One fighter who wouldn't die after he lost the title: Michael Dokes

Good post.

Dokes was largely forgotten after his title win until Holyfield because, in part, he took off nearly a year after losing to Coetzee and more than 2 1/2 after defeating Cobb.

He was alternatively indlulging his demons or working to overcome them, which happens to a lot of people in a lot of walks of life. But he kept plugging away and got a second bite at the apple and showed his mettle even in losing to Holy and Razor.

Tip of the cap to Dynamite. Always liked watching him fight.

 

A lot of the top heavys from the 1980s continued to fight on for years after their best days were gone. Some of them with a bit of success and others not so much. I applauded Michael Dokes’ efforts coming back from defeat and drug addiction in the late 80s to campaign as a meaningful contender. He was appearing as actively as 6-7 times per year and while his opposition was less than stellar there were a few men he faced who were semi-respectable. His galant losing effort to Holyfield was probably the best heavyweight battle of the 1980s and probably one of the top 20 in heavyweight history period. After the Holyfield loss, Dokes had problems staying in shape and apparently succumbed once again to Cocaine use. I really thought he had a Chance against Ruddock leading up to that fight. I don’t think anyone not even Razor himself predicted that kind of knockout and so early. After that fight he appeared to be done for a while. He came back and finished his days fighting on such networks as USA Tuesday night fights against journeyman and past prime former contenders. The Bowe title match was unearned and never should have happened. But he made one last big payday before slipping off into anonymity.

 

He seemed like a future star when he was young, boxing a televised exhibition with Ali, building up his record and experience level against guys like Jimmy Young, John L. Gardner, and Lynn Ball, throwing roses to the ladies, talking about his cooking, champagne baths... Very charismatic guy.

Then he sort of came across as this cokehead burnout after the first Weaver fight. Even when he was at his post-Weaver best he was still a "former drug user." It's weird how he lost that star factor.

 

Didn't he kill his girlfriend?

 

Bull****!! It was a couple yrs of being coked out before he started to return. And that was because his old trainer finally got thru to him. You paint him as this guy that lost, was determined to suceed again and started working like a maniac to do so. Those of us actually there know otherwise. But once more William the kid read box rec and tries to pretend he was there and play the expert. Sickening!

 

Another guy from recent decades of heavyweights that puts on 10 or 15 pounds and becomes another flatfooted heavyweight. Sure. and the story is he trains "up" and the weight makes no difference.

He was very fortunate in that Cobb rematch. He looked like he was in the heat in Manila and the 14th round. Nope. Just Cobb of all people & the 4th round.

 

Dokes after Coetzee travelled to my native homeland and trained at my
first trainer Gym Bernie Hall old Gym at Goulburn St Sydney. Remember
a newspaper article saying how a local drunk was sledging Dokes and
he shut the **** Up after the local bartender told who Dokes was.

 

Go back to yr pacifier kid. 13 yr olds are full of ****.

 

Dynamite Dokes is one of my favorite heavyweights. His brawl with Holyfield, IMO, is the best heavyweight slugfest in recent times. Buuuuut....does anyone know how he got a shot at Bowe?

 

I pick Michael Dokes as the lost generation champ, I think he could’ve been really special.

 

I agree. Solid chin, solid power, tremendous hand speed, tremendous technical skills...I think he was the best of em all. Looking back, they almost all could've been the best, but maybe it was the drogas or Don King shenanigans.

To me it looked like they wanted to win the championship and then breeze the rest of the way. But Dokes, Spoon and a few others were able to bring their skills into that 90's bunch who ran on power over skills. Holmes even said he came back because the 90's guys weren't as good as the 80's fighters.

 

My speculation - Rock Newman, Bowe's manager, was looking for a stay-busy fight to keep Bowe active and in the gym. Remember, Bowe had won the title in a hard-fought battle less than three months before. What new heavyweight champ gets back in the ring that quickly?

On paper (if you don't look at the weights), Dokes looked like an ideal opponent. He was 24-2 since losing the WBA strap nearly 10 years before, losing only to top-ranked competition in Holyfield and Ruddock. He was 9-0 since the Ruddock bout, and 7-0 in 1992 alone. He'd nearly shut out Jesse Ferguson recently. He was a long time top-10 contender who'd never received a shot at the lineal title. Sure, it was too late (kind of like Cleveland Williams and Zora Folley), but he was getting a shot. So he had a pedigree, a name, and judging by his weight over the past year or so, was not as motivated as he could have been. I don't believe Dokes had any confidence that he could pull this one off, unfortunately. I wish he'd trained harder and given it a good go. Anyway, easy payday for Bowe ($7 million, per Boxrec), safe opponent.

I give Bowe a pass on this one. I think he could have done better in his May defense, as the only thing Ferguson had going for him was the Ray Mercer win.