Re: Joe Frazier Interview

Isaiah wrote:

> Robert Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> > Well, c'mon.  He got a draw against Holyfield in their first fight, 
> > whereas Bowe actually had to...um...never mind.  And, he KOed Golota in 
> > one round, whereas Golota was able to make it to the third round when 
> > Tyson destroyed him.  And, he starched Rudduck in the second round, 
> > something Tyson wasn't able to do until the seventh round.  And since 
> > we're talking about things Lewis did to other fighters that nobody else 
> > could do, he also made world champions out of Oliver McCall and Hasim 
> > Rahman, something we all thought NOBODY could do.
> Lewis dominated
> Holyfield like no one had before regardless of what the judges said.


But he didn't come close to scoring any knockdowns or getting a (T)KO, 
which Bowe did some years earlier, which was my point.  I think you 
should have picked up on that.  Obviously Lewis should have gotten the 
first decision.  But I'll also argue your statement that he dominated 
Holyfield "like no one had before."  Perhaps you need to re-watch the 
first Bowe-Holyfield fight.  It was a much more exciting fight than 
Lewis-Holyfield, but it was also no less one-sided and was perhaps more so.

> I
> wouldn't refer to what Tyson did to Ruddock as a starching.

Umm...feel free to re-write my sentence:  "...he starched Rudduck in the 
second round when he knocked Rudduck out, and Tyson wasn't able to knock 
 Rudduck out until the seventh round."
Tyson knocked Rudduck down twice and almost a third time immediately 
prior to the stoppage (and twice more in the rematch), and we're 
quibbling about whether or not it can be called a "starching?"

> Tyson
> knocked Ruddock all around the ring in two fights but never came close
> to doing the damage to him that Lewis did.


That Tyson did it first is perhaps meaningful.  Perhaps not. 
Ultimately, the comparison between their knockouts isn't that 
meaningful.  Rudduck was a beatable, KO-able guy.  Tyson proved it, 
Lewis proved it, Morrison proved it.

> Golota was shot when he
> fought Tyson and he just quit. 


Quit?!  Go back and re-read accounts of that fight.  He did NOT "just 
quit."  Re-read about the damage Tyson did to him physically.  If you're 
really hung up on fighters doing to others what nobody had ever done 
(and I know it wasn't you who said that earlier), Tyson, who certainly 
was not in HIS own prime, did things to Golota that nobody, even Lewis, 
managed to do.

> Lewis overwhelmed him in his prime in the first round.

Golota never had a prime.  The legend of Andrew Golota is based on his 
performances against a physically wasted Riddick Bowe.  He'd done very 
little important before that; he's done little important since then.  If 
he was "shot" when he fought Tyson, he was no less a basket case when he 
fought Lewis.  I thought before the fight that Lewis should walk all 
over Golota and I said afterwards that nobody should have been surprised 
at the result.


Pie