By Shaun Brown
Where do you begin with Riddick Bowe? A heavyweight fighter that had it all, won it all yet could have had so much more. A planned comeback for 2012 may have his fans shaking their heads and not sure where to look. But, “Big Daddy” won’t be denied one last stand and here he tells Boxing Scene why. Bowe, almost 44-years-old and inactive since 2008, wants to face the Klitschko brothers.
BoxingScene.com: Why come back now? What are the reasons behind it and what do you have left to offer?
Bowe: I sat around for ten years. I gave the Klitschko’s a chance to get it right so I feel I need to show ‘em how it should be done.
You take the Klitschko’s, I can match them with experience and size. I am not intimidated by them. Everybody they fight, they are intimidated by them (the Klitschkos). To make a long story short I have the whole package to beat ‘em.
BoxingScene.com: Is what you achieved in your career not enough?
Bowe: You always have the eye of the tiger. You are always trying to prove that you are better.
BoxingScene.com: Do you and your team have a strategy for 2012? Who will be training you now?
Bowe: Yes, to kick ass and take names. My performance coach is Sherman M. Nelson Jr. and my boxing training coach is Thell Torrence.
BoxingScene.com: What do you say to your fans who would rather not see you come back and fight?
Bowe: Just pray for me. I mean what else can you tell ‘em?
BoxingScene.com: When was the moment you knew you wanted to fight on?
Bowe: Watching one of the Klitschkos fight David Haye. I watched that fight and knew that I had to come back for America.
BoxingScene.com: You’ve had three fights in four years. What have you been doing in between these fights and such long breaks? What makes this comeback different?
Bowe: Watching everybody else do what they do. I’m going to show them the Riddick Bowe of 1992 but if not better!
BoxingScene.com: How do you know that you won’t wake up one day and not want to do it again?
Bowe: Because when you have the eye of a tiger it just doesn’t dissipate like that. If you don’t believe me ask Evander Holyfield. He is 50 and still did it and I can sure enough do it at 43.
BoxingScene.com: Currently, there isn’t a fighter in the division who could’ve beaten you in your prime? How much of your natural abilities do you need to beat these guys?
Bowe: Let’s just say this, I‘m not going to take anyone lightly. I’m going to give them the Riddick Bowe each and every time I fight.
BoxingScene.com: So tell me, right now what does a typical day for Riddick Bowe involve?
Bowe: I’m up daily at 5:30 and I’m running three-four miles. I do my sprints after running. I come home, shower, go back to sleep, wake up at around 11:30/12 and have lunch. 1:00 I’m in the weight room. When I come back I lounge for two hours and by 3pm I’m in the boxing gym. If I’m not boxing I will shadow box for four or five rounds. Then I hit the heavy bag four or five rounds. Then I hit the speed bag three rounds. Then I jump rope for 10 minutes straight. Then I will do 100 sit-ups, a couple of push-ups then it all starts again the following day. If I were boxing we would eliminate heavy bags but do everything else.
BoxingScene.com: Everyone has had dark days. How have you been able to survive yours (jail, bankruptcy etc) and still make it to this point in your life?
Bowe: That’s what you call rolling with the punches and playing the hand you’re dealt. You have to understand I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor so I can pretty much deal with any situation.
BoxingScene.com: Is there anything that you can still learn from the life you’ve led?
Bowe: Yes, save my own money and don’t buy seven different houses for various different people and I loaned money to people without making them sign an agreement. I just gave money away trying to help people. I was trying to do the right thing but now the right thing to do is look out for me and my family. I have a 5-year-old daughter so I want to see her go to college. If I give all my money away again that’s not going to happen. I’m going to be so tight I squeak.
BoxingScene.com: How do you look back on your childhood and growing up in Brooklyn?
Bowe: It was fun and everyday was a different adventure for me whether I was in school or in the house. I’ll tell you why. I had 13 brothers and sisters and there was always something popping. It was very exciting. There were so many kids in school so there was always something to get into. When I went to school I thought it was always playtime. Looking back I wish I had applied myself more because I would have been a damn genius, absolutely.
BoxingScene.com: Can you remember when you first got hooked on boxing or was it something that you had to do to get off the streets?
Bowe: I was never a street kid. My mom made us stay in the house. In the 7th grade I had to do an essay in class. The teacher made us talk amongst each other and a class bully named Darryl Lane thought Ali was a f*ggot and that Joe Frazier was a better fighter. And if I thought Ali was a better fighter then I was a f*ggot as well. With my smart mouth the first thing that came to mind was I told him “Well your mama liked it” – I had just watched the movie ‘Cooley High’ the night before. And I motioned (pumping) like the character, Cole Chief, did in Cooley High.
