Piece about Riddick Bowe's indiscipline when he was 19.

[YNG]

U.S. Amateur Boxing Tournament : Riddick Bowe Is Back, and He's a Heavy Favorite
March 30, 1988|EARL GUSTKEY | Times Staff Writer


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Fisticuffs were out of the question, since it was a major mismatch. One combatant would have been a 47-year-old bantamweight, the other a 19-year-old super-heavyweight.

Instead, it ended with heated words and the prompt issuance of a plane ticket home. That's how the bantamweight, U.S. Olympic boxing Coach Ken Adams, showed everyone who's in charge here.

The incident occurred last December, at a USA Amateur Boxing Federation workout at the U.S. Olympic Committee Training Center here. About two dozen boxers were on hand, hoping to be selected for a team about to leave for competition in Cuba.

One of the United States' best amateur boxers is super-heavyweight Riddick Bowe of Brooklyn. Adams didn't like Bowe's lackadaisical performance during a sparring session with Louisiana super-heavy Tevin George of Louisiana.

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-...1_riddick-bowe

[Eff Pandas]

That was a common theme with Bowe & still is today. Go listen to the Crime In Sports podcast about Bowe.

And randomly Bowe is shilling for UFC fighter Michael Bisping's fantasy sports company on twitter daily these days. Kinda f#cked up a HW champion so f#cked up his money he's shilling a MMA guys fantasy sports company on social media.

[GhostofDempsey]

What a fall from grace. Having that POS manager/promoter Rock Newman in his corner didn't help his career, especially when he urged Bowe to literally trash his title belt instead of fight Lennox Lewis as a mandatory.

Here's an old NY Daily News article on Newman.


LOW PUNCHES AND LOWLIFES MOST OF ALL, BLAME THIS RIOT ON ROCK NEWMAN

BY
Michael Katz

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, July 12, 1996, 12:00 AM


NEVER MIND that boxing doesn't belong in the Garden. Let civilization clean up its other acts first. Maybe the Garden doesn't belong in boxing. It allowed Rock Newman, a hustler who gives boxing promoters and politicians both a bad name, to come in last night with an out-of-shape fighter and an undercard that insulted the 11,232 spectators, many of whom deserved to be insulted. Then, when the fans hit the half-wits chairs to the top of the head, drunken whites in Polish flags vs. drunken blacks there was an appalling lack of security. Twenty minutes after the riot started last night following Andrew Golota's seventh-round disqualification against the plump Riddick Bowe, a pathetic call went out on the Garden loudspeaker system, pleading repeatedly, "All security to ringside immediately!

" What were they thinking? Why wasn't security there before? Rock Newman's record demands at least a regiment of Marines. And not at the last moment. Boxing and black eyes are redundant. Newman is a disgrace to black eyes. He virtually had boxing kicked out of the Garden, its boxing department closed, when he brought in Bowe, then the brand-new world heavyweight champion, in a disgraceful first defense against a fat, out-of-shape, undertrained old fighter, Michael Dokes. The first-round knockout was predictable, not so the semifinal in which Ray Mercer was accused of offering his opponent, Jesse Ferguson, a bribe to take a dive in the middle of the bout. That was one of the better fights that night, a fat Mercer in with a weary trial horse, exchanging whispers. The Paramount suits, who then ran the Garden, kicked the game out of its ancient "mecca.

" It had done well on its return. Professionals were in charge. Say what you want about Bob Arum or Don King, but they don't promote riots. Newman does. He had Bowe, an up-and-coming talent, in with a career sparring partner, Elijah Tillery, down in Washington. After the first round, Bowe said something, Tillery started kicking and Newman jumped up and grabbed Tillery from behind and pulled him over the ring apron. Tillery landed atop the head of the D.

C. commissioner. Lovely. On the night Bowe won the heavyweight title from Evander Holyfield, Newman reacted as if he had been raped. He wound up beating up an Associated Press photographer, although he needed the help of a Bowe friend, Bernard Brooks Jr. When Bowe lost the title back, in the infamous "Fan Man" bout at Caesars Palace when a paraglider invaded the outdoor ring, Newman led a vicious assault on the intruder, saying later he worried that his ringside guest, the minister Louis Farrakhan, was being attacked. He has wonderful friends, Newman like Marion Barry, for whom he was transition team leader for the D.

