jimufctna24 Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 Does anyone know just how good Riddick Bowe was? Â How would he have faired against Lewis or Tyson in the mid nineties? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 Bowe was very talented, could move pretty well and had a very good jab. But he handicapped himself by not keeping himself in top shape.  Bowe fought Lewis in the 1988 Olympics and was beaten in 2 rounds. They were supposed to fight again around 92/93 after Bowe beat Holyfield the first time but it fell apart. Bowe's side were said to have priced themselves out of the fight by asking for a 90-10 split of the purse in Bowe's favour. Dunno if thats true but its fucking ridiculous if it is. Then Bowe and his manager Rock Newman famously dumped the WBC belt in the bin at a press conference and avoided defending against Lewis who would have been the next challenger  I think if Bowe fought Lewis in the mid 90s Lewis wouldn't have had much trouble. By then Bowe was pretty much done at the top level after the Holyfield trilogy. Lewis was reaching his prime around then and I think he'd have stopped Bowe again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 Bowe vs Tyson would have been interesting. They were both past their best by the mid 90s but I think it would be competitive. Would have had that unpredictable edge to it aswell because they're both nuts. Neither are strangers to breaking rules, hitting after the bell, kicking, biting etc. Wouldn't fancy being the ref for that one  So yeah went off track a bit there but I think Bowe kinda cheated himself by not staying in top shape.  If you've not seen them, deffo check out his fights with Holyfield. Especially the first one. The second is crazy with the 'fan man' incident. One of the best trilogies in boxing history.  Watched his 2 fights with Golota a while ago. Unbelievable. Golota was a fucking madman. Got DQ'd for repeated ball shots which led to a full scale riot in the arena. Then he did the same fucking thing in the rematch.  Not the best advert for boxing but amazing to watch from morbid curiosity. Still can't belive they kept the cameras rolling and aired the riot on live TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 They aired the riot because it was a fight without people getting punched repeatedly in the balls. Was Golota always such a dirty fighter or was it just those 2 fights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Taylorslade Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 Bowe was very talented, could move pretty well and had a very good jab. But he handicapped himself by not keeping himself in top shape. Bowe fought Lewis in the 1988 Olympics and was beaten in 2 rounds. They were supposed to fight again around 92/93 after Bowe beat Holyfield the first time but it fell apart. Bowe's side were said to have priced themselves out of the fight by asking for a 90-10 split of the purse in Bowe's favour. Dunno if thats true but its fucking ridiculous if it is. Then Bowe and his manager Rock Newman famously dumped the WBC belt in the bin at a press conference and avoided defending against Lewis who would have been the next challenger  I think if Bowe fought Lewis in the mid 90s Lewis wouldn't have had much trouble. By then Bowe was pretty much done at the top level after the Holyfield trilogy. Lewis was reaching his prime around then and I think he'd have stopped Bowe again.  This.  Bowe was one of the very first Super Heavyweights who weren't immobile or plodding. He could do it all really, box on the outside, stick and move, and for a man of such height and reach, he was extremely effective on the inside. Outside of Larry Holmes, he had one of the best jabs I've seen from a heavyweight. But as Shogun said, the old clich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lawrence Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eros-tGCgVk if anyone had any doubts how popular hatton was, watch this. For me i see ricky hatton as the english hulk hogan or steve austin. brought loads of fans to the sport who had never watched it before and brought back a load who had watched it then stopped watching it. It was good he had Joe C as his tag team partner. Â Ricky Hatton was a box-office juggernaught, and his drawing power was even more incredible considering he never fought on terrestrial television. Hatton was a true Sports Network/Sky Sports home grown mainstream fighter. 