I agree that if it's in the olympics, they should be really careful about not stopping it too early or, obviously, too late. There's A LOT at stake in a gold medal bout in terms of professional contracts and future earnings. The gold got Rademacher a shortcut to a title shot. Leon Spinks, too. It got Ali and Frazier big time management straight out of the gate. Look at the 1984 olympians turning pro on the prime time tv extravaganza in November. Who was on TV? The gold medal winners: Breland, Whitaker, Taylor, Biggs. Who wasn't on TV? Silver medalist Virgil Hill. Okay, bronze winner Holyfield was on, but due to his being jobbed in the olympics, he had enough fame to join the gold medal winners. I was in the Navy in 1988, so I don't know if Riddick Bowe's debut (on the Camacho-Mancini card) was televised or not. I tend to think not. Or maybe highlights were in a "this also happened tonight" segment. But I'm pretty sure Lennox Lewis' debut was televised in the UK. Gold shines brightest.
Way premature. Bowe was dancing and waving his arms, and he most certainly knew where the hell he was...I'd watch the ending again, looks fine to me. He looks to his corner (as every fighter does when given any kind of break) and is quite aware of everything. No offense to anybody, but that ref sucked so bad the announcers each mentioned it earlier in the fight.
i am cognizant of the fact that amateur standards are different, but this was bad even for an amateur fight IMO.
Yeah, it was a slightly premature stoppage imo. Politics might have played a part. The Olympics, political decisions, robberies in boxing bouts, par for the course.
The ref didn't look like he was initially stopping it...and all of a sudden does, almost like he remembered his early morning talk with the mafia boss about swimming with the fishes.
Agreed. Not sure what Lufcrazy is talking about. It was a bad stoppage, even by amateur standards. Sometimes the boxing media formulates an opinion and fans latch on to it. In this case they ( the media ) mocked Bowe, and said he had no heart. What the heck? He was wiling to fight on and showed plenty of heart as a pro.
They were protecting Lewis and couldnt wait for a bogus opportunity to stop it. Olympic boxing has hated the Americans for decades.
I thought it was ridiculously premature and the mileage Lewis got out of it was even more ridiculous.
Good post mate. It's 2 different sports and people really don't seem to understand the officiating. Boxers are simply put in the same danger in the amateurs to protect their own health. In the pros, sure we let them go life and death, but at least they're getting paid for it
Bowe came out on top during the Golota fights by surviving being punched in the family jewels enough times for Golota to be disqualified. I'm not really sure that one counts...
Harsh stoppage. Bowe himself landed a big uppercut on Lewis in Round 1. Plus it would've been epic to see Lewis drop him. The ref saved Bowe from a humiliation which would've haunted him forever. He would've had to face Lewis as a pro simply for redemption.
I'll never forget the mystified sound of the announcers' voices. Bowe had his hands up in the air, bouncing...he was more than ready to go. Lewis landed some great shots, but Bowe was far from incapacitated. A bad stoppage...even more frustrating in light of the professional fracas afterward
