Would Riddick Bowe be in better health today if:

I think he was already beginning to flag in his skills and mumble. As I mentioned on another thread, to my eyes it seemed like a progressive decline after the first Holy fight. He didn't even look the same in their 2nd fight.

 

He took too many punches anyway. Golota fights did speed up his decline though.

 

Golota turned his brains to milkshake. A lot of people doubted Bowe's heart before that, but by gum, not after it. I'm not sure whether the respect on his name was worth those two clubbings though.

 

What I don't understand is that you have some fighters like Jake Lamotta who take all kinds of punishment from over 100 fights but live into their 90s in their right mind until the very end and then you have fighters like Bowe. I doubt Bowe makes it to his 90s.

 

Everyone is different and sadly most of these greater vulnerabilities to brain trauma seem only observable in retrospect. It is indeed an imponderable

 

Bowes damage was written in his DNA...contact sports were going to take a toll on him sooner or later so the question is would the apparent damage have set in later had he not fought Golota? UNK its possible even George Chuvalo now in his 80's though Lucid for much of his aging is just recently struggling with pugilistica dementia

I think it would be reasonable that his poor health habits and hard fights more than likely sped up his condition given his predisposition for not being as resilient to head trauma as others....his erratic behavior seemed to follow those fights with his joining the USMC then quitting in boot camp and his spouse abuse issues etc....all the hallmarks of the prefrontal cortex being damaged from trauma

 

Bowe was a very unhealthy guy long before the Golota fights. Ate too much and was taking too many punches from sparring and fights with his leaky defense. Obviously Golota made things worse, but Bowe still might have ended up having health problems due to his bad habits and life style.

 

It wouldn’t really be unusual if Bowe doesn’t make it to his 90s.Afterall how many heavyweight champions do you know that have made it to their 90s? I can’t think of one. Jack Dempsey I think, was in his mid 80s when he passed away and he was probably the oldest.

 

The thing with Chuvalo is that he began exhibiting signs of dementia when it could just as easily be viewed as age onset without being related to trauma from boxing.

If it is somehow related to boxing one has to wonder why it took so long to kick in - it seems most fighters prone to same begin displaying symptoms much earlier in the piece. Not an ounce of cognitive issues from George until more recent years.

It’s a shame re Riddick, for all his abilities otherwise he was also unfortunately good at negating his dimensional advantages. In that regard, Lewis was the antithesis, Lennox knew how to really maximise his superior height and reach.

 

I didn't know George Chuvalo had dementia. Is there a link to this?

He seemed fine in late 2019.

 

If I recall correctly, Max Schmeling made it all the way to 99 before passing, but he was obviously an extreme outlier.

 

You are absolutely right he may have age onset dementia or Alzheimer's as well, there is a high probability his decline came from a combination of boxing and lifestyle factors with Bowe it could be the same thing. The point being that predisposition suggests that Bowe was going to have a mental decline sooner or later as unlike Chuvalo it seems the brutality of boxing was harder on Bowe

 

Agree, need to see proof of that. keep well.

 

Yes, unfortunately. Very sad story.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...-fight-over-boxing-legend-george-chuvalo.html