First fight undeprepared second fight rapid weightlloss in short period of time. Basically the wars with Holyfield and blowing up between fights caught up with him.
To be fair, if we are looking for excuses and explanations, I think Bowes personal life went into free fall as well. There are probably a lot of other reasonable factors. Golota was also quite good against Bowe. He was a good enough fighter himself.
I was positive Golota would end up champ and was as shocked as anyone when he got clobbered by Lewis. I actually thought he had a good chance.
Me too. Anybody who says they could have forecast the cool, driven display Lewis delivered there is an absolute liar. Once the sands of time have changed the perception of the moment, we can say Lewis was always better than Golata and that Bowe must have declined, but you could not say that until it happened. Up until Lewis crushed him. If people rate Bowe as a great fighter then I think Lewis deserves more credit for the Golota win. if they don’t rate the win Lewis had over golata and therefore believe Tyson also beat an ordinary fighter, then they must believe Bowe was never good to start with. You can’t have it both ways. either Golata was good or Bowe never was.
I believe he was in a car crash, sometime after this fight which effected him severely, and caused the problems you've mentioned.
Stylistically Golota was a bad match up Bowe & would always have struggled with him regardless. Bowe had to push a fight to be effective & was often troubled with guys who presented him with motion, he was good with Holyfield whenever Evander stood in front of him & looked to trade but move & attack using lateral movement he would struggle. It's basically why the fight with Lennox Lewis was never made, as style's often determine the outcome when two guys are of similar ability.
Golota was better than people give him credit for. I still think if he could have kept his head together he'd have been a champ for a while.
He had no defense for overhand rights due to his upright posture, and didn't have the best stamina either. It would've taken careful matchmaking to keep him as champ. Other than the guys who did beat him, he'd be vulnerable to getting caught by someone like Rahman, McCall, Kirk Johnson, Mercer or Maskaev. And someone like Purrity, Jimmy Thunder, Barret or Maurice Harris might even turn the trick.
Good point. Golota was better at weaving under hooks than the overhand. Still, I thought he showed some sweet skills vs Bowe.
He had skills, but didn’t totally adapt to the pros. He had a little bit of a Jorge Luis Gonzalez thing going.
I agree Golota fought well aside from the the low blows. But especially in the second fight we were witnessing a used up Bowe. Some fighters lose it all at once.
After the first fight with Bowe, Golata momentarily rated within the top 3 of that era. Some of that Bowe decline was rightly attributed to Golata and rightly so up until his fight with Lewis. I have said it before and I will say it again. If you rate Bowe as a great fighter then you must credit Lewis’s win over Golota as one of his greatest wins.
But Golata did not win against Bowe...............not in TWO tries...dem are the facts......Golata went low in both fights to get out of the fight aka quit job...........that was the only way to get Bowe off him while landing his best yet Bowe kept on coming.....no Golata low blows and Bowe stops him or Golata quits........another absolute fact, Golata quit indeed.......twice.