15 years ago - heavyweight clear out

chinny · Post by **chinny** » 29 Oct 2007, 09:26

The fact Halloween is coming up reminded me it is 15 years since we had Lewis-Ruddock and Holyfield-Bowe over the course of a fortnight.

We are (rightly) banging on about how good it is to be a fan right now but that was a cracking couple of weeks.

Not sure if this is rose-tinted but the profile of those fights seemed so much higher too. Both of them were all over the papers for days.

We also had Meldrick Taylor on the London undercard defending against Crisanto Espana.

Christ, I’m 30 so this was half my life ago but I can remember that fortnight of boxing vividly.

EddieShredder · Post by **EddieShredder** » 29 Oct 2007, 09:32

Meldrick Taylor... what a fighter

josh fg · Post by **josh fg** » 29 Oct 2007, 09:35

I don't even know what the two fights to go toward cleaning up the HW division at the moment would be!

Good fighters aren't fighting other good fighters any more they fight stiffs and hope a big fight comes allong then if they win a title they try to take the softist defences.

Poncey · Post by **Poncey** » 29 Oct 2007, 10:52

How bout the four belt holders fighting in 2 matches...who would you pair up?

And the winner fights Ruiz.

dondada · Post by **dondada** » 29 Oct 2007, 11:01

chinny wrote:The fact Halloween is coming up reminded me it is 15 years since we had Lewis-Ruddock and Holyfield-Bowe over the course of a fortnight.

15 years!!! Where has my life gone? :( :(

What a couple of weeks that was, you're right mate.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 29 Oct 2007, 11:34

Halloween 1992 - the year the BBC aired that ghost watch programme with Michael Parkinson - that seemed so well done at the time.

It was a massive two weeks - although personally cannot remember Bowe vs Holyfield getting much press hear. Bowe vs Holyfield II got more - many people thought Holyfield would beat Bowe first time round.

oliverfennell · Post by **oliverfennell** » 29 Oct 2007, 11:45

How about October 1993 - Lewis-Bruno and Benn-Eubank II on consecutive weekends. What a fortnight THAT was!

Datsue · Post by **Datsue** » 29 Oct 2007, 11:47

stujones wrote:although personally cannot remember Bowe vs Holyfield getting much press

It was on the news the next day, though -- I can barely remember any heavyweight bout that wasn't a freakshow since getting mainstream news meedja attention... I remember it was hailed in the press as the best heavy fight in years. Bowe seemed to be the New Man for the HW division; people even talked about it at school the next morning (and, as one of my mates at the time was convinced that Eubank had beaten Mike Tyson, this was quite an achievement).

And the fight itself was shown live on ITV, I think. I might be confusing it with the rematch, but I think I stayed up waaay past my bedtime to watch it.

oliverfennell · Post by **oliverfennell** » 29 Oct 2007, 11:50

Datsue wrote:
stujones wrote:although personally cannot remember Bowe vs Holyfield getting much press
It was on the news the next day, though -- I can barely remember any heavyweight bout that wasn't a freakshow since getting mainstream news meedja attention... I remember it was hailed in the press as the best heavy fight in years. Bowe seemed to be the New Man for the HW division; people even talked about it at school the next morning (and, as one of my mates at the time was convinced that Eubank had beaten Mike Tyson, this was quite an achievement).

And the fight itself was shown live on ITV, I think. I might be confusing it with the rematch, but I think I stayed up waaay past my bedtime to watch it.

We only had terrestrial TV and I definitely stayed up for the rematch. I think the first one was on Sky, cos I remember reading about it on Ceefax the next morning.

Datsue · Post by **Datsue** » 29 Oct 2007, 12:14

I've become so intrigued by this that I have just phoned my sister.

Apparently you guys are all right about the first one not being on ITV, 'cos she replied with:

"Fuckin' hell, what are you on about? It was the one with the funny man who fell in from the parachute-y thing. You woke up everyone in the house, running around yelling about it."

She also mentioned that my Uncle Levi had SKY at the time, and he may have taped the first fight, which is where my confusion arose.

Carry on....

oliverfennell · Post by **oliverfennell** » 29 Oct 2007, 12:21

Terry D wrote:
Datsue wrote:I've become so intrigued by this that I have just phoned my sister.

Apparently you guys are all right about the first one not being on ITV, 'cos she replied with:

"Fuckin' hell, what are you on about? It was the one with the funny man who fell in from the parachute-y thing. You woke up everyone in the house, running around yelling about it."

