Why did Bowe look OK against Holyfield in 1995, and then **** against Golota in 1996?

He didn't take his training seriously and ballooned up inbetween fights. He would gain massive amounts of weight inbetween fights, and then loose it all in short amounts of time. Eventually it took its toll.

 

Basically. He just wasn't a dedicated fighter, especially without the right people around him from his earlier days, specifically Eddie Futch. Shame, as he was one of the most talented and skilled big men I've ever seen when at the top of his game, and I don't say that lightly.

 

Leap year? :huh

No really, styles make fights & Andrew had Bowe's number - period. I don't buy that Bowe wasn't in good enough shape or trained enough, etc. because look what happened in the sequel, the same fight basically.

 

:good I love the guy, in my top 2 favorite heavyweights, but he really did **** up his career by digging into the big macs.

 

Bowe was clearly just past his prime by that point, and unable to maintain any kind of consistency at a world level. You really think that was the same Bowe from the early 90's? Not even close.

People on here really need to realize that explanations aren't always just excuses, they actually have merit a lot of times.

 

I tend to buy into some of this. But at the same time, I sort of view it like this. He didn't train properly for the first fight and didn't take Golota seriously. So he shows up for fight #1 in poor condition and gets a serious beating (yes Golota might have had his number to a high degree but I also think that being undertrained played a serious role in this fight). By the time the second fight came around, he was majorly OVER-trained and had taken too much damage from the first fight. I think that the key element here is not taking his opponent seriously and a lack of training for the first fight. I mean, even if you look at the second Golota fight, this becomes evident, as he was much lighter and so was able to be more mobile and even knock Golota down.

 

There's some truth to that but really, Lewis disposed of Golota the way I expected Bowe to prior to their first fight. Even when the rematch was announced, I expected the old Bowe to show up & teach Golota a lesson, but it never happened.

 

:verysad True enough. So basically the answer to the question in the title of this thread is "there were many elements at play."

 

True.

I think the Bowe that fought Holyfield the first time, for the title, would be a hard fight for any HW in history. He really put it all together that night. Let me add that I was the only one of about 15 people at a party who picked Bowe to win that night. I was also the only one to pick Lewis to KO Tyson at a different fight party................

 

golota was bigger, younger and hungrier

 

Holyfield had the better career overall obviously but Golota at his best might possibly have actually been the superior fighter. He certainly was bigger and stronger.

To say Bowe suddenly declined when he faced Golota seems like a coincidence. The Bowe fights showed just how imcredibly talented Golota was at that time. An amazing fighter was Golota.

 

Golota was always a good fighter, he just exposed bowe with his pressing style

 

Golota made Bowe look like **** by putting on a pressure boxing clinic, and then assaulting his ballbag.

 

No dedication.