Bowe Wins By Ko In 8th After Getting Knocked Down, Bowe Rises To Level Holyfield

Riddick Bowe found himself in unfamiliar territory - on the canvas of the ring at Caesars Palace - and decided he better do something about it.

So he struggled up and knocked out Evander Holyfield in the eighth round of their rubber match Saturday night.

“I knew I was down and I didn’t like where I was,” said Bowe, who found himself on the floor in the sixth round for the first time in 39 professional fights. Bowe got up at the count of 5 and appeared in serious trouble, with the round only a little more than 30 seconds old.

Holyfield, however, could not take advantage. He landed a couple more punches to the head, but did very little for the remainder of the round.

“I was bone tired,” the 32-year-old Holyfield said of his first knockout loss. “The whole fight he was strong and I got real arm-weary real quick. Then it was just the only chance I had was a knockout punch.

“I couldn’t get it. I lost a lot of energy throughout the fight. If not so much age, it’s just that I didn’t fight with everything I had.”

But it might be that age and a lot of hard fights left Holyfield with little against the bigger, stronger Bowe on this 54-degree night.

Dr. Flip Homansky said he examined Holyfield right after the fight and that his pulse was good. Homansky said Holyfield, who had been diagnosed with a heart condition last year, had suffered some shoulder spasms, but complained of no shortness of breath. Holyfield attended a post-fight news conference.

When Bowe’s opportunity came, he did not let it slip by.

The two were exchanging punches early in the eighth round when Holyfield suddenly went face down from a crunching right. He struggled up at 9, but looked like a defeated fighter.

“When he stayed down that long a time, I knew I’d get him,” Bowe said. “I am 240 pounds, he’s 213. He’s no match for me once I hit him.”

And hit him Bowe did, landing 252 of 524 punches, while Holyfield connected on 154 of 256. Holyfield had the better percentage, but he also took the worse beating.

After seven rounds, the three judges had Holyfield leading by a point. Bowe had been penalized a point for a low blow in the fifth round. The AP card had Bowe ahead 66-65 after seven rounds.

At the end of their third exciting fight, the 28-year-old Bowe embraced his older opponent and said, “Man, I love you. Man, I love you.”

An estimated crowd of 12,000 loved them both.

With Mike Tyson’s fight against Buster Mathis Jr., scheduled for hours earlier at the MGM Grand down the strip, called off because of Tyson’s fractured right thumb, Bowe-Holyfield was the only fight in town. They made the most of it.

While the judges gave Holyfield a slight edge, Bowe appeared in command through the first five rounds. And after Holyfield was unable to take advantage of the knockdown, Bowe quickly re-established control.

Bowe puffed Holyfield around both eyes and drew blood from his mouth as he scored with good left jabs, clean right uppercuts inside and hard body punches.

“I could tell he was tired just watching him across the ring between rounds,” said Bowe.