Riddick Bowe vs. Andrew Golota

"Big Daddy's Home"
Date	July 11, 1996
Location	Madison Square Garden in New York, New York
Title(s) on the line	None
Tale of the tape
Riddick Bowe Andrew Golota Nickname "Big Daddy" "The Powerful Pole" Hometown Brooklyn, New York US Warsaw, Poland Pre-fight record 37–1 28–0

Riddick Bowe vs. Andrew Golota, billed as "Big Daddy's Home", was a professional boxing match contested on July 11, 1996. The fight was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City and was televised as part of an HBO World Championship Boxing card.

Background

Riddick Bowe entered 1996 having defeated Evander Holyfield for a second time to bring an end to their rivalry. Having not been in the heavyweight title picture since losing to Holyfield in 1993, Bowe sought to change that and began negotiations with longtime rival Lennox Lewis. After Bowe became undisputed champion following his first defeat of Holyfield, the World Boxing Council insisted he make a mandatory defense of the title against Lewis. Bowe refused and responded to the demand by publicly throwing the WBC belt into a wastebasket. Lewis, in the meantime, had not fought for the title since losing the WBC title to Oliver McCall in 1994 and was in negotiations with the WBC's current champion, Mike Tyson, for a title bout. Eventually a deal was struck to resolve all three situations. Lewis agreed to fight Bowe in May 1996, with a September fight date set, and Tyson was free to pursue another fight he was seeking with reigning World Boxing Association champion Bruce Seldon.^[1]

In the interim, Lewis and Bowe were to take tuneup fights with former contender Ray Mercer facing Lewis and the undefeated Polish heavyweight Andrew Golota facing Bowe. Prior to the match, the confident Bowe declared himself "The People's Champion" and paid little attention to Golota, instead looking ahead to his long awaited bout with Lewis and a potential superfight with Tyson.^[2] Though Bowe entered the fight at a career high 252 pounds, 12 pounds heavier than what he weighed in his previous match with Holyfield, he nevertheless was made a 12–1 favorite. When explaining his weight gain, Bowe made it clear that he had not trained much for Golota, infamously asking "How do you train for a bum?" Golota's trainer Lou Duva remained confident that his fighter could defeat Bowe, saying of Bowe's weight gain "He's everything I want him to be"^[3]

The Fight

From the opening round, it was clear that Bowe was outmatched. Golota was able to land his jab at a constant rate and landed nearly half of his 69 punches in the first round while Bowe was only able to land 17. The two men would have a close round 2 with both men landing powerful shots on one another, but Golota regained control in round 3 and pushed the action further in round 4.

The Polish fighter, despite his successes, was struggling to keep his punches above the beltline. Referee Wayne Kelly issued a warning to Golota in the second round, and a second and last warning after Golota landed another low punch at 2:20 of the third. Kelly finally had seen enough in the fourth when Golota dropped Bowe to the canvas with a hard shot below the belt at 2:35. He deducted a point from Golota and gave Bowe time to recuperate, as is given to any fighter hurt by a low blow. After using three of his allotted five minutes, Bowe rose to continue.

Golota continued to press Bowe in the fifth and sixth rounds as the out of shape former champion was reeling. However, Golota again hit Bowe low in the sixth and lost another point. Kelly threatened to disqualify Golota, who had landed five low punches to that point despite dominating the proceedings, if he hit Bowe below the belt one more time. Despite the admonishment, lost points, and his stellar performance so far in the fight, Golota again hit Bowe below the belt in the seventh round and as the champion dropped to the canvas again, Kelly stopped the fight and disqualified Golota for excessive low blows.^[4]

Post-fight Riot

Immediately after the fight was stopped, members of Bowe's security team entered the ring and approached Golota, who had his back turned as he was going back to his corner. One of the men pushed Golota from behind which caused Golota to respond by throwing punches at the man. Another man, later identified as Jason Harris, began hitting Golota in the head with a walkie-talkie, opening up a cut that required 11 stitches to close. Seventy-four-year-old Lou Duva was also injured in the melee and collapsed to the canvas after experiencing chest pains and ultimately had to be taken from the ring on a stretcher. Eventually Golota's fans entered the brawl and would continue to trade punches with Bowe's entourage and fans inside the ring as well as outside of it. HBO announcer Jim Lampley went up a couple levels of Madison Square Garden because the announce table was destroyed in the riot, while fellow announcers Larry Merchant and George Foreman stayed at ringside. Foreman even tried to stop the riot in the ring himself by saving Lampley & Merchant from fans attacking them. Foreman was also telling fans at the start of the riot not to get in the ring and attack anyone. In the end, 10 arrests were made, eight policemen were injured and nine spectators had to be hospitalized.^[5]

Aftermath

Bowe's poor performance ended the possibility of a match with Lewis, but interest was high for a rematch with Golota. In October 1996, three months after their first match, it was announced that Bowe and Golota would meet again in a rematch that would take place on December 14 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Bowe admitted that Golota had humiliated him in their previous fight and vowed to be ready for their rematch, but Golota again took control of their match and was ahead on all scorecards before again running into trouble with low blows that led to another disqualification loss. After his second consecutive poor performance, Riddick Bowe would announce his retirement from boxing at the age of 29. Adding insult to injury, Golota would ultimately get the WBC title match with Lennox Lewis that Bowe had wanted. Golota would not last long in his fight against Lewis, however, after getting knocked out 94 seconds into the first round.

References