This is my continuing list of fights I watched on HBO over the years.
61. Roy Jones Jr. vs. Eric Lucas. June 15, 1996 The most memorable thing about this fight was the fact that Roy had been the first boxer to play in a professional basketball game on the same day he fought in a pro fight. Jones played in a USBL basketball game, and six hours later, stepped into the ring on HBO in Jacksonville, Florida. Roy won most every round against the durable Lucas, but stopped him in the eleventh round. Jones made $300 playing for the Jacksonville Barracudas, and made another $1.5 million for his successful title defense against Lucas.
62. Riddick Bowe vs. Andrew Golota. July 11, 1996. Riddick ‘Big Daddy’ Bowe came in undertrained at 252 lbs. for this fight with Andrew Golota at Madison Square Garden in New York. Golota turned out to be tougher than Bowe expected, and was winning most of the rounds, and easily too. He also kept hitting Bowe below the belt, causing referee Wayne Kelly to deduct points from Golota. Finally in the seventh round, a hard combination to Bowe’s cup forced Kelly to end the bout, and award the win to Bowe via disqualification. Mayhem ensued after one of Riddick’s flunky security guards hit Andrew on the head with a walkie talkie. A brawl between everyone in the ring broke out, and what happened next was ridiculous. Hundreds of hooligans and thugs started punching people in the stands for no reason, and a full brown riot began. The scene was like something from a bad movie, and boxing was in the news once again for all the wrong reasons.
63. Roy Jones Jr. vs. Bryant Brannon. October 4, 1996. The fight from the Theatre at Madison Square Garden was short and explosive. As I sat in my recliner and watched the action on my projection TV, I saw a Roy Jones at the absolute top of his game. In one of his finest moments as a pro, he blasted Brannon into incoherence with a spectacular combination of punches in the second round. His display of power of speed was like nothing I’d ever seen, and made me wonder it anyone would ever defeat him.
64. Pernell Whitaker vs. Diosbelys Hurtado. January 24, 1997. Pernell had agreed to defend his title against Oscar De La Hoya in April should he get by Hurtado. The bout at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City was closer than expected, but ‘Sweet Pea’ rallied to knock Hurtado out in the eleventh round, and secure his big money showdown with the ‘Golden Boy’ in April.
65. Lennox Lewis vs. Oliver McCall 2. February 7, 1997. What I watched that night from the Hilton Center in Las Vegas, was one of the most bizarre things I’d ever seen in my natural life. Oliver McCall had been in drug rehab while training for the vacant WBC heavyweight eliminator title fight, and started acting strangely not long into the bout. He refused to sit down in his corner between rounds, was walking away from Lewis, and not throwing any punches at all. When he started sobbing and crying in his corner, it was obvious to me the man was having some kind of a mental breakdown. Finally referee Mills Lane mercifully ended the mess in the fifth, and Lennox was now the 2-time heavyweight champ.
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