35,000 travelling fans for the Mayweather fight, and 25,000 for Pacquiao (even 15,000 for the Paulie Malignaggi fight) for me, puts him in a class completly of his own. A limited fighter, of course, but the bottom line, is that the only two losses of his career came against two of the modern and all-time great fighters. I believe that he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame, when eligible. People can disagree, but I can't imagine what the boxing landscape during 2000-2009 would've been without him, and it's easy for people to dismiss him, but if Barry Mcguigan is a HOF fighter, then there's no reason why Ricky Hatton shouldn't. He brought a lot to boxing and was an integral part of the resurgence of boxing in the "noughties" (hate that word) and a massive part of the series of blockbuster fights over the last decade which revolved around the Welterweight divison. Â I attended the Kostya Tszyu fight with my dad, my three uncles and my grandad, we were sat just behind press row, which was a minor miracle in itself, thanks to my grandad who had an incredible amount of connections in the boxing scene. The atmospere was unbelievable and I can't explain how the feeling of pure euphoria just overcame everyone in the building. The only other fight night which comes to mind as being close to that, was the Bruno Vs Mcall fight at Wembley when Frank finally won a Heavyweight crown, everyone was in tears that night, but seeing Hatton break Kostya Tszyu's heart when everyone picked the champion to destroy the challenger early, was unique. Â Taylor Slade - Don't you think this Frank Warren channel is going to fuck Boxing up even more than it is already? I mean with top level fighters not fighting each other. Even before this channel started, i was thinking if David Price beats Big John next month he is in line to fight Tyson Fury for the British title. Who will show this fight? Sky or Ch5? It will go to the highest bidder, so does this cause friction between Hennesy and CH5? Â Also, i can see it leading to more fights between fighters who are under the same promotional umbrella as they are easy to make but not neccesary the most interesting to watch - classic example - Groves and Smith. Why is Groves, who beat Degale fighting Smith who Degale destroyed two fights previous? If Booth was still promoting him this would not happen. Â Also now, sky sports is 20quid a month, Warren tv 10quid, then primetime possibily offering fights for 15quid, This basically can have you spending 50quid a month to watch the top fights - is this right? Â I know what you're saying, and I think you are right to be concerned, but I think once the wrinkles are ironed out everything will fall into place, and I'll tell you why. Â Regarding Price Vs Fury, it will probably end up going to purse bids, and as far as Channel 5 and Sky are concerned, I can't see it causing many problems. I can imagine that Hennessy will probably end up putting the fight on, and some of my reasons for that are pure speculation, although I've good reason to speculate that they are true. Now, Sky have deals with a few different promoters and managers to provide the network with a certain amount of fights every year. CH5 on the other hand, are building their boxing coverage around Tyson Fury, infact, he basically is their boxing content. So with that in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if -in the event of an all out bidding war- CH5 instruct Hennessy to keep bidding high and they will pick up the difference. However, call me a conspiracy theorist, but I'm fairly sure that Frank Maloney would see Mick Henessy winning the purse bid as quite a positive. 1- He believes in his fighter David Price's chances of beating Fury, 2- it would be infront of a large free TV audience, so Price would get a lot of exposure no matter what happened, but especially if he beat Fury live on CH5 it would transfer a massive amount of instant recognition to the viewing audience who might not of known Price beforehand, especially seeings as CH5 have been building Tyson Fury for quite some time now....3- and finally, it would't cost Maloney much. So it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Â Boxnation.... Â I can understand people being apprehensive about it, and I suppose it is somewhat similar to the situation over in the States regarding promotional companies like Top Rank and Golden Boy now having the ability to produce and distribute their own PPV events without HBO or Showtime, if the networks do not approve of the fights that are put to them, only with Boxnation being an actual channel, but I think it has still been born out of the same circumstances and tension. Frank Warren can say otherwise as much as he likes, and I know that Boxnation as a project in general has probably been going on for some time, but I don't think it is a coincidence that the launch of this new premium channel has came not long after Sky announced that they will not be doing anymore PPV's for a while. Â I still think that Boxnation is a positive though. I like the fact that its format will be similar to that of Setanta, or at least it seems to be, with the customer paying per month for the channel without any per-night PPV's on top. With Setanta, every other weekend we got fights such as Pacquiao Vs Marquez/Barrera, with big fights with British interest included in the package such as Calzaghe Vs Hopkins/Jones, Haye Vs Mormeck/Macarinelli/Barrett. Considering the fact that Warren last year, put on shows such as the Magnificent Seven and the Degale-Groves show which were both on SBO, they would be included with the Boxnation package, and then you have everything else on top, so this has potential to be very good, just depends how they deal with it. Â As far as Primetime and one night PPV's goes, it probably won't be this year, but I can see them in the near future also switching to the same format as the one which Setanta used and which Boxnation are going to use. I think they will have to really. Â cheers for that. 