Should Riddick Bowe have swallowed his pride and retired after Gollata 1?

Authentic great fighters always take the immediate rematch.

 

They could only line him up against softies for so long. Probably should have just taken the money and ran at that point. A B-level talent ended his career at 28.

 

Unlike Lewis right? lol

 

well he wanted to prove he was better than golota and found out he wasnt. fighters have been going out on their shields since the invention of boxing, only recently have intermittent retirements and other mayweather-esque actions become fashionable. Bowe probably shouldnt have come back in the 2000s, couldnt have done him any good. He was getting wobbled by bums

 

Holyfield was not a softie but he was a much smaller fighter, who had a very bad night on which he fought the wrong fight and he also happened to be a stylistic match made in heaven for bowe

 

Softies

Newman tried to get Tommy Morrison and George Foreman.

They matched him with undefeated Herby Hide who came into the fight with a 100 % rate.
They matched him with feared undefeated Gonalez who also had a 100% stopping rate going in.

And they then matched him with prime undefeated top contender Golota , who he fought and beat twice.

 

Bowe could tell himself he was under prepared etc after the first fight. I wouldn't say that first fight looked as devastating as the 2nd one, you could be forgiven for thinking he would do better in a rematch. but he was completely shot from the start of the rematch. its weird that his team let him fight in that state, he looked drained and his legs were gone from round one. How did he think he was going to win like that, delusional. it reminded me of Ali v Holmes, Bowe looked ill in there. In no way did he resemble the Bowe that fought Holyfield in that first fight, a scary transformation.

that rematch is one of the most disturbing fights I have watched, a fighter too brave for his own good, needing to be saved from himself. Its unbelievable Bowe did some damage to Golota and nearly won before the fouling. That whole thing was a real shame for Riddick, I was never an expert on the man, I couldn't work out if it was his bad work ethic that caused his end or if he was simply shot at a young age. I guess Futch left him for a reason, was it that he couldn't get through to Bowe or that he knew he had nothing left?

 

Do you know boxing? Clearly that is a rhetorical question. No fighter ruined Bowe. He ruined himself by gaining tons of weight and then losing it quickly. According to neurologist when you dehydrate yourself to lose weight quickly you lose fluid around your brain. Well clearly in boxing that isn't a good idea. So even in sparring he was being hit with less fluid around his brain. That ruined him.

Fighting 205 pound Holyfiled didn't ruin him. No matter who he fought doing what he did to his body he would of been destroyed.

But to answer the question to the thread if he knew he didn't have it anymore he should of retired before the Golota fight. He wouldn't be in the shape he is in today.

 

Sloppy defense, a tendency to abort smart fight plans and poor physical preparation largely led to his demise. However, plenty of heavies have had that recipe and lasted longer than 28. I would suggest he might have been a bit fragile, too.

On the converse, how much do people think was taken out of Golota in these two fights?

 

i think the rematch was the time to retire. i watched both recently and bowe was in better shape and fighting better, but it didn't help him much.

 

long term punch resistance is def in genetics and bowe def deteriorated fast.

was he known for gym wars?

 

he should have retired before the first golota fight. he was already toast by then.

 

The problem was how do you convince a former heavyweight champion who was just 28/29 years old with just one official loss on his record that he was essentially a shot fighter? Also bearing in mind that just prior to the fight against Golota, Bowe has just beaten his former longtime amateur rival, Jorge Luis Gonzalez in a high profile fight and then became the first fighter to KO Evander Holyfield, do you really think Bowe would have believed anyone telling him after the Golota fight that his best days were behind him and he should retire?