Nineteen years ago today Riddick Bowe and Andrew Golota fought a rematch in Atlantic City, New Jersey in one of the most brutal and entertaining bouts in heavyweight history. The fight isn’t as memorable as ‘The Thrilla in Manila’, ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’, or the ‘Fight of the Century’, and it isn’t remembered as well as many other magnificent contests that took place during the rich history of the heavyweight division. But the rematch between Bowe and Golota is every bit as brutal and every bit as entertaining as any heavyweight match ever put to film.
Fast forward to November 28 of this year, just a few short weeks ago. Tyson Fury stunned the boxing community when he dethroned long reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko in a dominant lopsided victory. It was the first time Klitschko had lost a match since 2004, which he soon followed with a spell of dominance stretching more than a decade where he hardly lost any rounds. But despite Klitschko’s dominance, his signature victory is probably his pre-reign victory against Sam Peter, when he rose from the canvas 3 times to clearly out point the then undefeated Nigerian. Klitschko employed a style that was effective, but not especially crowd pleasing, and as such he never gained widespread acceptance from the American audience.
Klitschko was certainly more talented than someone like Golota, but unlike Klitschko, Golota utilized a style that made for more entertaining boxing As such, Golota has participated in more exciting and memorable bouts than Klitschko. On the flip side, Klitschko was probably not as talented overall as someone like Riddick Bowe, but he was far more disciplined, which resulted in a longer more dominant title reign for Klitschko, but less notable signature fights in the grand scheme of heavyweight history. Bowe and Golota both possessed crowd pleasing fighting styles.
There have been a great number of outstanding heavyweight clashes since 1990 began, where things started off on an incredible high note after Buster Douglas scored the greatest upset in sporting history when he defeated Iron Mike Tyson. Upon close examination, one might note that a high concentration of the more entertaining bouts since that time all took place during the 1990s. Looking closer it further reveals the fact that the heavyweight division has been largely lacking when it comes to memorable heavyweight contests over the past 10 years – which can again be attributed to Wladimir’s long championship reign where he remained largely untested during the course of his impressive reign where he outclassed everyone he had faced until being usurped by Tyson Fury..
So what were the 10 best heavyweight fights from 1990 through the present? This edition of Rummy’s Corner provides one man’s humble opinion regarding answers to that very question. Will Bowe-Golota II make the list? Will any of Wladimir Klitschko’s fights make the list? Watch and find out! Hope you enjoy the video!