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Paid Members Taylorslade Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 Was Golota always such a dirty fighter or was it just those 2 fights?  Well, before the Bowe fights, he bit an opponent on the shoulder, and there was also a couple of other incidents, minor really. He was involved in a brilliant fight with Michael Grant in 1999, which he was winning before deciding that he didn't want to continue, for some reason. One of his cornermen famously said "I kept trying to convince him to fight, he kept spitting his mouthpiece out and I kept putting it back in, when I should've stuck it up his ass".  Not the best advert for boxing but amazing to watch from morbid curiosity. Still can't belive they kept the cameras rolling and aired the riot on live TV  Even more shocking, for me anyway, was Jim "Father of the year" Lampley completly forgetting that his teenage daughter was at ringside during the whole thing, and he didn't even realise she was missing until the end of the broadcast, by which time he had scrambled his way to where the hard camera was set up, which was quite some time later.  As much as I was a fan of Riddick Bowe in the ring, I never liked his team, because outside of Eddie Futch they all brought nothing but trouble. Obviously, the Golota stuff was not their fault, but I remember one of the people from his entourage who had a penchant for whacking people with one of those massive mobile phones, Paul E style, just when the Golota riot starts to kick off, he cracks the elderly Lou Duva a couple of times with it. I remember Rock Newman hauling Elijah Tillery over the top rope when he and Bowe got into a little kicking contest after the bell to end one of the rounds. And who can forget Bowe cracking Larry Donald at a press conference for no apparent reason. Fan Man got what he deserved though  Bowe vs Tyson would have been interesting. They were both past their best by the mid 90s but I think it would be competitive.  I'm sure people will disagree, and the delusional Tyson sympathisers would no doubt be up in arms, but I don't think Tyson of that time was any different to what he was during 86-90.  Looking at the first Holyfield fight in particular, Tyson does everything that he would've if they were fighting in 1988 or so. Still the same reflexes, punching power and speed, Evander was just a much better fighter. People also forget that going into that fight, there were serious concerns for Holyfields health and that he was going to get hurt. Evander himself had been through those tough fights with Bowe which didn't do him any good at all, and he also had a few medical problems, so it's safe to say that if anyone was a little faded for that one, it was Holyfield. The jail time wasn't as rough on Mike as it could've been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 Even more shocking, for me anyway, was Jim "Father of the year" Lampley completly forgetting that his teenage daughter was at ringside during the whole thing, and he didn't even realise she was missing until the end of the broadcast, by which time he had scrambled his way to where the hard camera was set up, which was quite some time later. Â Haha yeah. Surely the first thing you'd think is to find your daughter. How the fuck would that slip your mind? Â I'm sure people will disagree, and the delusional Tyson sympathisers would no doubt be up in arms, but I don't think Tyson of that time was any different to what he was during 86-90. Â Looking at the first Holyfield fight in particular, Tyson does everything that he would've if they were fighting in 1988 or so. Still the same reflexes, punching power and speed, Evander was just a much better fighter. People also forget that going into that fight, there were serious concerns for Holyfields health and that he was going to get hurt. Evander himself had been through those tough fights with Bowe which didn't do him any good at all, and he also had a few medical problems, so it's safe to say that if anyone was a little faded for that one, it was Holyfield. The jail time wasn't as rough on Mike as it could've been. Â Yeah good point. Holyfield was easily the best opponent he'd ever faced at that point. I think Holyfield would have beat him if they fought anytime between 86-91 aswell. Same with Lewis vs Tyson. Â My thoughts on Tyson are that he was one of the most exciting heavyweights of all time but he was kind of fortunate he came along when he did. When he came on the scene the heavyweight division was pretty weak in comparison with the previous 10-15 years. Ali, Frazier, Norton were done. Foreman was retired. Holmes was winding down his career. I'm no expert on the era but I don't think there was much in the way of high level opposition at the time. If Tyson came along when them guys were at their peak I don't think he'd have had half the success he did in all honesty. Â As it turned out he was just what the heavyweight division needed at the time. A young exciting KO artist they could sell PPVs with at a time where there wasn't much going on in the division. By the early 90s guys like Holyfield, Bowe and Lewis were making waves and the first time he