By Rick Reeno
News headlines in Tennessee are making their way around the Boxing world with respect to former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe's battle to fight in the state. The state of Tennessee will not allow Riddick Bowe to fight in the state for medical concerns and Bowe filed a lawsuit to force the Tennessee Department of Commerce to grant him a boxing license. Bowe claims in the papers that he is in perfect health.
The state of Tennessee is basing their decision on the fact that Bowe and several experts acknowledged that Bowe had suffered brain damage from fighting in Bowe's 2000 criminal trial. Bowe was on trial for kidnapping his wife and children by force and his defense team claimed that brain damage suffered from being a pro boxer had led to Bowe committing the crimes.
''I love Tennessee and I'd love to put on a show there. 'I don't know why they won't let me fight there. I'm fine. All my medicals are intact, so I really don't understand what the problem is. 'The heavyweight division looks like it's wide open to me. 'I've given these guys eight years to get it right and they still haven't done it. It's up to me to get it done.'' said Bowe to The Tennessean
''That thing with Bowe and the doctors in court, it was just a ploy. 'He'd never been in trouble before, and the lawyers told him that if you say there's brain damage it will keep you out of jail. He didn't want to go to jail. So he went in there and talked about frontal lobe damage.'' said Bowe's manager Jimmy Adams
Eric Raskin, the managing editor of Ring Magazine, said that Bowe should hang up the gloves for good.
''I got to see a clip from that fight (Bowe's comeback fight against Rhodes in 2004), and it pretty much confirmed everything I was ready to assume — that it is probably not in his best interest to fight, and that nothing good is going to come of it. 'He looked really slow and his balance didn't look great. It was definitely not the Riddick Bowe that people remember.'' said Raskin