Why did Bowe take such beatings from Golota?

He had all the ingredients to be around a lot longer than he was ,apart from the willingness to knuckle down and train. I think Bowe lost a lot of motivation once he'd beat Holy for the title. Throw in two easy defense s and he probably reckoned he was invincible. By the time of the rubber match with EH hed lost a lot of himself In terms of reflexes .So Golota was facing a very faded version .

 

Well even if you buy into the faded Bowe skillset, he was still not facing Godzilla in that first fight.

Andrew looked okay but hardly a world beater/dangerous heavy to steer away from that Nicholson bout. And he had a few other less than scintillating efforts even including biting a guy. He was on the outside but hardly a blue chip can't miss type guy that was nurtured along. The Duva camp spent far more time & energy honing Tua.

The Bowe camp were not the highest of risk takers, matchmaking wise. They thought it'd be a 1 way fight and might go 6 rounds or so. But they were not expecting Bowe to have to dig deep and be pretty much a mismatch.

I just think Bowe's horrible defense really showed it's flaws against a guy his own size. JL Gonzales had no where near the tools to exploit that facet of his game, but a Golota sure did. Riddick bowe must have thought the guy had 3 hands in there the way he was soaking up punches.


Me, I was of the opinion that Bowe needed a built in size advantage. And he also needed a stationary target or even better, someone coming to him. that's when he's at his best. But I was never as high on him as most are and were at the time.

Be that as it may, the Golota that did show up against Bowe was not missing a punch. He looked far better against Bowe & usually Andrew was having close tough rounds whenever he did fight top notch guys. The easiest guy for him was Bowe.

 

Excellent post and I especially agree with this^

 

Can you imagine the criticism for Lewis if he was the guy being schooled by Golota? Or if it was Evander or anyone else at that time pretty much being taken to the woodshed. Geez, taken to the woodshed by Andrew Golota does not speak volumes, it screams it.

 

Yep, Bowe was punchy and underprepared + this was vintage Golota in the physical sense + Golota's confidence had yet to be shattered into a million pieces.

Also has anyone noticed how free-flowing Andrews punches are in this fight, later on Golota’s punches became really clubby like he couldn’t bend his elbow, did he have problems?

 

So many great points on this post and all are correct. Sometimes fights just boil down to styles as well. Why can fighter A beat fighter B but loses to C even though B beat fighter C.

 

I actually feel Golota lost something as well in the Bowe fights. To be fair, he did look exceptionally sharp and on the ball at the time. Of course, he was still a decent fighter afterwards and Bowe was wrecked.

 

Agreed, Golota from the Bowe fights would beat the Klitschkos imo

 

LOL no.

 

Are you kidding me right now? Andy looked frickin mustard against Bowe and produced a Toyko Douglas like performance in those fights.

He worked Bowe over on the inside like a HW version of Roberto Duran. The man slipped and bobbed like a super heavy weight version of Mike Tyson. Show me another SHW with that sort of combination and countering ability?

Look at him past prime against Chris Byrd. Outboxed him and deserved to have two kd's that weren't called. In that fight he should have became the IBF champion , but a draw was given so Don King controlled Byrd could keep his belt.
Prime Vitali couldn't land a meaningful shot on Byrd , but past primer Golota could.. Why is that?? Because of angles. Golota had the angles and an inside game. Thats why he handled Byrd , but Vitali was forced to retire in his corner cos he hadn't the angles or dimensions inside the wheelhouse.
Thats why either k-bro wouldn't have any success against Bowe. They dont have the dimensions Golota had.
But Golota would be an ATG if he had the mind-set of a Klitschko or a Lewis to match his skills , angles and dimensions

 

Im not sure he was ever THAT good.

I think Holyfield Made a big mistake trading with him the first time when his frame at 205 was much more suited to use his speed like he did vs foreman.
And the third time he was quite obviously very sick.


People forget that Holyfield before the Bowe rematch wasn't that impressive of a champion. He struggled with Bert Cooper, alex steward and an old Holmes.

