I was doing research on these two guys. They are two fighters I have little knowledge of and have hardly watched any footage of. Schulz seemed like he was a very good fighter. From what I read in a British newspaper the author said Schulz deserved the nod. After a quick peek at his record I saw a points loss to Botha who in the grand scheme of things isnt that impressive, I dont know if Botha was anything special back then but he juiced and the fight was an NC In the vacant title bout he fought Moorer and lost but by split decision. This guy went 12 rounds with Moorer and Foreman and arguably won one of the bouts and won on one judges score card in another How good was he? Did he deserve the Foreman fight? Akinwande- I know this guy gets a bad reputation on here for the Lewis fight where in a rare occurrence held his way out of the title. From a glance at his record I saw some respectable names on the list Norris, Tucker, Zolkin, Thunder, Schulz, Williams Now these guys arent world beaters or anything but its a decent list of scalps for any fighter Now he won the WBO back in the day when the WBO was new hardly recognized in that pre Klitschko time before the belt was brought to attention. He won it from Jeremy Williams and defended it over Zolkin. He also held the European Title and the Commonwealth Title two things to be proud of He dumped the WBO to face Lennox and lost in a disgraceful DQ but did almost score a knockdown. I read in an archived newspaper article that when Botha was stripped of the IBF he was in line for the shot, McCall was 2nd ranked and I think ahead of Akinwande the article said but Akinwande was in discussion for the bout. Schulz fought Moorer for the vacant title not McCall or Akinwande, were they just over stepped? Also I saw on his record he beat Norris and it was listed as a WBA eliminator but he never got a shot at the WBA. Other than that night vs Lennox Lewis how was the rest of his career? Was he a good fighter?
Akinwande ruined his reputation in Britain the night he beat Johnny Nelson. He was very unlucky to only draw with Schultz (fight one), I had him four rounds up at the end. His best form came in the victories over the still respected Tucker, a once beat Williams, who Akinwande destroyed and Zolkin, who had shown he was a deserved top 30 fighter. After the Lewis defeat, he looked pretty good for nine rounds against McCall (I would of sworn that was a 12 round fight; I must be losing it!!!) And that was about it, he never did truly get over blowing the McCall fight. Schultz became a contender by accident, when karma got its revenge and robbed Axel of a potential upset of the ancient Foreman. He did lose the Botha fight and Moorer was very sloppy and still managed to edge Schultz. After getting noticed, Schultz was a classic European Heavyweight, beating fellow Europeans and old American names (Ribalta). The big fights did not happen, and he was in semi retirement by the time the Vlad fight happened. Akinwande had potential, but was often far to negative. Schultz had the heart, but not the ability.
I remember seeing Henry Akinwande get disqualified for excessive holding in an ABA final, c. 1986. That was the first time I saw him. He did become a pretty decent professional fighter though. A solid contender, though never one of the division's elite. Schulz was robbed against Foreman, I thought.
I never thought much of Shultz. He was kind of thrust into the limelight by getting robbed against Foreman, but a guy with fairly quick hands that could move was no suprise giving old George problems. I watched the Botha fight. I had Botha winning fairly easily and in my opinion Botha was a much better fighter than Shultz and thats not saying too much. The fans threw glass bottles at the ring after Shultz lost. Physically Akinwande was a big tall man that was fairly atheletic but I dont think he had the mental makeup to be a great boxer. He had the physical tools, but he never seemed to put them together and didnt respond well to a rough physical fight. These two fought twice in the early stages of their careers and Shultz lost one sidedly in the rematch. Akinwande was a better fighter even with his fragile psyche.
i saw the akinwande/schultz rematch the other month while going through some old tapes and akinwande won it by a good margin.i agree with lefthook 31 in his assessment of both fighters. akinwande was certainly the better skilled of the two, but was fragile and could certainly turn into an octopus with a holding obsession when he felt physically inferior