Everybody in the class began to laugh at him. We began to fight and he came at me like Joe Frazier and I took an Ali jab right in his face. Then it got good to me and I fired off a left-right combination. I was on my toes then and he swung a wild right left and then a wild left right like Joe Frazier and then I got jiggy with it. I did the Muhammad Ali shuffle then hit him with a three piece and down he went. I said “There he is, there he is” and he was on the floor. The teacher, Ms. Hill, said I was pretty good with my hands and would I like for her to call a couple of gyms for me and I said why certainly. She told me about The Bedstuy Boxing Association.
It changed my life. I loved what I was seeing through the window. They gave me a permission slip and I took it home. My mother wouldn’t sign it and I cried. My older sister, Karen signed it and I’ve been boxing ever since.
BoxingScene.com: Was there anything else you wanted to do with your life apart from be a fighter?
Bowe: First I wanted to be a United States Marine then I wanted to be a police officer then I ran across the essay and wanted to be the heavyweight champion of the world.
BoxingScene.com: By most people’s standards you had a fantastic amateur career, what were the standout moments for you?
Bowe: First one was the Olympics then I won the Junior World championship then I won the NYC Golden Gloves 4 times.
BoxingScene.com: Tell me about the first time you met Eddie Futch? What was it like working with him and what do you think he’d have to say about your comeback?
Bowe: Well, he’s not a big guy. He is laid back and kind of quiet. He laid down what he expected of me. He told me I had to get up at a particular time and run a certain course. One day he told me he was leaving town and that I should get up and do my road work. As I was running up a steep hill finishing out my course he was sitting there in a truck at the top of the hill. He was seeing if I was serious. Once he realized I was serious he was willing to take me on.
I was ill advised to retire by my former manager, Rock Newman. I was 29 years old. I was too young to retire if you ask me. Making this comeback is for Eddie Futch a.k.a. ‘Poppa Smurf’. He told me I had the potential to be a great fighter and I think by making this comeback I’m doing it in his honour and to make his words come true
BoxingScene.com: And what of your relationship with Rock Newman? Were there more good times than bad times?
Bowe: There were definitely good times. I don’t know why we don’t speak to each other but there’s no relationship there at all.
BoxingScene.com: How does it make you feel that your trilogy with Evander Holyfield is still talked about and watched even to this day?
Bowe: It makes me feel good and every fighter wants to be remembered in that aspect. It’s an honour for me to be remembered in that way. He and I can make history because no two prominent heavyweights have fought each other four times. I can run away with a 3 to 1 score or he can tie it up 2-2.
BoxingScene.com: I must ask you about Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Did you genuinely dislike Lennox and do you have regrets about not getting to fight him or Tyson?
Bowe: Lennox Lewis knows that when you’re fighting a champion there’s a 75/25 split but he wanted 50/50 and he knew I would never go for that. Some kind of way he got the WBC to side with him and so I threw the championship in the garbage. Lennox knew he couldn’t beat me and when we fought in the Olympics. Lennox didn’t beat me the referee did. He kept stopping me and questioning me and stuff like that.
I do have regrets about not fighting Tyson. That would have been a great fight. My style would have been easy fighting against his style. When you are dealing with a big heavyweight with a good left hand, and I wasn’t intimidated, that spells a lot of trouble for Mike Tyson - matter of fact that spells an ass whipping.
BoxingScene.com: Why did you put that WBC title in the bin? What did it achieve for you?
Bowe: Nothing, I was ill advised. It probably did me more harm than good.
BoxingScene.com: You had it all; speed, power, heart, size, skills, chin – do you think you threw it all away in the end or are you satisfied with your career? I know this is hindsight but what would you change?
Bowe: Again it goes back to being ill advised. With this comeback I can make up for lost time.
BoxingScene.com: You have some eventful fights in more ways than one. Holyfield, Golota, Tillery that press conference with Larry Donald. Do you think that trouble found you or that you attracted it?
Bowe: Well, I think when it comes down to it I was just a man being a man that’s all. I felt like Larry Donald wasn’t showing me the respect as the champ at the time. He was taunting me and pointing in my face when I would work out at the training camps. All I was trying to do was work out. It would bug me so I punched him. It all came back to me when we were at the podium. He didn’t realize that he shook the water to awake the gator. So it all came to me and that’s when I hit him with a two piece.
BoxingScene.com: What can you recall as being the happiest and unhappiest moments of your life inside and outside the ring?
Bowe: The best moments were walking into an airport and everybody knew who you were. I remember I was on the New Jersey turnpike and I didn’t realize I was speeding and the police told me “slow down champ” and didn’t give me a ticket. Worst moment was when my family turned against me because they wanted to be the millionaire first or be famous first. I guess they were jealous.
BoxingScene.com: When did you know that the love of boxing, for you, was dying? Did it ever die? When did you know it was time to call it a day?
Bowe: It never died for me that’s why I still have the desire to be the champ. If you don’t believe in yourself like I believe in myself you can’t beat me. I want to die for what I believe in. I’m willing to put my life on the line. If you don’t have that type of mentality you can’t beat me!
Twitter @shaun_brown
