In the Heavyweight division, there hasn't been
a truly dominate fighter in several years. Evander Holyfield was last dominate
fighter, until he fought Riddick Bowe. Bowe won and defended his titles against
light opposition, then he fought Holyfield again. Holyfield won, but he lost to
Michael Moorer in his next fight. Moorer got kayoed by George Foreman and around
the same time, Lennox Lewis got stopped by Oliver McCall. Bowe was having a good
comeback, but Foreman looked terrible in winning over lightly-regarded Axel
Schultz. Bowe began to appear as the dominate fighter with wins over Larry Donald,
Herbie Hide and Jorge Luis Gonzalez, but Holyfield barely overcame Ray Mercer.
Tyson was beginning his own comeback and Frank Bruno beat Oliver McCall. Lennox
Lewis continued his comeback with a kayo over Tommy Morrison and Riddick Bowe
claimed the dominate position with a stoppage over Holyfield. Tim Witherspoon
was beginning to emerge as a contender, Lewis barely beat Mercer and Holyfield
looked shot against Bobby Czyz. Soon thereafter, Mike Tyson destroyed WBC champ
Frank Bruno and Moorer had beaten Axel Schultz and won the IBF championship. Then,
Riddick Bowe got pounded by Andrew Golota. Tyson followed up with a first-round
kayo over WBA champ Bruce Seldon and he appeared to have claimed the pole position.
Henry Akinwande emerged as a top contender with his stoppage over Alexander Zolkin,
Moorer stopped Botha and Holyfield upset Tyson. At this point, Holyfield was
considered the top dog, even though he looked lethargic in his last four fights.
One month later, Andrew Golota pummeled Riddick Bowe and Mercer defeated Tim
Witherspoon. Lennox Lewis followed up with controversial wins over McCall and
Akinwande, Moorer squeaked by unknown Vaughn Bean and Holyfield won by disqualification
against Tyson. At that point, most of the top Heavyweights seemed equal to each other.
Mercer narrowly lost to both Holyfield and Lewis, but he himself barely beat Tim
Witherspoon. And Riddick Bowe and Holyfield were about on the same level. Only
one fighter appeared to be dominate, Andrew Golota. He battered Riddick Bowe
twice in row. While every other top heavyweight was on about the same level, Golota
appeared to be the best of them all.
So, a Lennox Lewis-Andrew Golota fight would appear to be a great match.
On paper, it appeared that Golota should win. I, however, thought that Lewis
would win (via unaminous decision). Because of my prediction, I received much critism
from people saying that Golota will destroy Lewis (look at my Guestbook for a good
example). But, I knew that Lewis would win, somehow. However, I did not expect a first
round destruction.
As Larry Merchant said, "Golota came late and left early." Andrew Golota,
for reasons unknown, arrived at the arena about an hour late. So, this spawned
an excuse from Golota fans that Golota wasn't warmed up to fight. But, Andrew
seemed fine as he entered the arena to the cheers of the pro-Golota crowd. Lewis
entered shortly after. During his ring-walk, the Golota fans showed disrespect
towards him by hanging the Polish flag in his face, but Lennox would get their
attention shortly thereafter. For some unknown reason, there were no singings of
either fighter's national anthym, which was fine with me.
As the fight started, Lewis was both aggressive and cautious. He used a
vastly improved jab to score, while avoiding Golota's punches. About 30 seconds
in, he lasted a crisp 1-2, but it did nothing to Golota. Soon after, Golota corned
Lewis, but was unable to do anything to him. At about the one minute mark, Lewis
landed a devastating right hand and he followed it up with a solid left hook. Golota,
now definately hurt, moved back into the corner. Lewis opened up with blazing handspeed
and landed a vicious flurry of lefts and rights. Golota, unable to withstand the barrage
of punches, slumped to the canvas. He got on his knees and he looked extremely angry. He
got up and started running (apparantly towards Lewis), but referee Joe Cortez guided him
to the corner. For a second there, I thought Golota was going to try a WWF-style bodyslam
on Lewis. Golota, at this point, was wobbly and out-on-his-feet. Joe Cortez could have
easily stopped the fight, but he gave Golota another chance. Lewis charged in and trapped
Golota in the corner. There, he proceeded to hammer Golota until he was beaten to the
canvas. At that point, Cortez wisely stopped the fight at 95 seconds. And the pro-Golota crowd
was in utter shock. Golota fell to 28-3 (25 KO's) and Lewis rose to 32-1 (26 KO's). Overall,
Golota landed 2 punches (which was a very generous figure) and Lewis landed 30 out of 36 punches.
And the 6 punches that Lewis missed, were jabs.
After the fight, Lewis once again stated his strategy, "to take Golota out before he could
commit any fouls." Then, he announced that he wanted to fight the winner of the Holyfield-Moorer
match to unify the titles, once and for all. Golota, on the other hand, appeared very shaken at
the defeat. He was stuttering horribly and was apoligizing to just about everyone. Later that
night, Golota had a seizure and collapsed in his dressing room. Apparantly, he stopped breathing
for about 30 seconds and he was revived via mouth-to-mouth recessitation. Golota was briefly
hospitalized and he passed his neurological exam.
But, where does this put Lewis? In my opinion, he belongs in the #1 spot (at least until Holyfield-Moorer II). He had an absolutely
flawless fight. Lewis also appeared to be in outstanding shape and he appeared to be much faster than
he was in previous fights. I don't think anyone in the heavyweight division can beat the Lewis that
fought that night. And I think that Lewis changed Roy Jones' mind about moving up to Heavyweight. In
addition to that, Lewis earned me a helluva lot of points in my Fantasy Boxing League.
