Why did Bowe fight Ferguson and Dokes?

So you clearly think Bowe should have fought someone more high-profile than Ferguson, and someone fresher than Dokes. But fighting someone too high-profile and too fresh, like Mercer or Moorer or someone like that would be too risky if you fought too soon. Who's a middle-of-the-road guy who has enough reputation to give Bowe heck, but not good enough to walk off with the title?

 

No you misunderstand.

Me as an individual would always fight for the most money and the least risk.

Me as a fan wants boxers to fight the best available opposition every single time.

In this specific case, Lewis is who he should have fought.

 

I see. As a fan, you a die-hard, risk-all. As a hypothetical boxer, you are a coward.

 

So, if you were Bowe, heavyweight champion of the world in 1993, you have just dethroned Evander Holyfield in a brutal 12-round war, the best heavyweight of the decade, and you want to take some low-risk, big paydays, so you fight, let's say.... Michael Dokes and Jesse Ferguson. lol

 

I wouldn't care being called a coward, it's a job, a way to make money. I'd be more bothered about providing for my family and being healthy enough to enjoy it, than what people who aren't taking the same risks would think.

Look, I agree with you. You called them trash fights, I agree with you.

 

I'm just foolin' around. It's funny imo. Me though, I wouldn't want money fights, I'd want to fight the names.

 

Why?

Look at Sam Langford, he fought all the names and died homeless, blind and without a penny to his name.

It's a job, if its a job I'm doing I just wanna get paid as much as possible.

 

Jerry Cooney is still a starter for 10

 

Call me a thrill-seeker

 

Either way, as I said, people don't defend these fights because they know they're low quality and better opposition were available.

 

Letting fights build up rarely works and is one of the worst marketing strategies in boxing.

Better to just match them up straight away, like they do in Ufc.

 

I actually agree, to a certain extent. While there were tougher options for Bowe, Dokes' record doesn't look too bad at that point. After the Ruddock loss in early 1991, Dokes won nine in a row, including a win over the aforementioned Jesse Ferguson (2-4 since 1991).

I think Rock Newman was trying to keep Bowe busy. He was going to fight an easy defense 3 months after he won the title (who makes a first defense that quickly?), and a much tougher top-ten contender Ray Mercer three months later. Jesse Ferguson, or more accurately Mercer himself, spoiled those plans on the Bowe-Dokes undercard. And I sometimes wonder if Newman didn't take another keep-busy fight before Holyfield II in November because of the criticism about Dokes and Ferguson. But it was probably contractual; investors wouldn't want the big fight called off due to injury or upset.

Maybe Bowe should have defended against Mercer despite his loss. Ali still fought Lyle, even though Lyle had lost to Jimmy Young in his previous bout. 'Course losing AND trying to bribe your opponent doesn't help his case much.

Here are some other options, via Ring magazine.
The Ring - July 1993 (as of March 17, 1993)

1. Riddick Bowe (WBA/IBF)
2. Lennox Lewis (WBC)
3. Evander Holyfield
4. Michael Moorer
5. Tony Tucker
6. George Foreman
7. Razor Ruddock
8. Tommy Morrison
9. Alex Garcia
10. Tony Tubbs

 

Larry Hazard's count was ever so slow at the end of round 1. Jesse went down with 18 seconds left and was still sprawling on the deck with three seconds left. Good job Larry was going seeeeeeeeeevveeeeeeeeeeeeen - eeeeiiiiggggghhhht - niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnne.

A propos nothing, that was a first round kayo.

 

Here is what happened.

Holyfield was the champion. His top contenders were Ruddock, Bowe and Lewis. Bowe was either the WBA or IBF mandatory, but he was up first, because the champ had to fight each org's mandatories in a certain order. And the WBA's mandatory (or whoever's mandatory Bowe was) was up next.

So Holyfield signed to fight Bowe.

