Riddick Bowe

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Bowe cropped.jpeg
Class of 2015
Modern Category
Hall of Fame bio: [1]

Name: Riddick Bowe
Alias: Big Daddy
Birth Name: Riddick Lamont Bowe
Hometown: Fort Washington, Maryland, USA
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 196cm
Reach: 206cm
Pro Boxer: Record
Amateur Boxer: Record
Pro Muay Thai: Record

Amateur Highlights

Bowe and Lennox Lewis on the medal podium at the 1988 Seoul Olympics
  • Purported Amateur Record: 104-18
  • Trained by George Washington at the Bed-Stuy Boxing Association.
  • Worked as a sparring partner for Tyrell Biggs and Evander Holyfield.
  • 1983 United States Junior Championships: Stopped in two rounds by Adolpho Washington in middleweight competition.
  • 1985 New York Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Champion (Novice Division)
  • 1985 Light Heavyweight Champion of Junior World Championships in Bucharest, Romania. Results:
    • Defeated Mikhail Sadovski (Soviet Union) RSC 1
    • Defeated Damian Vasile (Romania) RSC 1
    • Defeated Peter Hart (Hungary) RSC 1
  • 1986 New York Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Champion (Open Division)
  • 1987 New York Golden Gloves Super Heavyweight Champion (Open Division)
  • 1987 Heavyweight Bronze Medalist at the Pan-American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana. Lost to Jorge Luis Gonzalez on points (2-3)
  • 1988 New York Golden Gloves Super Heavyweight Champion (Open Division)
  • 1988 Super Heavyweight Silver Medalist at the Seoul Olympic Games. Results:

Professional Highlights

Cover of the April 1993 issue of The Ring

World Titles:

  • Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion (1992)
  • WBC Heavyweight Champion (1992)
  • WBA/IBF Heavyweight Champion (1992-1993)
  • WBO Heavyweight Champion (1995-1996)

Awards & Recognition:

Record:

Notes

Bowe vs. Evander Holyfield in 1992
Bowe vs. Evander Holyfield in 1993
Bowe vs. Evander Holyfield in 1995
  • Bowe was trained as a professional by Eddie Futch, whom Bowe affectionately called Papa Smurf.
  • Bowe defeated Evander Holyfield to win the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship on November 13, 1992. Before the fight, Bowe signed an agreement with the WBC to make his first title defense—if he should defeat Holyfield—against the winner of the October 31 title eliminator between No. 1-ranked Razor Ruddock and No. 2-ranked Lennox Lewis, which Lewis won by a second-round knockout. [2]
  • The WBC gave Bowe and Lewis until December 13 to reach an agreement or the fight would go to a purse bid. If Bowe refused to meet Lewis, the WBC title would be awarded to Lewis. [3]
  • Rock Newman, Bowe's manager, made two offers to Lewis. The first would have guaranteed Lewis $3 million, while giving Bowe 90% of the purse and Lewis 10%. The second offer was for Lewis to refuse the WBC title, have an interim fight in the United States for $2.5 million, and then fight Bowe for $9 million or a percentage to be negotiated. Frank Maloney, the manager of Lewis, rejected both offers and countered with his own proposal: a 75-25 percent split of the purse. Newman turned it down. Maloney later had a change of heart and agreed to the first offer, but Newman told him he was too late. Newman said a deal for Bowe to defend the title against an opponent other than Lewis was imminent. [4] [[5]
  • On December 14, 1992, Bowe held a news conference and dumped his WBC title into a garbage can. "If Lewis wants the belt, he has to get it out of the garbage," Bowe said. The WBC then declared Lennox Lewis the new WBC heavyweight champion. [6]
  • Bowe and Evander Holyfield fought for the third time on November 4, 1995. Bowe was the WBO heavyweight champion, but Holyfield was not interested in fighting for the WBO title. He thought to do so would hurt his chances of getting a shot at the WBA, WBC and IBF titles. Bowe agreed to relinquish the WBO crown as a concession to Holyfield, but he changed his mind when rival promoters expressed an interest in the title. "When I saw how fervently Duva and Arum were jockeying for position to get one of their fighters the WBO title, I asked the WBO if there was some way Riddick could be accommodated in his wish to fight Evander, and when it was over, remain the WBO champion," Bowe's manager, Rock Newman, said before the bout. The WBO reinstated Bowe as champion, and the Holyfield fight, which Bowe won by an eighth-round knockout, was a non-title bout. [7]
  • On January 11, 1996, Bowe was stripped of the WBO title for signing to fight Andrew Golota instead of the No. 1-ranked WBO contender, Alexander Zolkin. [8]
  • After defeating Andrew Golota twice by disqualification in 1996, Bowe retired from boxing and joined the United States Marine Corps. After just three days of basic training, Bowe decided to quit and told his drill instructor and battalion commander that he wasn't cut out to be a Marine. The Marine Corps allows a recruit to leave voluntarily or through dismissal—called a "level-entry" separation—if he or she demonstrates an inability to adjust to the rigors and regimentation of the Corps. [9]
  • Bowe kidnapped his estranged wife, Judy Bowe, and their five children in February 1998. "I was in fear for my life the whole time," Judy Bowe said. "He showed me the knife and the other stuff, and he said he came ready. He said if I didn't do what he said, he'd use the knife and the things that he had. All the way on the drive he kept saying that we'd go back and be a happy family and things would be normal. I kept thinking, how can anything be normal if he is kidnapping us to take us back home with him? That never dawned on him." Judy Bowe, using a cell phone in the bathroom of a restaurant, called her cousin, who alerted the police. The incident was soon defused, and Bowe was taken to the psychiatric ward of a hospital and later arrested. A Federal grand jury indicted Bowe on charges of interstate domestic violence, and he pleaded guilty in June 1998. His defense argued that he had brain damage from years of fighting, and the judge subsequently sentenced him to 30 days. That sentence was later overturned, and Bowe was sentenced to 18 months in prison. [10]
  • Bowe sued Rock Newman for $55 million, money he claimed his former manager had stolen money from him. Bowe dropped the suit in 2004 and apologized to Newman. "I was lied to and misled by a former adviser into thinking that you had stolen money from me," Bowe wrote to Newman. "You have now provided every detail about how my finances were handled. I understand now that I was wrong to claim you took money from me and that it was unfair of me to bring the action against you." [11]
  • Bowe made his Muay Thai debut in Thailand on June 14, 2013. The 45-year-old Bowe, weighing 300 pounds, was stopped in two rounds by Levgen Golovin of Russia. Bowe was dropped multiple times with kicks to the shins. [12]
  • On August 25, 2013, Bowe announced on Twitter that he wanted to become a professional wrestler. [13]
  • On January 14, 2014, Bowe announced on Twitter that he was going to return to boxing and regain the World Heavyweight Championship. [14]
  • According to Rock Newman, Bowe grossed more than $60 million in the ring. However, Bowe's net worth is now listed as $30,000. [15]


Preceded by:
Evander Holyfield 		WBC Heavyweight Champion
1992 Nov 13 – 1992 Dec 14
Vacated 		Succeeded by:
Lennox Lewis
Preceded by:
Evander Holyfield 		WBA Heavyweight Champion
IBF Heavyweight Champion
1992 Nov 13 – 1993 Nov 6 		Succeeded by:
Evander Holyfield
Preceded by:
Herbie Hide 		WBO Heavyweight Champion
1995 Mar 11 – 1996 Jan 11
Stripped 		Succeeded by:
Henry Akinwande


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