Thursday, Dec. 5, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Until Andrew Golota was disqualified in the seventh round of his July 11 fight in New York with fellow heavyweight contender Riddick Bowe, he was winning easily and en route to a significant win.
The fight was so entertaining, if not shocking, a rematch is set for Dec. 14 in Atlantic City.
Golota, who was disqualified for repeated low blows, is 28-1. Bowe, a former heavyweight champion, is 39-1. They'll meet on a pay-per-view card that also includes heavyweights Ray Mercer and Tim Witherspoon in a potentially decent fight.
Bowe, speaking on a conference call this week, did little more than blame himself for his showing against Golota in July. He refused to credit Golota for making the bout one of the year's most interesting.
"It's not so much what he did, it's what I didn't do," Bowe said of the first fight. "He's nothing special. If he was, he would have been able to take me out."
Bowe said he took Golota so lightly, he barely trained.
"I figured I'd hit him on the chin and he'd collapse or something," Bowe said of his earlier strategy. "I didn't know much about him and I felt I could get away (with insufficient training) because I had the experience."
He said he has learned his lesson.
"I took him for granted and he embarrassed me," Bowe said. "This time we're both going to come to fight. This time I won't be bewildered."
He added that he has been training for 11 weeks and is already at his fighting weight of 243 pounds.
"He has paid the price," said Rock Newman, Bowe's manager. "Bowe is always at his best when he has to respond to diversity, and he's at his very best right now."
Golota, listening in, scoffed at suggestions this fight would be significantly different than the earlier one simply because Bowe is in shape.
"I don't care about any of that," he said. "His type of shape means nothing to me. I'll step in the ring and beat him up again."
The winner will be primed for a huge-money fight in 1997.
"With (Evander) Holyfield beating (Mike) Tyson, the division is wide open," Newman said. "The winner will be sitting right there, well positioned for something even better next year."
Around the ring
* RENO CARD: HBO will televise Friday's card from Reno's Lawlor Events Center which now features light heavyweights James Toney and Montell Griffin in the main event. (The earlier announced main event, Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Mickey Ward, is off.) "I'm not messing around," Toney said of avenging an earlier defeat. "This fight is serious and I'm still ticked off he won the first time. I was the most shocked guy in the world when the referee raised his hand." Griffin, 25-0, decisioned Toney, 53-2-2, last year at the MGM in Las Vegas. Local oddsmaker Herbie Lambeck makes Toney a 13-to-5 favorite and says "My gut feeling is that it's redemption time." Also on the Top Rank-promoted card: Paulie Ayala, 19-0, vs. Famosito Gomez, 36-6, 12 rounds for Ayala's NABF bantamweight title; Butterbean Esch, 24-1, vs. Sean Jergen, 6-2, four rounds, heavyweights; Raul Marquez, 23-0, vs. Scotty Smith, 25-4-2, 10 rounds, junior middleweights; and Augie Sanchez, 4-0, vs. Marco Ramos, 8-11-2, six rounds, featherweights.
* TONEY TROUBLES: Before he left his Las Vegas home and training camp for Reno, Toney ran into some difficulties with Metro police. Sgt. Greg McCurdy of Metro said a complaint of misdemeanor battery was lodged against Toney for an incident that occurred at the Las Vegas Athletic Club on West Sahara Avenue. Toney allegedly brushed or touched a female employee of the athletic club, and she in turn called police and filed a complaint. McCurdy said prosecutors have yet to determine if Toney will be formally charged.
* AMERIKA PRESENTS: Boxing promoters tend to come and go, but Dan Goossen and Mat Tinley of Amerika Presents have the advantage of TV contacts and an assortment of deals already in place. Goossen said this week Amerika Presents had 30 TV dates in 1997 and that its financial situation is on solid ground. "We've got a Fox deal that starts with Michael Nunn fighting in Las Vegas on January 17, and we've got an HBO fight -- Wayne McCullough vs. Daniel Zaragoza in Boston -- January 11," he said. "We've got TV and that translates to exposure, and that in turn translates into more money for the fighters. We're going to put on some great shows." As for a printed remark in Las Vegas that his new company was having money troubles, Goossen laid the blame on a former employer, promoter Bob Arum. "Competitors sometimes will make up lies," Goossen said. "That's part of the game. But Mat and I really don't have an ax to grind, even with people who haven't been kind to us. As all of us know, when you've got TV, you're not apt to have a money problem."
* QUICK HITS: Arum will celebrate his 65th birthday Saturday. ... Local junior lightweight Floyd Mayweather was scheduled to fight on the card in Reno but had to withdraw due to injuries suffered last week in a four-round decision win over Reggie Sanders in Albuquerque. Mayweather, 2-0, suffered an injured right hand and a cut over his right eye. ... The next local card is Dec. 21 at the Aladdin with WBA super bantamweight champ Antonio Cermano facing Japan's Yuichi Kasai, who lost an earlier world-title fight to WBA featherweight champ Wilfredo Vasquez. ... Last Saturday's outdoor card in Mesquite failed to draw, in part because it was simply too cold for the 3:30 p.m. starting time. "We won't do that again," said Marc Ratner of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. ... Showtime has announced a Feb. 8 featherweight unification fight between IBF champ Tom Johnson, 44-2-1, and WBO champ Naseem Hamed, 24-0, in London. ... Showtime also has a Saturday card in Indio, Calif., with WBC strawweight champ Ricardo Lopez pursuing his 44th win without a loss, as he'll take on Myung-Sup Park, 11-4, of South Korea in the main event. Local middleweight Julian Jackson has a spot on the undercard against an opponent still undetermined as of Wednesday. NABF heavyweight champ Tony Tucker, 53-5, takes on Tyrone Campbell, 12-2-1, in another undercard bout. ... Former local heavyweight Jorge Luis Gonzalez, 24-2, fights tonight in Southampton, N.Y., against journeyman Ross Puritty, 19-10-1. Gonzalez hasn't fought since a May loss to Tim Witherspoon. ... Promoter Dino Duva on trying to piece together a Pernell Whitaker vs. Felix Trinidad fight: "I'm kind of embarrassed to say we were chasing Trinidad for a year. But we're not chasing him anymore. We got fed up with it." Duva, who promotes Whitaker, made the comments regarding Trinidad while announcing a May fight in Las Vegas between his man and Oscar De La Hoya.
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