Rock Newman Appreciation Thread

Honestly I'm not too well educated on Newman, since Bowe's heyday came when I was a kid. I know that a lot of people found him to be a loudmouth but it seems like he was a pitbull when it came to looking after his client. That said...

personally, the only feelings I have on Rock are that he's one of the best and most informative participants in the HBO Legendary Nights series. I remember how he bluntly discussed Bowe's compulsive overeating, speaking with a mixture of objective and compassion.

 

I would say he failed when he tried to make Riddick Bowe an Ali like political figure.

 

I was in Reno before the 2nd Holyfield fight. Got to see Big Daddy Bowe (newly minted heavyweight champ) skipping rope to Kool Moe Dee's ''How do you like me now?'
To a boxing fan that was a cool moment. Didn't expect it.
Couple of hours later I was walking down a corridor near the back of the hotel and I saw Rock Newman and about 4 other guys (1 was probably Bowe) and Newman gave me the nastiest Mad Dog look as I was walking by...but they didn't kick my ass so for that I am eternally grateful. Rock Newman is a great humanitarian.

 

Ali had a cause he believed in. Bowe's cause was keep me away from that English guy and where's the donuts?

 

Ehhh. Not a fan of Newman.

 

He came up with the nickname Goofi for Lance Whitaker. There is little more that needs to be said.

 

He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

I well remember the choke hold he put on Elijah Tillery to allow his man Riddick to slug ET and flip him over the ropes.

And the image of him stepping over a writhing on the canvas Riddick Bowe (whose testicles were located around his ear lobes at that point) to get in Andrew Golota’s face was inspiring.

Such class and devotion towards his fighter has only been matched by Norman “Stoney” Stone in recent years.

Respect.

 

Could've done better, Lewis vs Bowe would've be contender for top 10 fights ever

 

He sure did a good job with the guy. At a time when not many were interested in handling him. But the former disc jockey took on the sport of boxing and made some large commitments to make certain of the Bowe development. He certainly could have saved a lot of money with a different trainer than Futch. especially early on in those developmental years when Newman had to do things like sell his own car to further the Bowe career. Now that dedication sure paid off in the long run.

But think of Bowe with a manager handling 10 other guys and someone other than Eddie training him. A penny pincher. how far does Bowe go then? So I thought Newman did as good of a job as say Soyatovich did with Norris.

 

A fight between their managers, Newman against Fran Maloney would have been just as compelling.

 

Most definitely, Fran was a best in her prime. lol

 

There is more to be said. He had Goofi walk to the ring holding hands with a bunch of kids.

 

I think Rock had a reasonably solid plan for Riddick Bowe. As a fresh pro, Bowe appeared on cable regularly. A couple of years in he matched Bowe against not really dangerous anymore names like Pinklon Thomas and Tyrell Biggs, as well as against guys who could test him a bit like Tony Tubbs, Bruce Seldon, and Bert Cooper (though the latter two didn't). He then got Bowe a cool $5 million and a shot at legitimate champ Evander Holyfield.

In retrospect, the WBC belt-trashing incident was a mistake in which Newman and Bowe overestimated the power they had as champ, but I like the way Newman tried to stand up to the WBC (as I've never been a fan of the sanctioning bodies).

As champion, Newman had Bowe in the ring less than three months after winning the title. Sure, Michael Dokes was horrible at that point, but on paper it looked like a reasonable first defense against a decent name who was on a nine-fight winning streak (including wins over perennial trial-horse Jose Ribalta and next Bowe victim Jesse Ferguson). The next bout was supposed to be against one-beaten solid contender Ray Mercer, but Ferguson upset the apple cart on that one. It was a no-win situation for Bowe, in a way - does he go against journeyman Ferguson, who was losing as much as he was winning, or does he go against Mercer despite Mercer's loss (a la Ali-Lyle)? In hindsight, Mercer seems like the better choice, but so it goes. Point is, Newman was keeping Bowe busy and active.

That's the key in managing someone prone to laziness and overeating like Riddick Bowe - keeping him busy and active. That six months off hurt him in the Holyfield rematch. Bowe was fine if he fought every three to five months, as he did in his comeback (against four undefeated prospects / rising stars) through Holyfield III. But then he took 8 months off between Holyfield and (another undefeated prospect) Golota, which proved to be disastrous.

For someone who wasn't a boxing lifer, Newman had mostly good strategies for Riddick Bowe. He wasn't always the nicest, most humble guy around, but I think he tried to do Bowe right for the most part. Can you imagine if Bowe was one of Don King's 80's heavyweights?

Anybody ever catch Newman's Washington DC-area PBS talk show? I think it's still on the air.

 

It's interesting to compare and contrast Rock Newman's management strategies with Bowe to Rappaport & Jones' strategies with Cooney. I think Cooney's career trajectory was better for Gerry Cooney - presumably wealthy and with his faculties intact - but Bowe's was better for boxing fans. We know what Bowe was capable of. He pretty much reached his potential and did all he could. Whereas with Cooney we have all kinds of unanswered questions. But Cooney has his health.