Andrew Golota vs Ridick Bowe VS Andrew Golota vs Lennox Lewis

were it not for him being a mental case, golota could have been a very good champion. in both fights with bowe, even with out the vasectomy shots, he dominated him. that was golota at his best. why he just went mental and froze against lewis, who knows? i do believe that lewis would have still won, but the golota of the bowe fights would have made it MUCH more exciting!

 

Golota allowed a doctor to inject lidocaine to mitigate knee pain he had before the fight. After the bout he had seizure and almost died (no pulse and breath for half a minute or so.)

He quite clearly wasn't himself in the fight. For the record, Chris Byrd considered the fight a 50/50.

 

remember the lidocain but forgot about the near death. yeah, he most definitely was NOT himself that night. i think lewis would still have won, but it would have been a war if the golota of the bowe fights showed up.
he WALKED to the arena. imagine, you are waiting to cross the street and some huge white guy next to you starts talking. "hey! you like boxing? well, i will be fighting for the heavy weight title in an hour. hope you watch it!"

 

Golota was a decent fighter but one that caught Bowe at the tale end of his career and when he was likely already suffering from CTE. Bowe at that point had finished his brutal trilogy against Holyfield and was pretty much done. Listen to Bowe talk today and realize the two Golota fights were his last two fights. The damage was already done at that point.

I don't believe for a second that Golota ever would have ever beaten Lewis outside of landing a lucky punch and a prime Bowe would have beaten Golota as well.

 

I sympathize with this strongly. Golota would have been smacked the crap out of by 1992 Bowe for sure.

I do remember quite a few knowledgeable people whom believed Golota just might knock Lewis silly at the time of their fight, based solely on the way-past-it Bowe fights.