faced someone on that level he was exposed. Â I know he lost to Douglas before that but this was a more damaging loss imo. The Douglas loss could maybe be put down to him underestimating him and there was reports he was not training seriously. With Holyfield he had the fight beaten out of him until he actually turned away to stop the punishment. He fought bravely against Lewis but he had nowt for Lennox and took a pasting. Â Of that early-mid 90s crop of heavyweights I'd rank the top 4 as Holyfield, Lewis, Bowe and Tyson (not neccessarily in that order). Then there were guys like Foreman, Moorer and Holmes who had his moments in his comeback to the ring. The fact Tyson fought 2 of the other top 4 and never won once always made me think he was a bit overrated. I'd have had Bowe to beat him aswell if they fought but Bowe was a bit unpredictable in that you never knew what shape he'd show up in. Â Still, Tyson was a beast. I'll always enjoy busting out the old Tyson fights. He was one of the most fascinating boxers in the sport imo. In and out the ring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 Some interesting little sparring videos  Muhammad Ali vs Tommy Hearns ! Roberto Duran vs Nigel Benn  Never saw the Ali/Hearns one before  Anyone see the Michael Watson Story on Sky Sports over the weekend? I thought it was really good. What's up with Eubank though, is he ill or something? He looked really thin. Even more surprising he seems to have swapped his lisp for a really fucking irritating whistly S  Can't believe it's been 20 years since the Watson incident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 26, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 Anyone who subscribes to Premier Sports the Rafael Marquez vs Toshiaki Nishioka fight is live on there Saturday night at 4am. Â Really looking forward to that one. This along with Rees/Matthews and Martinez/Barker the same night. Great night for boxing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 Depending on how Warrens channel looks I may ditch Sky Sports and get that instead. Does anyone know when it starts, and how long we get it for free for initially? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted September 26, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 26, 2011 ahhh fuck i keep forgetting it's October on the weekend, Barker/Martinez, awesome! Â oh and Rock Newman was fucking nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 An updated list of some big fights scheduled for the next few months;  Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011  Sergio Martinez vs. Darren Barker 12 Rounds - Middleweight Division (for Martinez's RING championship) Toshiaki Nishioka vs. Rafael Marquez 12 Rounds - Jr. Featherweight Division (for Nishioka's WBC belt) Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Mike Oliver  Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011  Rafal Jackiewicz vs. Kell Brook 12 Rounds - Welterweight Division (WBA title eliminator)  Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011  Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson 12 Rounds - Light heavyweight Division (for Hopkins' RING/WBC titles) Nathan Cleverly vs. Tony Bellew 12 Rounds - Light Heavyweight Division (for Cleverly's WBO title)  Friday, Nov. 4, 2011  Denis Lebedev vs. James Toney 12 Rounds - Cruiserweight Division  Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011  Robert Stieglitz vs. Mikkel Kessler 12 Rounds - Super Middleweight Division (for Stieglitz's WBO title)  Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011  Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez 12 Rounds - Welterweight Division (for Pacquiao's WBO title) Ricky Burns vs. Michael Katsidis 12 Rounds - Lightweight Division (interim WBO title)  Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011  Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (No. 5) vs. Peter Manfredo Jr. 12 Rounds - Middleweight Division (for Chavez's WBC title) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Taylorslade Posted September 27, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 27, 2011 Anyone see the Michael Watson Story on Sky Sports over the weekend? I thought it was really good. What's up with Eubank though, is he ill or something? He looked really thin. Even more surprising he seems to have swapped his lisp for a really fucking irritating whistly S Â Can't believe it's been 20 years since the Watson incident. Â I was just about to post something along the same lines myself regarding the Watson documentary. During the sections with Eubank, I kept thinking to myself "Something's not right, here" or "Is there something different about him?", I couldn't put my finger on it. Then, I realised that what was missing, was his iconic lisp. Then it hit me that the reports of Eubank paying something in the region of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Taylorslade Posted September 27, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 27, 2011 The lisp has officially gone.... Â And just for fun, one of my all-time favourite Eubank howlers.... Â Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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