Herbie was a notorius hometown fighter. The Bowe camp made certain he would have to be the road warrior in the fight. And Herbie's heavyweight opposition was weak. At best. Who was the best of the bunch----Bentt? when did anyone have that guy on their list of top heavies? He was not even on the list of guys to avoid. As for gonzalez, he was not going to beat a live body once he signed a contract. Horrible defense. Trainer's nightmare. All the top heavies would have stopped him & not just Bowe.
But nobody knew that going into the Gonzalez fight. He was the top contender, unbeaten, with quite the amateur record. Even Foreman thought Gonzalez might win the fight. I was there ( a big fan) during that time, so I remember all the pre-fight hype, everything. Bowe's knocking the hell out of Gonzalez was a no-joke win. It's just mystifying how far Riddick fell practically right after that fight...there was the HUGE ko over Evander (his first ever) and then immediate descent into Suckville with Golota. Foreman mentioned toward the end of the fight that Bowe was the heavyweight champion of the world, period. And that was coming from the lineal heavyweight champion of the world, take it however you like.
In all fairness Hide held the WBO which back then as you know NO ONE gave a crap about. I mean people would win it and just dump it if they had a chance at the WBC, WBA or the IBF. It is funny now though since it’s become more legitimate how many people are now considered “former champions “ I mean if it meant something Tyson wouldn’t have been considered Undisputed Champion because Francesco Damiani had just won the WBO title by beating Johnny Duplooy. And NO ONE even hardly noticed. You’ve claimed before in other posts that you lived through the era so you know what I’m talking about. Either way beating Hide and Gonzales were both Big wins at the time. There is an article in an older magazine somewhere that I have where the writer wrote about how Gonzales was definitely going to knock out Riddick Bowe and then end up in a lucrative fight against Mike Tyson and this same writer then predicted Gonzalez would not only beat Bowe but would also beat Tyson. I remember him saying Nothing would stop the Cuban Lion!!
There was a lot of hype with the guy. No doubt. But that was also the last of the exclusive casino deals with a fighter and they lost their shirt on that Gonzales deal. You think he was a godzilla on the rise and to be avoided and a feather in the cap. I do not. Barely better than Audley Harrison. But even after Bowe he sure did not do much. Surely a guy===if he was truly the pedigree you think===should go on and hold his own with the elite in the division. Not only did he not do that, he did not hold his own with more likely the second or third tier contender types.
Bowe at his peak would stop Spinks probably on a late stoppage his jab and size would be the difference.against a sloppy version of Bowe will struggle with Spinks his movement and speed would give him fits .good fight
I agree once the smoke cleared Gonzales was a joke as a pro, his rep was built on his Amateur credentials, his enormous size and nasty demeanor, once he got destroyed by Bowe he pretty much lost to every other good fighter he fought. Witherspoon did a similar job on him shortly after Bowe.
Good post. Completely true, the WBO belt became retroactively legitimate. Still, it is considered legitimate today, and guys like Mercer and Hide et al considered former champs. I can feel that, personally...both were excellent fighters (Mercer probably moreso than Hide). Everything you wrote about Gonzalez is spot on and indicative of that time. Nobody seemed to bad mouth him until he started losing against Bowe. And let's face it, Bowe threw some legitimately terrifying blows against the Cuban Lion. There's good reason lineal champ George called Riddick THE heavyweight champ that day.
Exactly. The main point is, people were already talking about Bowe being shot before that fight. Then he went on to knockout Holy for the first time ever in his career. Even with just those two, post-championship fights Bowe basically established himself as the top heavy in the world at the time (though we can all get disgruntled at this point at the fact that he still didn't sign to fight LL). Bowe wasn't quite the great boxer he was after Holy I (definitely a shame); however, he fully matured as a puncher and imo was unquestionably superior in the division at the time of the Holy ko. I imagine Lewis would have given him a good fight, but I think this was pre-Steward so Bowe would have stopped him imo.
Spinks put up a masterful performance in the Holmes fight in 1985 but did not in the rematch in 1986. Bowe being the taller of the two, would have had Spinks fighting backward with a hard left jab and very brisk combinations. Riddick would have stopped Spinks late, tko11. Because Spinks would soon realize Bowe is not an old Larry Holmes, or any one of his light heavyweight challengers.
If you has seen Gonzalez fight as a pro, you knew. Or should have because he sucked. Amateur records shouldn't be relevant because the difference between pro and amateur should be vast. At that point in time it was still of a decent size. Today, all boxing is amateur boxing.
With Gonzalez, you're pretty much talking about the worst heavyweight ever who was a top am so I can't say I totally agree. Even Audley would've beaten him.
Bowe would TKO him but he'd struggle early on. I'd feel he'd get outboxed and out maneuvered but he'd catch Spinks in round 8 so and that would be that
Bowe with Eddie Futch beats Spinks by the 11th round, by stoppage. Too much tools for Spinks to deal with.
