1996. Andrew Golota vs Riddick Bowe II

Goddam, the foul pole had it in the bag (twice!) but, alas, he's as dumb as a brick so it was not to be. I hated Bowe so I was enjoying every minute of it.

Later on I heard Bowe sum up his career as follows: "Ya'know, if I saw some cake, then I'ma have me some cake. I like cakes" I was like, yeah, Riddick, I know. I swear If I would have closed my eyes I wouldn't have been able to tell if it was him or Yogi Bear speakin'.

You know in training camp Duva put trunks on a heavy bag to teach the foul pole how not to go low. LOL. That marked the first time I had seen trunks on an inanimate object that wasn't a mannequin. Quite a sight. I remember him telling Golota not to go to the body anymore during the bout but the foul pole just wouldn't listen. What a pity.

 

It was another strange thing by Golota. At this moment Bowe looked ready to go, and if not the ropes he would probably go down again eventually. But the headbutt was so visible the referee had to do something (and give Bowe time to recover).

By the way, Golota hurt himself rather than Bowe with this headbutt. He should've taken some lessons from Holy (I think they were both with Duva at this point).

 

It wasn't really strange at all. Golota was a street thug in Poland who was in more then one life or death street fight. The guy went through hell growing up.

What do you do in a street fight when you NEED to win, to potentially save your life?

Anything. Duva summed it up in a great, rarely seen post fight interview after one of the matches. It was hardly Golota being quasi-******ed, he consistently went into auto pilot when stress brought out his off the street, repressed thug nature.

Same thing with Tyson.

 

I do not think this is the case. B-Hop was also a thug, so was Foreman and many other top fighters. Yet they were able to control themselves and follow the rules, or at least break them in smart way. Like Holyfield (OK, he wasn't a thug) but what I mean it that it is difficult to see the moment when he headbutted Rahman, his elbow against Ruiz or low-blow against Tyson all look natural - so he got away with bending the rules more often than not.

Also, you said Golota went into "auto-pilot" mode when under stress like Tyson. Well, I am not fan of biting someone's ears, but at least Tyson was despaired (about being headbutted, not controlling the fight,...) Golota did it often even when completely controlling the fight, like against Bowe or Nicholson (and he had long amateur and pro carieer prior to that, without such problems). He was just mental case in my opinion.

 

No he didnt. He looped his punches, when he wa in poor condition. Watch fights like the Donald fight, the Hide fight, leading up to the Golota fights, thats where he looped his punches. Then watch him in the Holyfield fights and fights leading up to them, his delivery was much tighter and text book .
Prime Bowe would have crushed Golota. Look what a shot Bowe was able to do to him, make him fold up and foul out.

 

yep, he never could handle any fight unless it was completley going his way. In what fight did he face adversity and fight through it to win? None!

 

Excellent post!!!!

That was spot on! Another thing I have thought about that fight, is that though Bowe was dangerous and he did knockdown Golota, the best thing they could have done is stop that fight two rounds before the 9th. It may have preserved Bowe's career at the top of the sport. The damage that was done to him in that fight especially in the later rounds is permanent. There was about five or six times in that fight where the ref could have waved the fought off for Golota and nobody would have cried about a quick stoppage. Both men would have benefited greatly if Riddick Bowe had been saved from himself that night...even though he got the win it wasnt worth it.

 

Watch the third Holyfield fight, he looks pretty much as bad as he did in this fight, he just didnt have a 250 pound pole teeing off on his balls.

 

Yeah, I enjoyed all three of those fights with Evander. But he didn't need to take those punches later in that fight.

 

I just watched all nine rounds again on youtube and I gotta respectfully disagree. In the Bowe vs. Golota II, Andrew was penalized 3 points and disqualified on the third point deduction by Eddie Cotton. His first penalty was for a flagrant headbutt in the 2nd round. Golota was in the midst of decimating Bowe at that point. The headbutt gave Bowe the chance to recover. Eddie Cotton had refereed a Golota fight not that long before this fight where Golota intentionally headbutted his opponent. So he had already known about Andrew.

Golota was penalized for low blow in the 4th round. THAT foul I'll agree was for the purpose of getting himself a rest after he himself was knocked down.

Golota was warned for rabbit punching in the 6th round. By this time Bowe was already basically out on his feet and really no longer posed a threat to Golota. After Golota knocked Bowe down in the 5th round, Bowe didn't have it anymore. Golota was in no way hurt or tired or scared of losing at this point. Bowe was nothing more than a punching bag in the 6th, 7th, and 8th rounds and he took brutal shots to the head repeatedly. Listen to the announcers. Listen to Bowe's cornerman after the 7th. He was telling Bowe that he was ready to throw in the towel.

Watch the 9th round where Golota gets disqualified. Bowe had nothing left. He wasn't a threat. What happened was Bowe threw a punch at Golota's belt line, which triggered some sort of enraged reaction on his part. Golota then threw three hard punches right to Bowe's crotch. Each punch was more deliberately and more brutally below the belt. Golota is a freaking sadist. He just wanted to hurt Bowe for the sake of hurting him.

 

Foreman did NOT come off the streets like Golota, nor did he have to fight for his life on them.

Nor was he ever controlled and managed well by other figures in his life like Tyson.

Putting a guy with a certified life altering anxiety issue who came from one of the harshest slums in the world... It's not terribly suprising that he isn't stable when you're putting him into a ring, in a sport where you're being punched in the face dozens of times a night.

Also, Bowe was fighting dirty in both Golota fights as well. Tyson retaliated against Holyfield and to a lesser extent Golota was doing the same thing.

 

Honestly, I think the fight should have been stopped in the second round when, after getting knocked down, Golota hit Bowe with a left hook and put him out on his feet.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNW5lpa_ehM[/yt]

It's around the 2:13 mark in the youtube video. Golota throws a lot of blows to the body then to the head. Around the 2:25 mark Bowe falls back onto the ropes with hands low. Maybe that's just me in retrospect, but I would have stopped it right there.

Given the circumstances and hype behind this fight, I could understand why things happened the way they did. But it's unfortunate because of what this fight did to Riddick.

 

It's funny how cash cow fighters like Bowe always get so many chances in the ring when other fights would have been stopped.

 

And in an amazing coincidence, it's always the house fighter that benefits. And the odds on that are just astronomical.

But Bowe's corner should've stopped that fight. But that's something top notch trainers do and have done and we've seen it recently with Buddy McGirt. Not enough credit is given to the McGirts that save their fighter. And there really is minimal excuse because Bowe took a bad licking in their first bout so it'd be something you should really be watching out for. Criminal.