Bowe wins in comeback bout with four knockdowns

Some in boxing were worried Riddick Bowe would get hurt making a comeback after eight years outside the ring. On Saturday night in Shawnee, Okla., he was the one doing the hurting.

Bowe, clearly happy to be fighting again, knocked an outclassed Marcus Rhode down four times before the fight was finally stopped at 2:45 of the second round in a ring on a tribal reservation.

The former heavyweight champion was heavy and a step slow, but there was nothing wrong with the way he punched. He put Rhode down once with 10 seconds left in the first round and then knocked him down three times in the second round before Rhode’s corner stepped in and the fight was stopped.

“It’s good to be back,” Bowe said. “I feel like a kid in a candy store.”

The first knockdown came on a right hand to the head, while the second came on a combination after Bowe stunned Rhode with an uppercut. The end came on a right, left, right that put Rhode down alongside the ropes.

Johnson knocks out Jones in ninth

Glen Johnson knocked out Roy Jones Jr. in the ninth round at Memphis, Tenn., to hold on to the IBF light heavyweight title and cast more doubt on the future of one of boxing’s most outstanding performers.

Jones lay on his back moving only slightly for almost four minutes after he was felled by an overhand right, followed by a short left. Trainers filled a towel with ice and slid it under Jones’ head as he lay on the canvas.

Johnson came out the aggressor from the opening bell. He threw a total of 437 punches to 270 for Jones and kept the challenger against the ropes for most of the fight.

The knockout came on Jones’ first fight after a crushing defeat by Antonio Tarver in May. Tarver landed a left that sent Jones sprawling in the second round and unable to continue.

It was Jones’ second real defeat in a sterling career that now has a murky future.