After defending his heavyweight title twice against 42 year old ex heavyweight champions, Evander Holyfield finally faced a top contender in his prime when he met Riddick Bowe on November 13, 1992 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. Bowe was fresh off his 7th TKO of Pierre Coetzer on July 18 in Las Vegas and was the number one ranked heavyweight in the world.
Closed-circuit boxing was a thing of the past by the fall of 1992, so to see it live you had to order pay-per-view. I asked my friend Rich to go over my brother’s apartment with me to watch this one. We were all big Evander fans, especially my brother Gary, but I still preferred going to see fights at an arena or venue to watch big bouts.
When Evander took his robe off and weighed in at only 205 lbs., we all wondered why? He was facing a guy that was 6′ 5″ tall and weighed 235 lbs., so none of could figure out his reasoning. The ‘Real Deal’ tried to box from the outside for the first two rounds, but as soon as Bowe hit him low, Evander turned into a slugger. For most of the rest of the fight, Bowe got the better of it and in the tenth, hurt Holyfield badly. Evander weathered the storm, but was dropped in the eleventh and it was a miracle he survived the round.
When the bell rang ending the bout, we all knew Riddick was the new champion and deservedly so. Both men were gracious, but Evander hinted at retirement as he sat battered and bruised for the first time in his professional career. I hardly took his words seriously, knowing it was fatigue and frustration talking, and knew I’d see him back in the ring again.
For that Friday the 13th however, both fighters left their all in the ring, making it one of Boxing’s Classics!
