Andrew Golota

At 56 years old, Andrew Golota has this physical status:

Andrzej Jan Golota (born 5 January 1968), also known as Andrew Golota, is a Polish professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2013.

He competed for a heavyweight world championship four times (by all four major sanctioning bodies), and as an amateur, he received a bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics' heavyweight division.

Despite his successes and more than 40 professional victories, Golota is best known for disqualifying Riddick Bowe twice for low blows in combats he appeared to be winning.

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Amateur career

Golota, a Warsaw-born boy, won 111 victories and 10 losses in an amateur career that culminated in him winning a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Golota has also won other international amateur tournaments.

In 1990, he became involved in a bar in Poland with a machinist who was about half a foot and 50 pounds smaller. Rather than face five years in jail for assault and battery charges, he fled rather than face five years in jail. He married an American citizen of Polish descent and settled in Chicago later that year. Goota's Olympic results were as follow

Professional career

Golota turned professional in 1992, defeating Roosevelt Shuler in three rounds. He had three more knockouts and then advanced to the finish for the first time by defeating Robert Smith in six rounds. He defeated his next 16 fights by knockout. Bobby Crabtree and Jeff Lampkin were among his winners. In Ring Magazine's latest faces section, he was a KO of Crabtree. Maron Wilson, a respected candidate, was defeated by him shortly thereafter. Golota was selected in a ten-round draw. He defeated his next five bouts by a forfeiture. Samson Po'uha and Darnell Nicholson, both of whom were considered fringe candidates at the time, were among his opponents. The victory over Po'uha was a moment in which Goota bit Po'uha on the side of the neck, two years before the bite-plus rematch between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson.

Riddick Bowe, the former heavyweight champion of Golota, was defeated in his first high-profile match. Bowe had not competed in nearly three years since his third and final match with Evander Holyfield, which he won by technical knockout in the eighth round, and had asked, "how do you train for a bum?" asked his opponent. "I'm not paying attention to his opponent's win-loss record." On July 11, 1996, a brawl took place in Madison Square Garden and was televised by HBO as part of the World Championship Boxing Championships.

Bowe had underestimated his opponent's abilities early in the fight. However, Golota's penchant for not following the rules was also on display in this fight, when he attempted to strike Bowe in the testicles. Referee Wayne Kelly began removing points from Golota and had done so twice before the seventh round, despite being warned repeatedly. Kelly took a third point from Golota and warned him that if he did it again, he would forfeit the match. Golota continued to fight, and with less than a minute remaining in the round, Bowe had more hard shots that seemed to have staggered. However, with 37 seconds remaining in the round, Golota disqualified Bowe with another blatant low blow, right to the testes. What ensued was a violent protest that left a large number of civilians and policemen wounded, including Goota himself, who was struck by a Bowe's entourage with a two-way radio and required eleven stitches to close a cut on his head. Ring Magazine has dubbed this event "Riot at the Garden" and it was dubbed Event of the Year.

The debate surrounding Golota vs. Bowe I sparked an interest in a rematch that took place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on December 14, 1996. Golota II was on Pay Per View and Goota was on Bowe and Goota once more led Bowe on the scorecards only to be disqualified in the ninth round by referee Eddie Cotton, who was also banned due to multiple shots to Bowe's testes. This confrontation also turned out to be bitter, and Goota's camp also organized a protest to try to reverse the fight's outcome. Michael Katz, a sportswriter, coined the phrase Foul Pole for Goota. Both fights are included on HBO's documentary Legendary Nights The Tale of Bowe Golota.

Despite two losses in a row, Goota emerged as the WBC's top-one contender. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, he got a chance against Lennox Lewis, the world's Heavyweight champion. In the first round, Goota was disqualified.

Goota later reported that a lidocaine injection in his right knee by his doctor shortly before the war made him woozy and impaired his vision. The adverse effects of lidocaine include dizziness, blurred vision, and seizures. As a result, he filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against his physician, arguing that the injection cost him the fight and that HBO spent $21 million to air his next four to five fights.

Goota's boxing career continued after defeating Tim Witherspoon by decision over the weekend. In the tenth round of one of The Ring's 1999 fights of the year, he lost by a knockout. In the first round, Goota scored two knockdowns of Grant. In the tenth round, he was ahead on all three judges' scorecards when he was knocked down. When asked by referee Randy Neuman whether he wanted to continue, he shook his head twice and then stumblingly replied, "No."

In 2000, Goota defeated Marcus Rhodes in China, defeating him in the third round. Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion, met him later in 2000. Tyson knocked Golota down in the first round, and Golota's corner was told to stay off the fight, but his corner was pushed to continue. Goota told the referee he did not want to continue in the third round as he had done in the Grant match, despite his team's urging him to do so. He later stated that a headbutt impaired him during the war, which was one of his main reasons for not to continue. When Tyson failed a post-fight drug drug test, it was later decided that there was no contest. Goota was inactive for nearly three years after the Tyson war before returning to the ring on August 14, 2003. In the seventh round, Brian Nix had a mechanical knockout. Terrence Lewis was knocked out in the sixth round at Verona, New York, on November 15, Golota knocked out Terrence Lewis. Goota then shot out of the world championships for the second time, taking on IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd at Madison Square Garden in New York City on April 17th. The result was a draw.

Goota fired his second world championship shot in a row on November 13, 2004. Despite knocking down WBA champion John Ruiz twice during the match, the contest was decided by unanimous vote.

On May 21, 2005, Golota's third world championship appearance came against WBO champion Lamon Brewster. Despite being strongly favored to win, Goota lost after Brewster knocked him down three times inside the first round, prompting the referee to call the game off. He defeated Jeremy Bates in the 2nd round by a technical KOMP out on June 9, 2007. In the 6th round of the inaugural IBF North American Heavyweight championship, Goota defeated Kevin McBride on October 6, 2007 in Madison Square Garden and won by TKO.

Goota defeated Mike Mollo by a unanimous vote in 12 rounds on 19 January 19, 2008, the World Boxing Association's Fedelatin heavyweight championship belt belt was won by Goota. Goota lost by first-round TKO to Ray Austin in January, 2009. Goota defeated Tomasz Adamek in the 5th round of the 5th round on October 24, 2009 in Pododa, where the Gogota lost by TKO. The case was also broadcast live online on Polsat TV, and it was also broadcast live on the ipla.tv website. It was Poland's most significant live internet broadcast.

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