Riddick Bowe was stripped of his WBC version of the heavyweight title after defeating Evander Holyfield in November of 1992, and it was handed to Lennox Lewis a few weeks later. Bowe then defended his portion of the title with an easy knockout of Michael Dokes in February at Madison Square Garden in New York. He followed that up another quick knockout of Jesse Ferguson in May at RFK Stadium in Washington DC.
The rematch with Holyfield was set for November 6, 2024 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Evander bulked up to 217 pounds, while Bowe came in at 246. Riddick was the favorite going in, and I went over my brother’s house again to watch it on pay-per-view.
Bowe came out charging in the first round, but Evander stayed calm and held his own. The pace settled down, but this time Holyfield was much stronger and was able to control the action more consistently.
The bout was pretty even when an idiot wearing a parachute crashed into the ring in the seventh round, causing a 21 minute delay. When the action resumed, Evander continued to land the crisper shots, and even rocked Bowe a few times. Going into the final rounds, it was definitely close.
When the scorecards were read after the 12th round, Holyfield won a razor thin decision. Bowe was very gracious in defeat, and Evander had proved the critics wrong and recaptured the heavyweight championship.
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