Bowe v witherspoon, lewis, tyson and bonecrusher that bruno fought?

No, I don't, but there are instances out there, and Bowe is one of them.

You guys are defending/forgiving Bowe for robbing us of one of the ATG match ups, I can't do that, I won't do that.

 

Oh no, I have slammed him and Rock Newman countless numbers of times for not living up to their responsibility to give boxing one of the most important title defenses in history.. In fact, they blatantly broke a contract that was legal and binding in order to do it. My only thing though is that I don't think was necessarily due to BOWE having cold feet. The reasons aren't really important.

 

the first bowe holyfield fight was epic but nobody was sold on evander then. I credit bowe for that one fight. the second fight was tame by comparison, bowe was not in good shape and let himself down, the fan man delay may have saved him from a stopage defeat since ridick was fading at that point. The 3rd fight was a good fight to watch but something was wrong with evander he had an athsma attack or something when bowe got up, even so at that time neither were considered the best heavyweight in the world when it happened.
as for bowe being scared of lewis i think thats crazy. It was more an example of when somethings on the back burner too long you end up over cooking the turkey. The feast was ruined.
the plan was two fold. Newman wanted lewis to pick a belt out of the garbage so that bowe could humiliate him for doing so and secondly build a bigger showdown for a unification match - when it suited them ie after they cashed in on enough lower risk wins. Remember bowe alreay had that "i beat the man who beat the man" line polished so that he could demand more money when they met if both were champions. whilst they kept lewis on the back burner they both eneded up losing and the timing never was right after that to stage it.

 

Holyfield claimed he had contracted Hepatitis A prior to the fight which meant he could be easily fatigued which may explain his sudden KO having been in such a strong position, but who knows for sure.

 

Didn't the fan man spoil Bowes rally? Wasn't it Bowe who was gaining the momentum at that point?

 

No, I will have to review it but I remember thinking bowes mouth was hanging open like a grounded fish. riddick was getting outjabbed, was cut, tired and backing up before fanman. the break in the fight was quite long and meant holly had to do it all over again and evender seemd to tire second time around after bowe recovered.

 

i couldnt resist. decide for yourselves folks. I thought bowe was losing in the rounds before fanman.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ePVfmE7P9Q[/ame]

 

Yeah as I thought the last minute minute and a half of the 6th Bowe seemed to get to Holyfield and pick it up a little. He started off doing pretty well again before the fan man. Bowe looked gassed but so did Holyfield a bit.

 

It may have been about 10 punches or so, but Morrison was already out cold about halfway through the combo, which is precisely what made it so dramatic. Morrison has been down a lot in his career, but no one else ever knocked him out like that, before or afterward. His other stoppage losses to Lewis and Bentt were the result of repeated KDs, all of which he rose fairly quickly from (including the final ones).

Claiming what another fighter "probably would've" doesn't prove anything. The fact remains it was Mercer whose uppercut was hard enough to finish the guy with one shot while Mathis uppercutted guys all night long all through his career and never KO'd anyone noteworthy.

 

That and lets face it---how many other heavies have the balance to even throw a left uppercut? Let alone a picture perfect fight ender.

 

I don't remember a head butt or any major controversy, but Damiani was winning the fight when it was stopped, and from my memory looked pretty good doing it. It was the first fight to introduce Damiani to the American media and there was talk of him possibly fighting Tyson afterward.

 

I dont buy that the Olympics defeat was much of an embarrassment or even heavily imprinted in the consciousness of all the fans who wanted Bowe-Lewis in '93. It was a minor footnote and an extra piece that could be used to build up the fight, but it wasn't particularly relevant. And it was strictly an amateur stoppage, not a crushing or devastating defeat. That's partly why I find it hard to believe Bowe was seriously scared of Lewis - he'd fought him before and been shook a bit but nothing serious. I think Bowe had been rocked worse than that before and since, and wasn't seriously spooked by that.

And if he did take it personally (and he certainly seemed to dislike Lewis) then maybe his "revenge" was to deny Lewis the professional glory or chance at glory at that time. If anything that makes more sense. A bit like Joe Frazier taking pleasure in keeping Ali on hold for a rematch ..... kind of saying "I'm the champion now. You need me, I dont need you. You'll get your chance if and when I decide"

Where was Bowe's pride, you ask. Well, like I said it was only Lennox Lewis and a very few others who were really highlighting the issue as a mark against Bowe, and most of his headlines were positive.
Truth is, the issue didn't last long enough for the pressure to really build on Bowe. Yes, he should have been fighting Lewis, but boxing had seen this kind of thing many times before and the champion usually gave in to public demand within 18 months or so, if his rival kept his profile up. It was normal to duck guys, milk the title, build up the big fights. Michael Spinks was perceived as running from Tyson for 18 months, Frazier denying Ali a rematch for almost 2 years, Foreman turned down offers to fight Ali for 18 months, Max Schmeling delayed two years to rematch Jack Sharkey. Schmeling in turn was denied his shot at Jimmy Braddock and had to wait a year into Louis's reign to get his shot (while Louis fought 3 lesser-qualified challengers).
I know what you mean about "pride", but when Bowe went along with that decision I doubt he thought it was going to end up like it did.

 

Yeah, and then Lennox Lewis tried to get Mike Tyson to fight him again :shock: - as if that would represent "a competitive challenge" !
And when Tyson refused to honour that agreement, Lewis went and made KIRK JOHNSON his next opponent !

 

No, I dont defend Bowe and Newman for ducking Lewis. It was a blatant duck. But I understand it was normal business/politics of boxing.
At the end of the day Bowe's the one who's reputation and resume suffers because of it, and his legacy suffers too.

I just dont see the need to totally dismiss Bowe's worth as a fighter because of it, or to build the whole affair into something beyond what it was . Just as with Jack Dempsey and the ducking of Harry Wills (which was a far more serious and prolonged affair)- the avoidance in undeniable, but that doesn't mean we should look at the fighter and his whole career in a negative light.

 

It wasn't just Lewis though. The only big name on that opponent list is Holyfield. That's it. And nobody was of the opinion that Evander was going to have any kind of lengthy title run.

Okay, subtract Lewis. What other up and comers were around during Bowe's time? Morrison always wanted the guy and said it was easy in sparring to land his left hook on the guy. Ruddock. Mercer. You had Sanders---not Coetzer who was not looked at as a threat whatsoever and who came in with a win over Duplooy as credentials. Tua. Ibeabuchi perhaps. Moorer. Golata was hardly percieved as any sort of can't miss guy and looked mediocre against Nicholson and Pouha in his previous bouts going into the Bowe fight.

Gonzalez was hardly looked at as diamond can't miss type guy and had serious defensive flaws and really never showed much improvement during his career. Donald was a novice fighter when he fought Bowe & was not expected to last whatsoever. The only good shot Bowe landed in that match was the sucker shot at the press conference. Hide was a former cruiser that had recently moved up in wieght but had that 11 fights to his credit Bentt scalp.

So we didn't see those fights. what did we get instead? a washed up Dokes? did you know anyone picking the guy to win? He was a huge underdog and that guy was a corpse after his recent beatings. Jesse Ferguson? All those guys out there and we get Jesse Ferguson?

And just what other guy out there did Golata ever look that good against? Every other fight the guy had was a struggle and back and forth fight and he pretty much dominates Bowe and cannot miss a punch against the guy.

The problem with cutting slack to the path of least resistance guys is that it usually happens throughout their careers and not just a brief amount of time. And since we the fans pay for everything, we do have a right to expect the best for our money.