What if golota had a third shot for the title (wbo) by fighting Brewster? I personally think this older golota after some years off, was better- mannered in the ring, he learned to behave. That being said he came up short twice to the big 2 out of 3 champions, losing to John Ruiz, correct me if I'm wrong- splitting a draw with Chris Byrd. Don't even get me started about what would've been with Lewis, we've all seen that before! The point I'm trying to make is that even with all the fouling and roughhouse tactics thrown at him by Johnny and Stoney, he actually never lost his cool. I can't really remember the Byrd fight though... I must say, Lamon was a decent hw, power, willpower, chin, good shape, etc. BUT Andrew was Andrew, a freak of nature- 6 4 240 lbs, blend of speed and power. And like I said he had good behaviour, sounded super grounded in the post fight interview after fighting jawny. I think golota takes the cake.
The thread may still be salvageable by asking how the Golota who fought Bowe would do against Brewster. Still, this is a great natural experiment. Notice how widely your prediction of a historical fight that already happened diverges from the actual result. You even had good reasons for your pick! And those guys shared an era. Multiply the difficulty for any fight across eras.
Who did Lamon fight after this? When did he fall off/ how long was his run? Milk and Honey lol, behind Dk's cheque book lol.
He beat Luan Krasniqi and then lost a decision in a great fight to Sergei Liakhovich. He had poor defense and took a bad beating in his war with Liakhovich. He suffered a detached retina and took god knows how many right hands to the body. Over and over again, Liakovich would lead with a right hand to the body, and seemingly never missed.
I have very fond memories of the Brewster-Golota card. I attended it with an old friend. We had a great time. It was one of the few shows that would've been far more memorable if it had taken place now, when they show all the fights on a card from beginning to end, as opposed to how HBO tended to do it back then by showing a replay of a PPV main event from the week before and one live fight. I thought Golota won both the Byrd and Ruiz fights. He should've entered the ring against Brewster with both the WBA and IBF belts over his shoulder. All of Byrd's title defenses were controversial decisions. The Golota draw verdict was the most controversial, to me. Then Golota fought Ruiz for his WBA belt, floored Ruiz twice, had Ruiz's trainer so irate he got tossed from ringside and spent the rest of the night in the dressing room. And they still didn't give Golota the decision. I was convinced MSG (which hosted the Byrd and Ruiz fights) and its officials had it "in" for Golota and was intent on punishing him for the riot after Bowe-Golota 1. They caught a lot of flack for that televised riot and lack of police to control the situation. Had I been a part of Golota's team, I'd have advised he never go back there. The MSG brass wasn't exactly thrilled to have him return. As for Brewster, he had one of the most exciting heavyweight title reigns in history. Getting off the floor to stop Wlad for the title, engaging in an all-time great title fight with Liakhovich, and sandwiched between them the Golota blowout and the win over Krasniqi when the Germans were all set to crown Krasniqi the champ on Max Schmeling's 100th birthday, those were fights I'll never forget. Lamon should've won three of the four heavyweight titles the night he stopped Golota. When people dismiss "bad scoring" and "bad television production" around fights, I always think about Golota-Brewster. Golota fought three champions in a row, and that fight with Brewster should've been for nearly all the belts. But judges leading up to that fight BLEW it, so it wasn't. The fighters had done their part, but judges cost us a three-fight unification. And that whole card was great ... but HBO chose to televise a replay of Wright-Trinidad (which was 12 boring rounds of brutal dullness) instead of a stellar card that went on for hours and hours. By the time Golota and Brewster entered the ring, my friend and I were so exhausted from cheering and drinking we were nearly ready to call it a night. So we weren't mad at all that the main event lasted about a minute. It was a great way to end a wild night (although I wish Golota won). 20,000 screaming African American and Polish fans packed inside the United Center in Chicago. Polish flags waving everywhere. The Alejandro Garcia-Roshii Wells light middleweight title fight was great. Tomasz Adamek-Paul Briggs was a classic, brilliant 12-round vacant light heavy title fight. The Guillermo Jones-Kelvin Davis battle between two former cruiserweight champs was a beatdown. And Brewster-Golota nearly lifted the roof off the place. I never saw people angrier when they were leaving an arena. It was wild. But if you just watched that on HBO that Saturday night, all you saw was a terrible first hour featuring a dull as toast Trinidad-Wright replay and one of the shortest main events HBO ever televised. Totally forgettable TV production ... one of the great live fight cards I ever attended. Just electric.
Byrd, Ruiz, Brewster. They all likely lose to a pre-accident Golota who still had that elite jab of his. Sadly, he became more of a professional only after he lost his left hand.
I remember when somebody tentatively picked Ron Lyle to beat Ernie shavers on this forum, and we of course congratulated them on their prediction. It happens. I guess that you meant Brewster in his prime, vs Golota as he was in the Bowe fights? That might still be an interesting question.
