Riddick Bowe

Riddick Lamont Bowe (born August 10, 1967) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1989 and 2008. He reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1992, and as an amateur he won a silver medal in the super heavyweight division at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

After turning professional in 1989, Bowe went on to become a two-time world heavyweight champion. In 1992 he won the undisputed WBA, WBC and IBF titles by defeating then-unbeaten former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. That same year, Bowe was named Fighter of the Year by '' The Ring'' and the Boxing Writers' Association of America. Bowe vacated the WBC title later that year in protest, instead of defending the title against their number one contender, Lennox Lewis. This left the undisputed championship fragmented until 1999. In a rematch with Holyfield in 1993, Bowe narrowly lost the WBA and IBF titles in what would be his only professional defeat.

He later regained a portion of the world heavyweight championship in 1995, defeating Herbie Hide for the WBO title. In doing so, Bowe became the first boxer in history to win the titles of all four major sanctioning bodies: the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO. Later that year, Bowe vacated the WBO title in order to fight Holyfield for a third time, and won decisively by being the first boxer to defeat Holyfield by knockout. 1996 saw Bowe engage in two brutal slugfests with Andrew Golota, both of which ended controversially when Golota repeatedly hit him with low blows.

Bowe retired from boxing after the Golota fights, making low-key comebacks in 2004 and 2008. In a 2010 article by Boxing Scene, Bowe was ranked the 21st greatest heavyweight of all time. In 2015, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Early years

Bowe was born on August 10, 1967, the twelfth of his mother Dorothy Bowe's thirteen children. Bowe was born and raised in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York City. His brother Henry died of AIDS, and his sister Brenda was stabbed to death by a drug addict during an attempted robbery.

Bowe was in the same elementary school sixth-grade class with Mike Tyson. "We went to school together the sixth grade in P.S. 396 (in Brownsville.) I really didn't know him," Bowe recalled.

Amateur boxing career

Bowe was training at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Boxing Association Gym or the "Bed-Stuy BA" for short. As an amateur, Bowe won the prestigious New York Golden Gloves Championship and other tournaments. In 1984, age 17, he knocked out opponent James Smith in just 4 seconds. In 1985, at the National Golden Gloves championships, he lost to Fort Worth heavyweight Donald Stephens. Apart of boxing he attended Kingsborough Community College — in hopes of an acting career after boxing — also he took up a business administration study.

His friends called him "Don King" because of his hairstyle. Bowe said he was emulating Mark Breland, "I got a majority of my experience with Mark, I'm inspired by what he's accomplished. It makes it possible for me to do the same," said Bowe in an interview.

New York Golden Gloves Championships

Bowe won four New York Golden Gloves Championships. He won two bouts as a 178-pounder in 1984 before failing to show for a third bout. He won the 1985 178 lb Novice Championship, 1986 178 lb Open Championship and the 1987 and 1988 Super Heavyweight Open Championship. Already in 1985 Bowe was ranked #1 light heavyweight in the United States.

1986 Goodwill Games

He was a light heavyweight runner-up for the 1986 World Championships and 1986 Goodwill Games but for some reason didn't qualify. Meanwhile, during the year-and-a-half hiatus he gained well above thirty pounds and jumped from light heavyweight to super heavyweight, coming back for the 1987 United States Olympic Festival.

1987 Pan Am

Prior to 1987 Pan American Games, Bowe said he had suffered a hairline fracture in his right hand during one of his two fights at the Olympic Festival in July 1987. The injury, he said, was revealed in X-rays he had taken at home. Roosevelt Sanders, the head coach, said he was aware that Bowe's hand was being treated, but had not known it was broken. Bowe said he kept those injuries secret from the U.S. team coaching staff for fear of being kept out of the tournament.

Olympic qualifiers

At first, Bowe was dismissed from the Olympic-year training camp, because U.S. Olympic boxing Coach Ken Adams didn't like him.
U.S. Army superheavyweight Robert Salters, a Brooklyn-born 25-year-old artilleryman of Fort Bragg, NC, who took up boxing in 1986, and had less than twenty amateur fights in his 16-months-long record before they first met at the 1988 AAU National finals, where Salters floored Bowe twice before ref stopped the fight, became a real nemesis for Bowe during his amateur career, as they fought each other to nearly a draw in the 1988 Olympic Box-offs at Caesars Palace, after Bowe lost to Salters in the Olympic Trials (Bowe came in at 231 lbs, Salters at 247.). "He was talking' trash about me, and that helped me mentally," Salters said. Bowe had been boxing reportedly with ligament damage on the middle knuckle of his right hand, which he got the day before the Box-offs, and with a damaged right ankle, eventually managed to win, for the judges had to pick up a winner despite the even 58–58 score. The fifth unidentified judge, who scored the bout 58–58, gave it to Bowe on unidentified subjective grounds. Despite giving Bowe a hard time on four occasions in a row, Salters never turned pro.

1988 Olympics

Bowe won the silver medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, outpointing Soviet Alex Miroshnichenko in the semifinals, and losing a controversial match in the finals to future world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. Bowe had a dominant first round, landing 33 of 94 punches thrown (34%) while Lewis landed 14 of 67 (21%). In the first round the referee from East Germany gave Bowe two cautions for headbutts and deducted a point for a third headbutt, although replay clearly showed there was no headbutt. Commentator Ferdie Pacheco disagreed with the deduction, saying they did not hit heads. In the second round, Lewis landed several hard punches. The referee gave Bowe two standing eight counts and waved the fight off after the second one, even though Bowe seemed able to continue. Pacheco disagreed with the stoppage, calling it "very strange," but Marv Albert said Bowe took "a pounding."