C. mayor's comeback. It is part of his self-image as a rebel but he once sent one of his fighters, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, to go to South Africa in the midst of apartheid to win a title. He put on a Hamlet-like performance then, wavering between "I shouldn't let him go" and "how can I stop him from earning a living?

" He is not evil, just hot-tempered. He should be ruled off every boxing arena in the world. He was the one who led the unseemly charge across the ring at Golota. His man, Bowe, had just been saved from a certain knockout loss by Golota's repeated low blows. He should have gotten down on his knees and thanked his stars. He has ruined Bowe's career. When he was on top, he spit on those below. He has tried to outsmart the Kings and Arums and Duvas, and all he has done is put Bowe in a position where no one will deal with the talented heavyweight. He bit the Time Warner hand that fed him millions. Bowe got fat and lazy. He cannot help himself, getting into disputes. Last night's horror show almost didn't happen because of a typical Newman mishap. His contracts called for a fight of "10 or 12 rounds.

" Golota thought he was fighting 10. Newman said it had to be 12 although his man was obviously not fit to go 10. Newman said it would be 12 if The Daily News would recognize the bout as a world heavyweight fight. WE GAVE BOWE The Daily News Belt when he beat Holyfield in their rubber match last November. They were then considered the two best active heavyeights in a world where Mike Tyson had a one-round disqualification victory over Peter McNeeley as his only action in five years. The Daily News now considers the title vacant as vacant as the miserable sport itself.

[Anthony342]

Yeah, that was kind of the beginning of the end for boxing as a major attraction and part of why it's not nearly talked about as much these days in the mainstream. Boxers like Mayweather, Pacquiao and even sometimes Cotto were exceptions, but not near as many household names these days. Now when I tell people I watched boxing, I either get a blank stare or slightly quizzical look, unlike in the past where everybody knew the top names.

[OctoberRed]

Yeah, that was kind of the beginning of the end for boxing as a major attraction and part of why it's not nearly talked about as much these days in the mainstream. Boxers like Mayweather, Pacquiao and even sometimes Cotto were exceptions, but not near as many household names these days. Now when I tell people I watched boxing, I either get a blank stare or slightly quizzical look, unlike in the past where everybody knew the top names.

Do you mean Bowe in terms of the start of it?

[Anthony342]

Do you mean Bowe in terms of the start of it?

Yeah, Bowe/Golota, I would say, Tyson's increasingly alarming antics as well, from the mid to late '90s seemed to be when casuals started tuning out, wouldn't you say?

[ShoulderRoll]

The saddest thing in the world is wasted talent.

[OctoberRed]

Yeah, Bowe/Golota, I would say, Tyson's increasingly alarming antics as well, from the mid to late '90s seemed to be when casuals started tuning out, wouldn't you say?

I felt they started tuning out more in the 2000s. Gatti was getting ratings that were like 3-4 million. Now HBO cares are lucky to crack a 800,000

[Dempsey-Louis]

bowe - Golota

Another way to look at it . . . nothing changed; you changed.

Prize fighting has always been under attack for being amoral, corrupt, sham entertainment and exploitative, because it has always been amoral, corrupt, sham entertainment, and exploitative.

No one fight or event ever turned bad the game, those fights were just moments where you noticed your complicity.

Back to the game: The Katz article was a good read, isn't that the night where Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant had to (physically) hide behind George Foremen?

[OctoberRed]

Another way to look at it . . . nothing changed; you changed.

Prize fighting has always been under attack for being amoral, corrupt, sham entertainment and exploitative, because it has always been amoral, corrupt, sham entertainment, and exploitative.

No one fight or event ever turned bad the game, those fights were just moments where you noticed your complicity.

Back to the game: The Katz article was a good read, isn't that the night where Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant had to (physically) hide behind George Foremen?

I miss the old Katz 'chicken de la hoya' articles.