By James Slater: At a time when the Olympics, one of the most glorious moments in all of sport are going ahead, there are plans afoot for a far less appealing sporting event to go ahead in Poland later in the year.
Polish news outlet Newsweek Poland reports how a fight dubbed “Unfinished Business” will go down on Nov. 3rd at the Atlas Arena in Lodz. The “fight” that will not be fought under boxing rules (either wrestling, MMA or a combination of both, details are sketchy) will be between two men who were once top class heavyweights: former king Riddick Bowe and one-time #1 contender Andrew Golota.
Needless to say, this one will have to go down as one of the freakiest of all freak shows if it actually takes place, and the word on the (Polish) street says it will happen.
One of the craziest ideas in recent times, Bowe-Golota III promises to be ugly. The two men, when good or maybe even great heavyweights (in Bowe’s case), gave us two thrilling yet also somewhat tragic fights in 1996; Bowe winning both via quite bizarre disqualification when “The Foul Pole” twice got himself chucked out for blatantly belting Bowe below the belt on more than one occasion. Since then, both men have fought as past-their-best “names” – Bowe looking a shot fighter in his most recent outing: a 2008 points win over Gene Pukall.
Golota actually had a couple more big fights after the second farce against Bowe; going in with everyone from Lennox Lewis to Mike Tyson. Last appearing in that 2009 “Polish super-fight” with Tomasz Adamek (a KO loss for Golota), the 44-year-old has been talking about the possibility of fighting again ever since Now it looks as though he will do so; but in either wrestling, MMA or some combination of the two.
Bowe, also 44, has also refused to give up the ghost; stating a number of times recently that he could beat the Klitschkos if given enough time to get into shape. Bowe, who slurs his words in alarming fashion these days, also called out David Haye a few months ago (although on a more recent edition of Sky‘s Ringside, Bowe, appearing to have come to his senses, toned down the comeback talk).
It will be appalling if this cage fight does happen. Bowe is an accident waiting to happen, while Golota hasn’t been able to fight effectively for years himself. Someone, probably Bowe, will get hurt if this bout goes ahead. But, hey, money talks. If there is enough interest, and if there is a promoter willing to put up the cash to stage the even, anything is possible. But what about the health of the two former boxers involved?
We’ve seen former great James Toney humbled inside the cage; will we now see two once top-notch heavyweights get the same treatment?
For the record, Bowe is 43-1(33). Golota is 41-8-1(33).