Bowe was a great boxer but also a classless punk. I'm glad he met his match (on both accounts) in Andrew Golota. He should've been disqualified after hitting that dude while he was down, but for some reason it was an NC.
Rock Newman was even worse than he was, and frankly I've always wondered if that's where some of the attitude rubbed off from.
Yes, he is fighting a journeyman named Gene Pukeall. Given that his brain damage has been well documented - even in trial when he kidnapped his children - he shouldn't have been granted a license. Most promoters are garbage, but Newman took it to a new level indeed. I don't think Bowe took some of that attitude, though it certainly didn't help having someone like him around. I'd say similar types attract - there's probably a nice way-of-saying to sum that up better.
Depends what was said, I miss the days of weigh in brawls, fighters dont have bad intentions any more
...........In listening to and reading the voluminous accounts of both Newman and Bowe shortly after he so impressively took the title from Holyfield in '92, one thought they might indeed be looking at the next savior of boxing. At least that's how they billed him. Bowe seemed initially to relish the idea of being so huge a figure, but eventually his buffoonish behavior derailed any thought of him being some crossover star (Newman's own idiocy didn't help). He knew he was playing a role, and it didn't suit him. He tried to mug for the camera the same way Ali did, he toured Somalia as an act of goodwill, showed up to all the public appearances and at first seemed congenial and smiled a lot, but it just wasn't in him to be "The Heavyweight Champion Of The World." The mantle was too heavy, and his natural behaviors set in quickly. He and Newman wanted so badly to fight at MSG to perhaps harken back to the old days, when that was something heavyweight champions did. He wanted quick, impressive KO's in his first couple fights as champ, just as Louis had his Bum Of The Month tour. One way or another, he always seemed to be mimicking someone, never really himself, and many saw through it. The real Bowe, so full of sloth and lethargy and laziness, reared his ugly head against Holyfield in the rematch. He came in drastically overweight and was unprepared to meet Evander on even ground. Then of course, after losing the title he seemed to want to emulate Sonny Liston, so big and bad. I got the impression at the time that sucker-punching Larry Donald that way was a completely premeditated act, part of the script Rock Newman lay down for him ahead of time in an attempt to get people talking about him again, as his star had lost much of its luster. This new, angry, hungry Bowe was liable to do anything, by God! Look, he just punched a guy at a press conference! Thuggery is interesting, isn't it?? In its own way, this behavior was most likely as much unlike the real Bowe as the genial good guy, but it was no more effective in swaying any serious opinions about him. From there, he went a bit off his rocker, and any attempt at analyzing psychological motivations for anything he did was liable to be met with just a bunch of trapdoors and pitfalls, so I no longer bothered.
Bowe is a ghetto turkey....... He has a limited education..... What can we really expect from Bowe?? Assholes' like "Tyson & Bowe" are phonies..... They were able to act a certain way early on because they had an expensive team watching out and covering up for them..... However, as time rolls on, the **** eventually comes to the surface..... Cheerio... MR.BILL
That's an excellent post, salsanchezfan...I'd always known Bowe wanted to be Ali, like so many heavyweights, but the comparison to other heavyweights like Louis and Liston is interesting. Bigcat maintains, and he's more likely to know about these things, that the sucker punches against Donald were indeed premeditated. Perhaps not planned out backstage or anything, but definitely something Bowe did on purpose to try to attract extra interest and attention. Considering Bowe-Donald was getting low profile, and the fight itself was dull, perhaps that worked. Still pretty low-rent stuff, but not as bad as some of the other stuff Bowe did. Newman had some very big ideas. Remember him getting a meeting with the Pope, where Bowe handed over the gloves he used to beat Holyfield? But Newman was so certain Bowe was going to be dominant for years, he felt he could get right up the noses of the boxing orgs and do something new. Everyone knows what happened with the WBC, but consider too that both the WBA and IBF felt very nervous that if he could do that then it wouldn't take much for the same to happen to then. Bowe got frozen out after he lost the titles to Holyfield, and while that wasn't right it was certainly understandable, thanks to Newman. Bear in mind that Newman didn't even want a Holyfield rematch to begin with. It was initially due to HBO getting irritated by the bad press for the weak Dokes and Fergsuon bouts that they pushed it, and Newman had to accept. Even then, it wasn't seen as much of a challenge by Bowe - he'd beaten that 'little gargoyle' once easily, he could do it again - and he trained accordingly.
...............The Pope!! :rofl:rofl I'd forgotten.......I remember seeing a picture of the blessed glove ceremony in a boxing magazine, now that you mention it. The Pope was probably thinking to himself as he looked down that day's itinerary: "I gotta do WHAT, now? Boxing gloves?? WTF?" :think
Which led to the Bowe line - "That's the only thing about the heavyweight championship that I didn't expect. I didn't expect to meet the Pope." Well, naturally.