How good was the Golota that fought Bowe?

[THE PHILOSOPHER]

Some ppl put it down to the maskaev v rahmam syndrome! Personally i think golota was more than that. I dont think it was a case of maskaev or golota just having there number, i think it was a case of 2 fighters being underrated and 2 fighters being overrated. Rahman just wasn't that good (on a consistant basis) and bowe just wasn't destined to be a long reigning champ, he turned into a fat blob. He also got an outright gift decision vs tony tubbs, he could quite easily have gone 1-2 rather than 2-1 against a 205lb holyfield had parachute man not saved him from the beatdown evander was putting on him, he was out on his feet against hide too...

In his prime he was an Elite-Level talented fighter but also a mental midget, no one denies it. Past prime he improved mentally but his great jab was gone with an accident and a serious chunk of his athleticism was just gone with time.

He still should be a champ in the division abandoned by Lewis and not yet taken over by Klits but he was shamefully robbed vs ruiz and the byrd fight was debateable too, Hardly anyone denies that too.

His fight with the 6'6" american corey sanders was just an absolute slugfest, he was impressive vs witherspoon (tim to this day swears golota hit him harder than any fighter ever!) and if he had committed more in the fight with michael grant he would have took him out early too, the bowe fights are 2 of my favourite HW clashes ever so for that he always has me as a fan but ultimately he fought on way past his best and just couldn't get it together!

Had his head always been in tact, he would surely be knocking on or just below the lewis/Klitschkos level, but it wasn't. That's all there is to it.

The fan-man fight is the one that Holyfield did win, Bowe rightfully picked up the first fight, lost the second fight (fan-man fight) , and then stopped Evander in the 3rd fight, in Holyfield's defense he was having heart issues at that time, as for the question at hand I agree with the assessment that Golota had all the attributes to be a top HW, he has skill, size, power, he could physically take a beating when he was in the mindset (watch the shots he took against Tyson before he finally quit), he just didn't have the heart, will, or drive to strive and be the best, he became frustrated too easily and would either quit or find a way out, be it by DQ or just getting clocked

My bad, i haven't watched the 5 fights in question for years so forgive me if my memory deserts me, I'm to heavily involved in the current scene, maybe il go back and watch them all when i have a few hours to spare because i know they're worth a watch again.

Bowes career if i remember correctly was bizarre full stop! His fight with tillary was hilarious, he ventured into the marines for 11 days, threw his belt in a bin, kidnapped his wife & children, battered his sister, came back to boxing looking like a whale and struggled with journeymen. Gave us 3 classics with evander and got beat down by golota!