Golota was battering Bowe in both, and despite being dropped Golota pretty much always looked in control. Bowe was not 100% in the second bout but gave it his all. They are two of my favourite bouts. Golota is one of my favourite characters, but clearly his own worst enemy.
I never said Golata won against Bowe. I just know that in spite of the results, only one guy was getting beat up in those fights. Golata was rightly regarded a match for Lennox Lewis on the basis of what he showed in the Bowe fights. He was still a guy big enough, proven at delivering good punches at elite level. The decline of Bowe was not that aparent before he fought Golata. Bowe was still regarded as elite. Yes Golata was crazy. Yet until Lewis beat him, Golata still looked like the most serious threat to the title. This was directly based on how Bowe was regarded at that time. It’s not like Bowe has credible wins over guys like Razor Ruddock, Tony Tucker, Frank Bruno, Ray Mercer that would make how he fared with Golota seem less shocking. The series with Holyfield eclipsed the fact Bowes greatness was based almost entirely on beating up on a very much smaller guy. yes Gonzalez was a big dude but once Witherspoon replicated that result Bowe produced against the cuban nobody was thinking old Tim was a match for Bowe. Maybe we should have? Either Golota was good or Bowe never was.
In the first fight Bowe came in very overweight at 252lb and noticeably very sluggish and he took a beating for it. His PRIME fighting weight was 235 and if he showed up higher than 240lb and he was noticeably slower than usual. That asswhoopin Golota gave fat daddy Bowe probably gave him brain damage which is why he looked uncoordinated as hell in the second fight even though he trimmed down. As a matter of fact even before these fights he showed signs of brain damage. Golota imo will always give Bowe issues though bur it's clear Bowe was past it, possibly even shot
The lack of coordination was likely mostly being weight drained, & probably dehydrated. The first beating did not help though.
Problem is, Golota doesn’t have a single win he can hang his shingle on to establish himself as an elite fighter. Yes he looked good against Bowe when he wasn’t punching him in the cods, but his best win is probably against a shopworn Tim Witherspoon who had lost 3 of 4. That’s not a lot to make a case.
I agree when it comes to signature wins Golota falls very short. It doesn’t disguise the fact that the timeline shows he really was a threat to the title on the basis of the Bowe fights. You can’t take that away. Only in hindsight does Lewis win over Golota look routine. But when you were there, leading up to that, Golota really was a serious threat. He has Bowe to thank for that status.