Great Use of the Jab

A borderline shot Riddick Bowe showing tremendous guts and resolve. An incredible Heavyweight fight. High drama. One of my favorites.

 

Bowe swinging for the fences, desperately trying to end the fight, showing no skill and putting Golota over was freaking heroic. So was all he sustained that night.

 

Bowe was bothered more by his own limitations in this fight. He just wasn't right. I've never seen him throw so many wide, sloppy right hands in my life. His legs were all but gone after a few rounds, it was only his heart that kept this from being a one-sided drubbing.

I liked Michael Spinks jab against Ramon Ranquello. The Jinx was always known for a great jab, but he was busting Ranquello up. The fight was stopped on the advice on the ringside doctor, and it was primarily because Michael's left stick was pounding Ramon's face for 6 consecutive rounds. Painful.

 

Golota was easily one of the best technical Heavyweights of the past 20 years or so. Pity about his insanity.

 

Golota's performances against Bowe are two of the best jabbing performances in heavyweight history, especially when one considers that Bowe had the advantage in almost every other respect. In fact, I think that Bowe-Golota II would be remembered as an all-time classic if it wasn't a non-title fight. And a foul-filled abortion.

Staying with the heavyweights, what about Bruno vs. Lewis? Again, Lewis was the better boxing overall and had most of the advantages, but Bruno was ahead after six rounds because of patiently, persistently and diversely using the jab to keep Lewis off-balance. If all boxing fights featured only jabs, Bruno could have gone 49-0. (Yes, that's a very pathetic attempt to big-up Bruno.)

 

I didn't have much faith in his chin, either.

How far gone do you think Bowe was by this point, or do you attribute all credit to Golota?

 

To be frank though, Bowe never did have a real straight right. Even at his best, he always looped that punch.

 

This.

If he didn't have anything else Bruno at least had a fantastic jab.

I had Lewis level pegging with him by the sixth, which is amazing in itself, considering Bruno was a pretty damn good boxer (before he ran out of steam).

 

I agree with you. Both of these guys were headcases who never really lived up to their potential outside of a few nights. Bowe being a fat, lazy slob with little work ethic in training (which really showed in these fights), Golota just being totally ****ed in the head.

 

I saw him throw a pretty straight right hand to topple Cooper, but yeah, Bowe was more over hand right. This was almost comical though, the right hands he was throwing in the rematch against Golota were from left field. It was almost as if he was trying to miss Golota. He went down on the end of the first real solid shot that hit him. A mere shadow of the Bowe that faced Holyfield in '92 to win the title.

 

His prime was so unfathomably short that it makes me think the guy had something neurologically wrong with him, or (particularly based on his post-career behavior) he really was a nut job.

But.......I'm derailing the thread.

 

You often hear about fighters like Roberto Duran and Wilfred Benitez not training, but with Riddick Bowe I think it was undoubtedly true most of the time after '93. Bowe was never an elusive target either, he was no stranger to getting tagged long before he even came up against Evander Holyfield. All of these things contributed, and I think the footage ultimately speaks for itself, no way was that a good version of Riddick Bowe in there with Golota. It made for one hell of a dramatic fight, though.

 

watch this fight and then watch Lewis vs Vitali

Lewis vs Vitali looks backwards and primitive compared to this fight