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

Interesting...where is a consensus rating of Bowe? Where do you rate him and what is the separation?

I find Bowe to be rated fairly in the 15-20 range generally. I think he was expected to be so great (by myself as well), that those expectation surpassed reality.

Not sure I see him as an over/under rated guy

 

His best claim to fame was fighting a smaller guy and beating him, but other guys beat Evander also. He was overrated in the sense he is Hall of Fame.

 

I've also thought Bowe is overrated, for a long time. I don't think he was as shot going into the Golota fights as people think. To me he looks a lot like the fighter I saw before - a bit worse, maybe, but not a finished fighter by any means. Golota beat him from pillar to post, while shipping a considerable amount of damage himself. I don't think I ever saw Golota look as sharp again, and it's clear (to me) that while Golota ended Bowe's career, Bowe likewise took Golota's edge off him and pounded it flat.

 

I really think his comeback in 2000's was for money only. Judging by his physique he probably thought he could fight a couple of cans and get a title shot based his name.

 

Bowe had his career ruined by his love for cookies.

 

He should've swallowed his pride and fought Lewis

 

Yet he ducked every top puncher in the division besides a smaller bloke (who beat him). And ducked Lewis as well

 

With respects to the Golota fight, Bowe fought Golota as a tune up while Lewis fought Ray Mercer as tune up fight. Neither of those tune ups did much to enhance either fighters reputation. Both Bowe and Lewis were both looking to either face each other in late 1996 or position themselves to get a superfight against Mike Tyson.

Bowe had every reason to get an immediate rematch against Golota; his career was on the line and he needed as much leverage as he could in future negations.

Looking back he should have opted to take on Ray Mercer instead of a Golota rematch; he could have spun it that he doesn't want to give Golota another opportunity and that nobody should be rewarded for fighting dirty. Mercer would have been a more winnable fight (stylistically) and had he beaten Mercer (who wasn't known for his consistency) it would have extended his career. He probably would have ended up losing to Tyson or Lewis at that point but he would have at least gotten paid handsomely for the effort.

 

Lennox beat Vitali TKO 6 when he was barely 80 % why bother with a rematch. Wlad went AWOL didnt want to know Ike Ibeabuchi was otherwise engaged & unavailable thanks to a lying Vegas hooker. He had no one worthy of training for

 

Didnt Futch leave a while befor this fight due to lack of propper training habits

 

of course, there was something wrong with him. If he had retrained in another career he'd have resovled a lot of his issues. One of peoples failing is that they class themselves as one thing and stick with it, regarding anything else they do as satellite to what defines their core... which is a serious pitfall for an athlete. Life is about change.

 

"Intervened and stopped him from fighting."

………….I like that. So very simple. Not a stitch of basis in reality, but it's a nice thought.