Amateur Record: 104-18 (allegedly)
Bowe's amateur career was capped off with a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics. It wouldn't be until 2021 that an American heavyweight win a silver medal again. Ironically the bronze medalist Andrew Golota would be his final opponent in his prime while the gold medalist Lennox Lewis was a fight that could have happened but never materialized.
The 6'5" heavyweight from Brownsville New York was trained initially by the legendary Eddie Futch who made Joe Frazier and Ken Norton be able to defeat Muhammad Ali. Unlike most big men Bowe fought very well on the inside which was something most heavyweights simply did not see coming.
The Early Years
The pro debut of Riddick Bowe was against future heavyweight title challenger Lionel Butler who was 0-1-0 at the time. Bowe stops him in two rounds.
Unfortunately his second fight with Tracy Thomas is not out there on YouTube. Thomas, 6-3-0, was stopped in the third round. Neither is his third fight with Garing Lane, 4-3-1, that he won a four round decision over. Also his fourth fight against Antonio Whiteside, 0-2-0, whom he knocked out in the first round is also not on YouTube.
Lorenzo Canady, 7-6-1, would get stopped in the second round. This being Bowe's fifth outing as a professional. You might recognize his opponent as being one of Mike Tyson's early knockouts.
Unfortunately his sixth professional about against Lee Moore, 0-1-0, is not out on YouTube either. Nor is his seventh fight against Anthony Hayes, 0-6-0, who he also stopped in the first round.
8-8-1 Earl Lewis becomes his eighth opponent and is also stopped in the first round. It is very hard retrospectively to understand why Riddick Bowe was being spoon-fed so many soft opponents so early on considering his amateur credentials.
Mike Acey, 10-3-1, gets stopped in one too. Unfortunately Bowe's tenth fight, a rematch with Garing Lane (now 4-4-1) who he stops in four rounds is also unavailable on YouTube. Neither is his 11th bout with 11-5-1 Don Askew which was yet another first round blowout.
8-1-0 Art Card makes it into the third round.
6-2-1 Charles Woolard makes it to the second.
4-5-1 Mike Robinson makes it to three.
Bowe's next match with former Mike Tyson victim Robert Colay, 7-9-1, who made it to the second round is not available on YouTube. And neither is his outing against 25-12-1 Eddie Gonzalez who went the scheduled eight round distance. Sadly, neither is the Jesus Contreras bout who was 9-0-1 who Bowe stopped in one round.
Prospect on the Rise
Bowe was now 17-0-0 and would face 17-1-1 Art Tucker in what is surely the first test of his career considering how many softball challenges he had so far. He stops Tucker in three rounds.
Former champion Pinklon Thomas, 30-4-1, becomes a massive step up in talent for Bowe but is stopped in the eighth round of the scheduled 10.
22-6-0 Bert Cooper get stopped in two rounds. Unfortunately Bowe's next outing against 17-11-1 Tony Morrison is not out there on YouTube. Clearly a stay busy fight as he was knocked out in one round.
19-3-0 Tyrell Biggs was next and he was stopped in the 8th round.
29-2-0 former heavyweight champion Tony Tubbs was up next in what has to be the toughest challenge of his young career as the fight goes the distance. Many an argument has been started recently on BoxRec over this particular match with rounds so close to call.
The performance apparently left a lot of bad tastes in people's mouths and a knockout was needed quickly so 17-1-0 Rodolfo Marin was fed to Bowe and was stopped in the second round.
Unfortunately 31-7-2 Philip Brown who was stopped in the third round is not on YouTube. But Bowe's next outing against 18-1-0 Bruce Seldon is, and he was stopped in the first round. It must be noted that later on Seldon would become WBA champion.
Elijah Tillery, 23-4-0, would become the first opponent to give Bowe some controversy. Disqualifying himself after kicking him these two men would meet up again not long after this.
Only this time Bowe would knock him out in the fourth round. Unfortunately 20-17-2 Conroy Nelson who was stopped in the first round is not available on YouTube for viewing.
