the distance enough to land. I'm not sure Tua came in at 245lbs to match Lewis for weight though, because he was visibly overweight for his prior 4 fights before facing Lewis, & every single fight afterwards, except against Byrd & a bum called Cerrone Fox. So i believe Tua had just lost his motivation to train & eat properly, for basically every fight post-'98, apart from two against Byrd & Fox. David Tua was a very good whitewash win against a near-undefeated top ranked contender for Lewis so i give him credit. Hell, despite his ballooning weight, Ring Mag was hyping Tua as a Lewis-Killer.

Partially true, but King offered Lewis $13.5million to fight Tyson in '96, compared to Holy who was only offered $8million. Lewis was smart businessman & refused to accept the contract options (should he win) of Don King, whereas Holy didn't care. King wasn't going to let Tyson face Lewis, if Lewis wouldn't accept the King contract options, so he paid Lewis $4million step-aside money to wait until Mike faced Holy. This $4million step-aside money was still less than the $5.5million gap between the purses offered to Lewis & Holy. Evander won, so Don King's got his contract options on the winner came in handy for him. Both Tyson-Holy & Tyson-Lewis '96 were Superfights in which either man could win, so you can understand why the greedy King would refuse to put Tyson in with a man who wouldn't sign-up for his contract options. While Lewis was such a intelligent businessman & so confident of victory against anyone, you can see why he wouldn't sign a contract with King options should he win, as Lewis likes to be in control & not be robbed by anyone. And King, is the Undisputed King of robbing & controlling fighters.

Sadly it didn't get Tyson out of debt... his fights with Ettienne, Williams & McBride were all to pay IRS bills. Really, the corpse of Tyson should've took the rematch Lewis wanted, as it would've gotten him a bigger payday than those 3 fights combined, & it would look infinitely better ending your career on 2 losses to Lewis, than on 2 extremely embarrassing losses to British-level guys. I guess he just didn't want to drag his zombie ass to the morgue again.

 

Kind of like what Bruno did to Lewis.

 

Quality post. :good

I think Golota quits against Bowe & Tyson every time.