Riddick Bowe vs Andrew Golota 2. Why prime Riddick Bowe would have destroyed Golota

Only thing Golota exposed was that Bowe was done as a world class fighter.

Fact is even before Bowe fought Golota we knew he lacked discipline, we'd seen him struggle with a good jab vs Biggs and struggled with movement vs Tubbs and Holyfield in their 2nd fight showed if you boxed him with a jab you could give him issues and also showed just easy he was to hit. But people tend to gloss over the weaknesses and focus on a fighters strengths of which Bowe had plenty.

Prime Bowe would of beaten Golota, likely stopped him. Golota simply lacked the toughness and grit and Bowe had that in abundance. I think Bowe still would of had issues with Golota, may even get dropped, but he'd overcome that, take Golota into deep water where he'd drown.

 

Completely agree with you.

 

H2H, he already is top 10, and quite easy I'd say.

He had a chance against any of them.

 

Copious left hooks and copious food did Bowe in.

 

The 2nd Bowe/ Golota fight was in 1996 i believe.
Eddie Futch had quit Bowe's camp right before this fight.That tells the story right there. None the less Bowe comes into the ring at 225lbs. He wanted look good.
He has lost the weight fast, Riddick wasnt mentally well at all. The weight reduction has obvious effects his coordination was off, legs not on speakkmg terms with each other
Golota didn't look as good as he did in the first fight. He was sharp in beating Big Daddy up at the Garden. It got sloppy.

For all the talk of Bowe lacking desire it was ironic desire to keep fighting is what made Andrew reach for the eject button. Its a little different thing, gutting it out in battle and saying no to Little Debbie at 11pm.
I followed Bowe's rise through the division. Ray Mercer had basically call him a los
er from the Olympics. Eddie Futch comes on board AKA (Papa Smurf).
Im recalling Bowe fighting regular on USA or ABC. As 1990 was ending Riddick Bowe was the best heavyweight on the planet IMO.. he was improving but we never saw his best.
Maybe for Bowe proving he could do. It was enough. He was a helluva fighter. Had he given Eddie Futch time to complete the job it would have been Eddie's masterpiece.
I did get the chance to watch the Heavyweigbt Champion of the world train one time. It was at Cesar's Tahoe, I was walking through the casino and saw this curtain, people entering. I went in and right there before me was Big Daddy Bowe jumping rope to Kool Moe Dee's "How Ya Like Me Now"
Mercer and many said he didn't have what it takes to Champion. That was a cool moment. If your familiar with the song you ll understand.

 

Weird effect Bowe has on people. He beats one of the greatest HWs ever 2-1 both in there primes the first time around and yet Frazier beat who Ellis? Oscar? Quarry? and past prime Ali once? and his resume holds up fine and never gets called thin/weak. Is a 2-1 worth less then One win over a rusty Ali and some good contenders? You could argue Bowes win over Vander is better then any single thing Lewis achieved by quite a margin considering Lenny's best win is Vitali or an Old washed up Evander who made it competitive enough for some to have doubt (in there rematch). Again his 2-1 trumps Wlads best, Vitali's and Tyson's. People rate others higher based on beating weaker comp over a longer period of time which I never understood as a H2H argument.

 

Golota simply had Bowe's number. Bowe was still in his prime during the first fight and Golota simply beat the living **** out of him. It was so bad that video of footage of Bowe speaking before and after that fight showed Bowe suffered significant neurological damage.

 

One great win is worth more to me then a "Deep" resume.

 

Styles influence fights. There are guys who achieved less overall than Holyfield who probably match up far better with someone like Bowe than Holyfield did due to having different tools.

I don't think success against Holyfield necessarily translates to success against the giants of today for example like Jalolov, Joyce, etc

 

The Bowe who beat Holy I beats the hell out of pre-Steward Bowe imo.

I'm not as sure about the the Steward-era.

Bowe's chances of winning against Lewis anytime after he lost to Holy go down progressively. But the time of Golota/Bowe, Lewis would have knocked him silly imo.