17-13-1 Bigfoot Martin goes into the fifth round in what turns out to be pretty much the last softball matchup that Riddick Bowe will have in his boxing career from this point on.
The Contender
39-2-0 Pierre Coetzer takes him into the seventh round which is interesting because the following year George Foreman took him into the eighth. Nevertheless this fight catapults Riddick Bowe into a title shot against Evander Holyfield.
And the New...
28-0-0 former Undisputed cruiserweight champion and Undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield suffers his first loss by 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were: 117-110 (2x) and 115-112.
50-3-2 former WBA heavyweight champion Michael Dokes manages to get himself a title shot but the happy-go-lucky career comeback overcoming drug addiction screeches to a halt in the first round with one of the most devastating knockouts in heavyweight history.
19-9-2 Jesse Ferguson only managed to get this title shot because he won a shocking upset decision over Ray Mercer who was originally supposed to face Bowe for the title. He gets stopped in the second round.
Perhaps had the champion not had two softball title defenses he might have won this rematch with Evander Holyfield, then again the infamous Fan Man incident was such a huge distraction in the fight that it may very well have been the major deciding factor in throwing off the champions concentration. WBA & IBF titles on the line. The WBC champion at this time was Lennox Lewis.
Beat of a Different Drum
14-0-0 Buster Mathis Jr ends up being a no contest after the former heavyweight champion hit his opponent while he was down and knocked out Mathis unconscious. Because it happened under four rounds it automatically was ruled as a no contest. Still, not a good look for the former heavyweight champion.
16-0-0 Larry Donald in a bid for the WBC America's title becomes the next victim and it's clear to most everybody that Bowe is coming off the rails a bit as he hits Larry Donald in the press conference.
The former heavyweight champion wins a unanimous 12 round decision over his challenger but it seems as if Bowe has slipped a little bit in terms of conditioning and dedication to the sport.
What came next was rather interesting with Riddick Bowe going after essentially a minor world title, the WBO championship, which was held by a former cruiserweight champion named Herbie Hide. The 26-0-0 Hide would get knocked out in the sixth round. It must be noted that in a recent interview Bowe has stated that Hide hit him with the single hardest shot of his entire career.
23-0-0 Jorge Luis Gonzalez was a rematch from the amateurs as this man had defeated Bowe when they were younger but this time around Bowe got his revenge knocking him out in the sixth round.
No titles on the line here but these two men met for the final time and Evander Holyfield was knocked out in the eighth round. It would be the last major win of Bowe's career.
28-0-0 Andrew Golota would be up next and it is worth noting that the WBO would strip Bowe of the title for having taken this fight rather than defending the belt against their number one rated contender Alexander Zolkin. Bowe was clearly losing the fight but won by disqualification in the 7th round and afterwards a tremendous riot broke out in Madison Square Garden where George Foreman had to protect Jim Lampley from the crowd.
A rematch was made but not much different happened where Bowe was again losing the fight and once again the challenger disqualified himself this time in the 9th round. The saddest part of it all is if one looks back on interviews of Bowe prior to the match and afterwards the internal brain damage is self-evident and he was forced to retire.
Comebacks
He would return to boxing against journeyman Marcus Rhodes, 29-25-1, and would win by second round stoppage. Sadly nobody could convince him to stop.
18-5-1 Billy Zumbrun was next. I remember watching this vividly on Fox Sports Net with Tom Arnold being one of the commentators and how the crowd went absolutely nuts when the decision went to Riddick Bowe when it was so obvious that Zumbrun won.
3 years later Bowe would return to the ring one last time against 14-12-1 Gene Pukall. The fight took place in Germany as it couldn't get sanctioned in the United States if my memory is correct. Bowe managed to win a unanimous eight round decision.
Because of poor showings in his comeback in boxing he went into the world of Muay Thai against someone named Levgen Golovin. Not unexpectedly he lost this match by stoppage. He was 43 years old, and thank Jesus he called it a career.
Fight by Fight: Riddick Bowe
Re: Fight by Fight: Riddick Bowe
Bowe was a one of the greatest talents ever and winning the Holyfield trilogy alone gives him a high all-time ranking.
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