Then the WBC held an eliminator between Ruddock and Lewis. With Tyson in jail, at the time many thought Ruddock was the best heavyweight. Ruddock had given Tyson two tough fights. Most thought Tyson would've beaten Holyfield had they fought as scheduled in 1991. (Evander was still considered a blown up cruiserweight at the time ). And Ruddock used to beat up Lewis when they were both amatuers in Canada. So Ruddock wasn't worried.

The four agreed that the winner of Holyfield-Bowe and Ruddock-Lewis would meet next, partially because the WBC mandatory fight was the next fight up.

Keep in mind, Evander had a rematch clause if he lost. He had to get a rematch within 12 months. So the idea was the winners of those two fights would meet next in the spring of 1993. If Evander happened to lose to Bowe, he was still in the mix for a fall 1993 fight.

Had any combination of Holyfield, Ruddock or Lewis won, I think we would've seen that WBC mandatory defense.

But Lewis upset Ruddock and things began to change in the Bowe camp.

Lewis had beaten Bowe in the Olympic final in 1988. The last guy Rock Newman wanted Bowe to fight (should he win) in his first defense was Lewis.

So they began floating the idea that if they won the title, they'd fight Foreman first. I believe George was the IBF top contender, but he had just gone thru hell with Alex Stewart.

Then Bowe upset Evander. HBO had Lewis calling the fight from ringside. Bowe yelled at Lewis on his way out if the ring, and that's as close as we got to them fighting.

The WBC said Bowe and Lewis needed to begin negotiations. I think Newman insisted Bowe get like 90 percent of the purse, knowing that wouldn't happen. But they could say they tried. Then Bowe held a press conference and threw the WBC belt in the garbage. And he gave it up, along with a big payday.

Then Rock Newman, who had all these plans that never amounted to anything, had to make up that lost purse money, so he decided he wanted Bowe to fight as many times as he could before the Holyfield rematch.

With the WBC out of the way, Newman said Bowe was going to make his first defense during halftime of the Super Bowl.

Foreman was out. No reason given. The new opponent would be Alex Garcia, who was briefly a contender at that time.

But, of course, the Super Bowl wouldn't work with him and no networks wanted to counter-program opposite the Super Bowl, so that fell apart.

So Newman booked MSG a week or so after the Super Bowl. But Bowe started having eye problems. They thought they may have to cancel.

Then Newman got Ray Mercer's team on the phone. Bowe didn't like Mercer. They had been roommates in the 1988 Olympics and were supposed to fight in 1991 but Mercer pulled out and Bowe fought Seldon, instead.

Mercer wasn't in shape for a title fight. So Newman said that Bowe and Mercer would essentially fight tuneups to hype their summer title fight, which they would announce in New York the day after Bowe's first defense.

Everyone agreed. At this point, I believe the Garden took over because Newman didn't know what he was doing. Michael Dokes had been a regular fighting on the MSG network for years. Garden promoters knew he was easy to work with. If Snipes hadn't lost his last fight, he probably would've been in the mix, too. They suggested Dokes. Ferguson was a career journeyman who often sparred with Dokes. So Ferguson was offered to Mercer as an option. Jesse had lost to everyone. They said yes.

So Bowe-Dokes and Mercer-Ferguson was set. A press conference was scheduled the following morning in New York to announce Bowe-Mercer.

What could go wrong?

Well, HBO was pissed because they wanted Bowe-Lewis. Then they thought they'd have to settle for Bowe-Foreman.

Now they were stuck with Bowe-Dokes.

HBO had a contract with Bowe, so they had to show his fight. But they didn't have one with Mercer, so they decided not to televise BOTH expected mismatches and chose not to air Mercer-Ferguson.

Then, the day of the fight Arthur Ashe died from an AIDS related illness. That made global news. Nobody cared about the fight card. And then Mercer strolled in the ring and lost.

Basically, Riddick Bowe's one-year reign was one big cluster ****.