Would a prime Golota...

The Golota of the second Bowe fight would be a tough fight for anybody in history, this is offset of course by his tendancy to go off the ****ing reservation at any given moment.

 

Golata would be a tough test for any heaveyweight.

 

A mentally stabled Golota, along with his skills that he showed in the Bowe I and Bowe II fights, would be an unstoppable force. He would be a big thread to fighters.

 

In terms of skill and speed, he is one of the best superheavyweights i've ever seen. Chin and heart aside, the only thing he lacked was big one-punch power. Other than that, he could do it all. Bowe was past his prime, but i think something overlooked is that he made Bowe look a lot worse than he was. In his fight before that, he was good enough to stop Holyfield, in the 8th. So much for his stamina problem.. Holyfield was a different story of course. But Riddick was still swinging hard until the end. Golota basically retired him with those two beatings, particularly the last one. One of the most brutal modern heavyweight fights.

 

I agree. Golota moved well -he pivoted and used angles, went to the body, varied his offense... I was sitting there watching it with disbelief at the level of skill; thinking twice about whether John Paul II was the best thing to come out of Poland in the last 50 years. And then he had a nervous breakdown. Since then Golota is way behind Ivan Putski.

I suspect that had Golota handled his demons better, he would have beaten Bowe -and Holyfield- at their best. I think that he had problems with shock troops like Lewis could be, Tyson, and such.

 

Yeah, apart from chin and heart, all he lacked was power.
:rofl

 

On an unrelated note, that's one hell of a Muskee or Northern in your avator.

Yours?

 

I don't know. The concencus on this thread seems to be that Golata was at his best in both the Riddick Bowe fights. Less than one year after giving Bowe a beating for the second time, he was smoked in one round by Lennox Lewis, therefore I can't say that a prime Golata would have been " hell " for everybody. But, I do agree that he would have caused a lot of fighters plenty of problems.

 

good observations.

Word is that Golota was stomping guys in sparring. No one could deal with him. When he was relaxed and comfortable he was 10 times the fighter you saw on TV.

 

The guy lost every big fight he was involved in, and he was involved in several. That's all we need to know.

I'll give him this - he was robbed against Ruiz. And if I'm generous I'll give him the Byrd fight too.

Just to recap ....
He ****ed it up badly twice against Bowe, then got iced by Lewis in 1 round, then quit in his next big fight against Michael Grant, and quit against Tyson.
Eventually, when creampuff tree-fairy "champions" like Ruiz and Byrd are ruling the roost, he pulls out a few results, gets jobbed. Then the mighty Lamon Brewster ices him in 1 round.

Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself. It's the Bowe fights version we are looking at. Yeah, he could give all the greats hell if he catches them in the balls like that. No man would have an easy time taking power shots to the nut sack.
Some guys would knock him out before he gets the chance. Others would have to settle for a DQ win and a blackened set of balls. OUCH !