She also mentioned that my Uncle Levi had SKY at the time, and he may have taped the first fight, which is where my confusion arose.

Carry on....
I think it was a delayed weekday showing because I was tired in school the next day. I am sure I did not know the result. Or that some daft coont was going to glide into the ring, if you'll excuse the rimming pun.

I actually avoided the Bowe-Dokes result all the way until the Sportsnight broadcast of it the following Wednesday. I avoided the result for FOUR DAYS and then Des f'n Lynam came on and said "As I'm sure you all know by now, it didn't last very long..." :x :x

Dirk Kelly · Post by **Dirk Kelly** » 29 Oct 2007, 12:23

I was just a lad but can remember these. Being youthful I remember being scared for Lewis and thinking that Razor was going to tear him a new arse hole, how wrong can one be?!?

If people can remember that far back how did they call or what was their thoughts on the outcome of both fights?

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 29 Oct 2007, 12:23

Late summer / Autumnn of 1995 was a special period for British boxing - McCall vs Bruno, Eubank vs Collins, Naz vs Robinson, Lewis vs Morrison.

chinny · Post by **chinny** » 29 Oct 2007, 14:11

Dirk Kelly wrote:I was just a lad but can remember these. Being youthful I remember being scared for Lewis and thinking that Razor was going to tear him a new arse hole, how wrong can one be?!?

If people can remember that far back how did they call or what was their thoughts on the outcome of both fights?

I thought Lewis had bitten off more than he could chew with Ruddock, but hindsight shows the Tyson fights flattered Ruddock and Lewis always rose to the occasion in big and/or dangerous fights.

I expected Bowe to fold under Holyfield's pressure but he was fantastic that night. I remember the goosebumps as he came into the ring that night to Phil Collins "In the air tonight". Bowe was really personable back then (aside from his spats with Lewis). Shame how he turned out, and not a good advert for boxing.

Coco · Post by **Coco** » 29 Oct 2007, 14:42

[/quote]

I actually avoided the Bowe-Dokes result all the way until the Sportsnight broadcast of it the following Wednesday. I avoided the result for FOUR DAYS and then Des f'n Lynam came on and said "As I'm sure you all know by now, it didn't last very long..." :x :x[/quote]

You should have been able to predict that result tho!

oliverfennell · Post by **oliverfennell** » 29 Oct 2007, 16:25

Coco wrote:

I actually avoided the Bowe-Dokes result all the way until the Sportsnight broadcast of it the following Wednesday. I avoided the result for FOUR DAYS and then Des f'n Lynam came on and said "As I'm sure you all know by now, it didn't last very long..." :x :x[/quote]

You should have been able to predict that result tho![/quote]

True enough, but still... I don't like to know ANY boxing result before seeing it.

nickd · Post by **nickd** » 29 Oct 2007, 17:31

oliverfennell wrote:
Terry D wrote:
Datsue wrote:I've become so intrigued by this that I have just phoned my sister.

Apparently you guys are all right about the first one not being on ITV, 'cos she replied with:

"Fuckin' hell, what are you on about? It was the one with the funny man who fell in from the parachute-y thing. You woke up everyone in the house, running around yelling about it."

She also mentioned that my Uncle Levi had SKY at the time, and he may have taped the first fight, which is where my confusion arose.

Carry on....
I think it was a delayed weekday showing because I was tired in school the next day. I am sure I did not know the result. Or that some daft coont was going to glide into the ring, if you'll excuse the rimming pun.
I actually avoided the Bowe-Dokes result all the way until the Sportsnight broadcast of it the following Wednesday. I avoided the result for FOUR DAYS and then Des f'n Lynam came on and said "As I'm sure you all know by now, it didn't last very long..." :x :x

Had a similar experience watching the delayed broadcast of Bruno v Witherspoon the following morning - BBC or ITV I can't remember which. The announcer said something along the lines of "Now we have coverage of Frank Bruno failing to win the heavyweight title last night" or words to that effect. Twats.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 29 Oct 2007, 19:27

Lewis to beat Rudduck - very tough to call. Holyfield to beat Bowe - although I was worried he might have underestimated him... it seemed like all the pundits thought Holyfield was going to win.

Went for Holyfield in the rematch - Bowe done nothing as a champion and Holyfield's tune up vs Stewart was a decent opponent.

Yes, in those day the World Heavyweight title was always shown in the News segments in ITV's news especially and I remember being mesmorised by the action in their first meeting. Unfortunately those days have gone, sadly.

