I dont remember him taking that much punishment in any of his other fights...he had 5 fights against those two opponents in the span of 5 years And really the most severe punishment seemed to be in Holyfield III and Golota II
Fighters tend to get brain-damaged in sparring, not fights, but i'm sure that those fights didn't help. Nobody knows, is the only answer.
Yup, it's hard to tell. The guy got really big and was too brave. Who knows? Maybe he dropped weight too quickly like Ali did versus Holmes? You see fighters take more, have harder careers...It's like Russian Roulette some guys keep pulling that trigger and keep getting the empty chamber. Others don't.
Don't think the dramatic weight cuts and his dehydrated brain slamming around inside his head did him any favors. Bowe never struck me as a guy who sparred "soft" either. Had that mean streak that I'm sure translated into some in-gym wars.
I think the Golota fights did it - in particular Golota II. He appeared to lose the ability to speak coherently - without slurring - during that particular fight. He was sluring right after the fight. Holyfield took as much as he did in their trilogy, plus took a lot in other fights. It was obvious early in Golota II that Bowe was shot. His heart kept him going until he lucked out with the DQ - but he took a hellacious beating. I think he took a dramatic fast weight cut for Golota II, as well, if I remember correctly.
Gym Wars, not taking care of himself, Golota2. That beating Bowe endured would have literally killed many men. Interesting, I've seen clips of Holy and Bowe slurring incoherently and talking decent in the past 7 years or so. Not an easy profession.
Three thoughts here: 1) I have always believed that some of it was pre-existing from the amatuers. He did not slur his speech, but Rock Neman was terrified to put him in with a puncher, and even went so far as to put his body on the line to protect him during the Tillery debaucle. That is also why they threw a blet in the trash rather than face Lewis in the pros. 2) The Holfield and Golota fights could not have helped, as they were brutal fights. 3) It is well known that a lot of Bowe's money went up his nose. Cocaine isnot good for brain cells either.
I agree ,if anyone should be slurring today it is Chuvalo,yet he is as lucid as any senior citizen could hope to be,Lamotta was the same it isn't quantifiable imo. I think McGrain's point about sparring is a big factor too.
I would be interested to see research into which of these guys go into sparring right away when they go into training. I think a lot has to do with not being in shape. For talented guys, not being in shape is often their only chance to deal with serious resistance in the ring. A lot of guys before going into serious training for a fight won't go to the ring until there in decent enough shape to spar. Others will want to get a taste of it right away. They will argue that getting knocked about when your "too tired to get out of the way" forces you to work on defence. The thing with sparring is that your breathing (even if you are fit) is all over the place until you get "into it" and your energy can vanish pretty quick. You take punches until you settle down and adjust to distance and breathing with a mouth piece again. Everybody is different. But I guess that it is the guys who kept themselves tip top and lived clean healthy habits between fights stand a better chance of not getting punchy. Guys like Henry Cooper and Jim Watt were very professional. They trained so many days per week throughout their careers as a matter of routine even between fights. Running most mornings and a couple of sessions in the gym just to tick over. Those guys were sharp and never needed to take off too many pounds. I dont know if George Chuvalo got hog fat between fights but perhaps because he fought so often, lived relatively clean family life and was therefore in the gym all the time it might explain why he survived so well?
George had a big broad head but he knew how to stand, to lock his neck, where to tuck his chin, how high to hold his hands too. Taking a punch he was always instinctively bracing himself in the right way, often closer distance than the opponent wanted him to be for maximum impact...But George was proberbly extraordinarily strong too. No doubt he was as naturally tough as can be.
Great post :good Thanks To address the OP, I think Golota took the most out of him. The power shots he was landing were brutal, flush bombs, and frankly I don't know how Bowe managed to survive to the end of either fight, particularly Golota 2. I'm not exactly a Bowe fan, but his courage that night was amazing, bordering on foolishness. If I was in his corner I would have stopped it. Undoubtedly he wasn't the same after that.
yes great post, one of the many reasons I got out of boxing was because I had a over zealous trainer imo, he seemed bent on breaking me too often, he would wait until I was spent and would call in the best sparring partner available and looking back I took way too many bad beatings because I was far too stupid and too dazed to take a knee and would stumble around the ring pretending I hadn't just got my bell wrung :!:
it's a hard balance for a trainer to get right. He has to get a guy into ring shape. More experienced boxers who know all the strokes do get lazy and cut corners. A lot of guys just dont have instinctive discipline. Giving him that extra round might bring that bit extra out of his training that would otherwise take longer to develop. A new boxer has to develop but once he has developed he knows what works for him. A trainer won't want a new kid turn up green on his debut. so much of it needs to be replicated in the gym. What is wrong for a fighter might be what gets results for him and so on. Until a kid knows for himself it's trial and error for the trainer to get it out of him. But I respect what you are saying. There really are some crazy trainers out there. We had gym sessions with one trainer who had us do serious circuits as a warm up before sparring!! If too many boxers turned up to train he pushed everyone to their limits on these circuits before sparring and the guys he wanted rid of he kept in the ring for extra rounds with the guys who had upcoming fights. If he took the session and there were a lot of kids turned up, you knew to hold back on his "warm up" because it was only the guys who didn't go flat out that had anything left to box with.