So while that may have technically been a "prime" Holyfield, He traded too much and didn't show that much craft back then. His brawl happy reputation came from that stage in his career.

I think the bulked, wiser and stronger up 93-97 version was just as good if not better as long as he didn't have injuries or illness.


I think Bowe is not the only heavyweight who could have beaten that version of Holyfield who was Just trying to take Boar's head off.

 

I don't think 1991 George does worse vs Bowes competition including Holyfield as long as Holyfield tries to brawl with him like he did vs Bowe.

I was struck by how similar their performances were against coetzer

 

Because Bowe is overrated.

I honestly see no huge difference (in terms of actual accomplishments) between Bowe and guys like Buster Douglas, Max Baer, Hasim Rahman, Michael Moore, etc. Guys who had a very short reign and were inconsistent but had lots of talent and were dangerous.

Bowe had an otherwise mediocre career full of "good" or "meh" or straight up tomato can wins but is primarily known for his insane stellar wins over a (much smaller) ATG. He turned it up and was focused for 2 nights and the rest of his career he was embarrasingly lazy, out of shape, and refusing to face the best of his era. These are facts.

He's a big, strong, talented heavy with height, reach, great inside fighting, great chin, whats not to like? But when peope look at Bowe, they see what they want to see. They cant be objective and try to overlook his very thin resume and lack of big names and inflate his wins over Holyfield. That is simply not enough, you need to look at the entirety of his career. People WANT to see an ATG top 10 heavyweight h2h monster phenom and maybe he COULD have been that but he didnt. And a lot of that is his own fault for lacking discipline. He certainly had the raw ability and size, but he got found out.

Bowe should be taken as yet another cautionary tale for aspiring athletes to make sure they protect their resume, their wealth, and their health. And in Bowe's case mental health especially.

 

A few of those guys never had any reigns and had multiple losses. In Busters case he lost to Ferguson who lost to Bowe in two rounds

Moorer beat a Hoyfield with a bum heart / clogged ventricle. Got dominated by a healthy but faded Holyfield in the rematch.
Buster beat a poorly motivated Tyson. Got creamed in his first defense.
Rahman beat a poorly motivated Lewis. Got pancaked in his first defense.

Bowe beat the best version of Holyfield that ever stepped in the ring. His only loss is to the same Holyfield and its arguable if he would've lost that fight if fan man hadn't crashed into the crowd where his pregnant wife was close by. Holyfield got wiped out savagely in the rubber match.

An under prepared Lewis gets slept by one shot against an ordinary looking Rahman. A much better looking Golota repeatably hits an under prepared and non-motivated Bowe to no effect whatsoever. Unlike Lewis , Bowe sucks it up , fights back and makes the guy quit.
Those guys have nothing at all in common with Bowe. Eddie Futch said Bowe was one of the most complete HWs of all time.

 

Bowe didnt exactly have a long glorious reign either so i dont get what your point is.

Part of it was because he threw his belt in the trash!

Rahman had to immediately defend his belt against ATG 6'5 lewis due to a rematch clause. Douglas had to defend against an undefeated prime holyfield. Moore defended against Foreman who might be one of the hardest hitters who ever lived.

I see Bowe losing his belt if he had to make his 1st defense against those three, especially Lewis.

In their 1st fight, holyfield was fighting brilliantly on the outside but dropped his game plan to brawl with a guy 40 lbs heavier.

Holyfield had health problems and was past his prime and shopworn when bowe beat him the 3rd time.

Come on, buster gained 50 lbs partying and eating and wasnt motivated at all. You cant ignore that and then give tyson an excuse.

Rahman koed lewis fair and square. And his first defense was an immediate rematch with lewis, a top 5 ATG. How many guys do you think are gonna keep their belt defending against an angry motivated lewis?

No disrespect to Futch, but his opinion has nothing to do with what bowe actally accomplished in the ring. Or, in this case, what he failed to accomplish.

Its easy to retire with only 1 loss when u avoid the other belt holders and contenders.