Goz · Post by **Goz** » 29 Oct 2007, 19:30

Even now if they got a unified Heavyweight champ it would do a lot for the sport, even if you knew they weren't all that much kop, when the unidsputed Heavyweight champ defends his title(s) the world knows about it.

Around the time Vitali was beating Sanders and Williams I thought it was getting a bit of prestige back even though you knew the fights themselves were pretty poor quality....

EddieShredder · Post by **EddieShredder** » 30 Oct 2007, 04:36

I think having a heavyweight champ with a little bit of charisma, something about him, would go someway towards getting the public interested in the sport again.

Dirk Kelly · Post by **Dirk Kelly** » 30 Oct 2007, 05:22

nickd wrote:
oliverfennell wrote:
Terry D wrote: I remember watching the semi final of first series of the Contender and then the ad break came on and said, The Final Sergio Mora vs. Peter Manfredo Jr, next Monday at 9.

As you can guess it sort of ruined the rest of the programme.

I think it was a delayed weekday showing because I was tired in school the next day. I am sure I did not know the result. Or that some daft coont was going to glide into the ring, if you'll excuse the rimming pun.
I actually avoided the Bowe-Dokes result all the way until the Sportsnight broadcast of it the following Wednesday. I avoided the result for FOUR DAYS and then Des f'n Lynam came on and said "As I'm sure you all know by now, it didn't last very long..." :x :x
Had a similar experience watching the delayed broadcast of Bruno v Witherspoon the following morning - BBC or ITV I can't remember which. The announcer said something along the lines of "Now we have coverage of Frank Bruno failing to win the heavyweight title last night" or words to that effect. Twats.

Remember watching the semi final of the 1st series of the Contender and the ads came on to a highlight of next weeks show - see Sergio Mora vs. Peter Manfredo Jnr in next weeks final. Sort of ruined the rest of the show for me!

MightyWarrior · Post by **MightyWarrior** » 30 Oct 2007, 07:12

Yes ITV showed the Bowe/Holy fan man fight live, I remember watching it and wondering if I'd fallen asleep and was dreaming. Sky showed Lennox/Ruddock live.

Not sure if Sky showed the first Bowe/Holy fight though....I know they missed Bowe/Gonzalez awhile later, but surely they showed Bowe/Holy 1...??

Both were 50/50 fights....a lot of people thought Bowe might win because of his size, but he was yet to show he had the fighting heart as well. And I thought Lennox might win on points....with Razor one punch away - never thought Lewis would blast him out like that - I don't think there was a person on the planet who would have predicted that - not after Razor surviving 20 odd rounds with Tyson.

G-man · Post by **G-man** » 30 Oct 2007, 07:44

Sky defo showed the first fight cos i remember Ian Darke commentating.

The second one was live on ITV - i remember Jorge Luis Gonzalez beating up an ancient Renaldo Snipes on the undercard and cutting back to the studio just as Jim Rosenthal was choking on a bacon roll or something cos he didn't expect Tommy Hearns to get rid of Andrew Maynard in a minute or so.

chinny · Post by **chinny** » 30 Oct 2007, 08:14

G-man wrote:Sky defo showed the first fight cos i remember Ian Darke commentating.

The second one was live on ITV - i remember Jorge Luis Gonzalez beating up an ancient Renaldo Snipes on the undercard and cutting back to the studio just as Jim Rosenthal was choking on a bacon roll or something cos he didn't expect Tommy Hearns to get rid of Andrew Maynard in a minute or so.

Yes, spot on. allegedly was in the studio as well fawning over fellow guest Lennox Lewis.

Old bones Ian · Post by **Old bones Ian** » 30 Oct 2007, 08:45

G-man wrote:Sky defo showed the first fight cos i remember Ian Darke commentating.

The second one was live on ITV - i remember Jorge Luis Gonzalez beating up an ancient Renaldo Snipes on the undercard and cutting back to the studio just as Jim Rosenthal was choking on a bacon roll or something cos he didn't expect Tommy Hearns to get rid of Andrew Maynard in a minute or so.

The Gonzalez v Snipes fight was hard watching in the end, Snipes just kept taking right hand after right hand. And Gonzalez started taking the piss out of him, Snipes proved he was a very proud man that night.

I was glad when Bowe did a number on Gonzalez

15 years ago - heavyweight clear out

15 years ago - heavyweight clear out

Re: 15 years ago - heavyweight clear out