Having watched these two behemoths going at it hell-for-leather again, was it ever established exactly WHY Golota decided to 'go south' on so many occasions?! He was winning clearly on each occasion - was he just a complete half wit or was there some rational to his inexplicable behaviour?!atsch:yikes
Getting tired.. Loosing faith.. My guess is he tried not to show how exhausted he really was and decided to loose via DQ rather than by TKO cause it looks better in public's eyes. In both fights.
Surely Bowe was the more knackered of the two - or maybe Golota really was just running on empty. I dunno.....what a jackass!:tired
nah , he was just angry and pissed ,expecially in the 2nd fight, he wanted to hurt bowe in any possible way, imo it was his revenge for the 1st bout "afterparty"
i think the answer was very smartly and aptly articulated in hbo's 'legendary nights' program about the first fight and its bizarre second act replay. i am not quoting the program exactly, but kind of paraphrasing because i am very sure i have been punched in the head far too many times to have anything close to automatic recall of a program i haven't seen in about a year...jim lampley, who narrates the series, reminds us that golota, despite his clean-cut, great white hope appearance and his tendency to seem kind of shyly and simply nice, was an hardened, violent criminal in poland and the fear of going away for a long stretch in prison over some night club beatdown business, he moved to the united states to avoid or delay prosecution. next thing you know he fell back into boxing and white america was falling in love with him as a counterpoint to guys like riddick bowe who were very much the products and heroes of urban landscapes that made suburban people nervous and deposed. golota's popularity was a sad and awful indication of the rotten, longering racism that filled the space between america's ethnic, racial, political and economic gaps. sadly, it was also downgraded to an afterthought that golota could actually fight and was a really strong guy with excellent technical skills. but, as lampley points out, despite all the attention and talent, golota had a real darkness in him that he simply could not control in moments of extremity (good or bad extremes). accordingly, he was prone to freak outs in the ring when he was in trouble AND when he was on the verge of doing something extraordinary. before the second fight, golota was warned by referee eddie cotton and by the comission overseer that any such shenanigans as went down in the first fight would not be tolerated...golota defiantly basically just snarled at them, i'll do whatever i have to to beat him down. the rest is history. a waste of the talent...sadly ironic that riddick bowe, another hugely misspent fighter who could have been really something special was the other half of this absurd and awful story.
Bowe wasted his career as well. Nobody really cares whether he would have lost to Lewis or not (he would have IMO) but at least he could have said he stepped up to the plate. As it was, he effectively vacated the undisputed title and went after the meaningless WBO trinket atsch
The fact is that Golota is the best fighter ever who was not an official champion its just sad.. btw the point that he was a criminal or something in poland is not so obvious he ddidnt really run from the justice thats just not the case he's really nice often and has a greate sense of humour , he just couldnt handle the pressure
While I'd never argue the benefits there for the taking by a "great white hope" HW, I think you're overplaying it in this case. Golota had no significant wins going into the Bowe fight and was considered a potentially easy touch with a padded record by Bowe's camp (as described in Legendary Nights). In other words, he had not been embraced as a GWH as nobody beyond the Poles were that aware of him. Certainly Holmes/Cooney was "sad and awful" from a race perspective, but not Golota's situation. By the time he'd proved himself good enough to take seriously, he'd already blown any "suburban goodwill" he might have had. To the original question... yep, just flat out inexplicable behaviour by one of the sport's more unstable entities.
I think the correct answer to this is Golota's own explanation. He was trying to retaliate for fouls from Bowe's side, mainly punches behind the head. Notice on one occasion in their second fight, Bowe hits Golota behind the head and Golota complains to Eddie Cotton about this but he doesnt interfere, next thing Golota does is punch Bowe in the nuts.
Psychological issues. Bowe was being destroyed. I just don't see him doing it cause he was getting tired or discouraged for any particular reason. He had Bowe's number.