Heavyweight Boxing Championship Fight

 On February 6, 1993, a friend of mine and I attended a heavyweight boxing championship fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  On December 7, 1963, I had attended another championship fight (middleweight), this time in Atlantic City, NJ.  But the heavyweight championship is the ultimate boxing event.

The champion was Riddick Bowe, undefeated with 32 fights.  That included 27 by knockout.  It was his first defense of his title after defeating the previous champion, Evander Holyfield, three months earlier.

Bowe was born August 10, 1967 in Brooklyn, NY (25 years-old).  In the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, he won the Silver Medal (second place) in the heavyweight boxing division.  Bowe turned professional in March 1989.  

The challenger was Michael Dokes who had a record of 50 wins (33 knockouts), 3 losses (2 knockouts) and 2 draws.  He had a 9 fight winning streak (5 knockouts) over the previous 15 months.

Dokes was born August 10, 1958 in Akron, OH (34 years-old, with the same birthday as Bowe).  He also won a silver medal at the 1975 Pan American Games.  Dokes turned pro in 1976.      

In 1982, Dokes won the heavyweight championship when he knocked out Mike Weaver in one round.  He lost the title 10 months later when he was knocked out by Gerrie Coetzee.

The Bowe-Dokes fight last only 2 minutes, 18 seconds.  After Dokes took some damaging punches from Bowe, Referee Joe Santarpia stopped the fight.  Bowe retained his championship.  We had hardly warmed our seats when it was time to go home.

Many in the large crowd did not like the referee's decision as they believed they did not get their money's worth.  Afterall, Dokes was never off his feet.  However, ring side commentator and former heavyweight champion, George Foreman, thought the referee should have stopped the fight sooner.

Bowe lost his title back to Holyfield by a decision in November 1993 (his only defeat).  He avenged that by knocking out Holyfield in November 1995.  Bowe's last fight was in 2008.

Alongside Gene Tunney, Rocky Marciano, Sultan Ibragimov and Nikolai Valuev, Bowe is one of only five former heavyweight champions to have never suffered a stoppage defeat during his career.

Bowe was convicted of the February 1998 kidnapping of his estranged wife Judy, and their five children.  Thinking it would reconcile his marriage, Bowe went to his wife's Cornelius, North Carolina home and threatened her with a knife, handcuffs, duct tape, and pepper spray. 

Bowe forced her and their children into a vehicle and set out for his Fort Washington, Maryland home.  During the kidnapping, he stabbed his wife in the chest.  Police captured Bowe in South Hill, Virginia, freeing his family.   

Bowe agreed to a plea bargain of guilty to "interstate domestic violence", and was sentenced to 18 to 24 months in Federal prison.  He served 17 months.

Dokes had five more fights over the next four years.  In 1999 Dokes was sentenced to between four and fifteen years in prison after being convicted of an attack on his fiancée in August 1998.  Late in 2008, he was released on parole.  

Dokes died of liver cancer at a hospice in Akron in 2012, a day after his 54th birthday.