Highlights

United States Junior Championships (middleweight), 1983:
*Lost to Adolpho Washington RSC 2
New York Golden Gloves (light heavyweight), New York City, February 1984:
*1/16: Defeated Richard Newton RSC 1
*1/8: Defeated Hezekiah Salone
*1/4: Lost to ? by walkover
New York Golden Gloves (light heavyweight), Elks Club, Queens, New York, and Madison Square Garden, New York City, February 1985:
*1/4: Defeated Alonzo Knowles KO 1
*1/2: Defeated Jose Guzman KO 3
*Finals: Defeated Alfred Walcott KO 1
New York State Golden Gloves, novice division (light heavyweight), Madison Square Garden, New York City, March 1985:
*1/2: Defeated Gil Walden KO 1
*Finals: Defeated n/a
National Golden Gloves (light heavyweight), Little Rock, Arkansas, March 1985:
*1/16: Defeated Keith Sudduth KO
*1/8: Defeated Odell Jones by decision
*1/4: Defeated Cornell Harris RSC 1
*1/2: Defeated Gregory Everett RSC 3
*Finals: Lost to Donald Stephens by split decision, 2–3
Junior World box-offs (light heavyweight), El Paso Civic Center, El Paso, Texas, August 1985:
*Defeated Razz Chapin KO 1
Junior World Championships (light heavyweight), Bucharest, Romania, September 1985:
*1/4: Defeated Mikhail Sadovsky (Soviet Union) RSC 1
*1/2: Defeated Damian Vasile (Romania) RSC 1
*Finals: Defeated Péter Hart (Hungary) RSC 1
World Cup (light heavyweight), Seoul, South Korea, November 1985:
*1/4: Lost to Nurmagomed Shanavazov (Soviet Union) by unanimous decision, 0–5
U.S. Olympic Festival Eastern Qualifier (super heavyweight), Lake Placid, New York, May 1987:
*1/4: Defeated Bryant Farris RSCH 1
*1/2: Defeated Mark Anthony by walkover
*Finals: Defeated George Kilbert Pierce by unanimous decision, 5–0

U.S. Olympic Festival (super heavyweight), Raleigh, North Carolina, July 1987:
*1/2: Defeated Nathaniel Fitch RSC 2
*Finals: Defeated Kevin Ford RSC 3
Pan Am Box-offs (super heavyweight), International Center of the Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 1987:
*Defeated Carlton Hollis
Pan American Games (super heavyweight), Indianapolis, Indiana, August 1987:
*1/2: Lost to Jorge Luis González (Cuba) by split decision, 2–3
USSR−USA Duals (super heavyweight), Moscow, Soviet Union, 1988:
*Lost to Alex Miroshnichenko (Soviet Union) by decision
United States National Championships (heavyweight), Colorado Springs, Colorado, March–April 1988:
*1/16: Defeated James Ernst RSCH 1
*1/8: Defeated Tevin George RSCH 2
*1/4: Defeated Kevin Ford
*1/2: Lost to Robert Salters RSCH 2
Olympic Trials (super heavyweight), Concord Pavilion, Concord, California, July 1988:
*1/4: Defeated Nathaniel Fitch by unanimous decision, 5–0
*1/2: Defeated Louis Savarese DQ 2
*Finals: Lost to Robert Salters by majority decision, 1–4
Olympic Box-offs (super heavyweight), Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, July 1988:
*Day 1: Defeated Robert Salters by split decision, 3–2
*Day 2: Defeated Robert Salters by split decision, 3–2
Summer Olympics (super heavyweight), Seoul, South Korea, September–October 1988:
*1/8: Defeated Biko Botowamungu (Austria) KO 2
*1/4: Defeated Peter Hrivnák (Czechoslovakia) RSCH 1
*1/2: Defeated Alex Miroshnichenko (Soviet Union) by unanimous decision, 5–0
*Finals: Lost to Lennox Lewis (Canada) RSC 2

Bowe finished his amateur career with a record of 104 wins, 18 losses.

Professional boxing career

Bowe turned professional after his Olympic loss. Highly regarded trainer Eddie Futch took on the job of developing Bowe, as he saw the talent. Eddie would say that Bowe had more potential than any boxer he had ever trained.

Bowe turned professional in March 1989 and knocked out Lionel Butler. His then manager, Rock Newman, kept Bowe active, fighting 13 times in 1989, beating journeymen — the most notable being Garing Lane, whom he beat twice. In September 1990, Bowe made his first step up in class, fighting faded ex-champion Pinklon Thomas, whom he dominated until Thomas gave up after eight rounds. The following month, Bowe knocked out Bert Cooper in two rounds, which added to his reputation and high ranking.

In March 1991, Bowe knocked out 1984 Olympic Super Heavyweight Gold medalist Tyrell Biggs. In Bowe's next fight, ex-champion Tony Tubbs appeared to outbox and outsmart Bowe in a close bout, only to have the judges award Bowe a unanimous decision. In August 1991, Bowe knocked out future world heavyweight champion Bruce Seldon in one round. In July 1992, he knocked out South African Pierre Coetzer in the seventh round of a world title eliminator.

Fights against Elijah Tillery

Bowe fought two interesting bouts against Elijah Tillery in 1991. Their first fight was in Washington D.C. at the Washington Convention Center

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