[bigben]

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Andrew Golota must feel like he’s living through an episode of the Twilight Zone.

After back-to-back unsuccessful attempts at winning a piece of the world heavyweight championship, the giant Pole is back for a third consecutive bite at the apple – well, sort of. On Saturday night, he faces WBO heavyweight titlist Lamon Brewster in what is almost certainly Golota’s final shot at boxing gold.

Granted, it’s not one of the “Big 3” alphabet belts, but it is a great stepping stone to getting another shot at one of them. What makes this fight even more significant is the fact that no other heavyweight in history has had four total chances or three consecutive opportunities to win heavyweight gold without ever having won one of the previous title fights.

Wait a minute. If Golota failed to win a title in his last two fights, then he has no business challenging Brewster for his strap, right? Wrong. He is very deserving.

Although he is 0-1-1 in his two recent title challenges, it’s not a stretch to think that Golota should be IBF/WBA unified heavyweight champion as we speak. The Byrd fight was ultra close, I mean ULTRA close. If Tony Paolillo scores just one more round for Golota, he wins. A draw was probably the correct outcome – scoring the fight on five separate occasions, your humble fight analyst had Golota winning 116-114 three times and had it a draw twice.

Golota put Ruiz down twice in the second but couldn’t get the decision

As for Golota-Ruiz, the outcome of that fight will forever remain a mystery to me. After suffering two knockdowns and a lost point for excessive fouls, Ruiz still managed to win by three points on two of the three cards. Maybe Tom Shreck, Frank Lombardi and Oscar Perez were concentrating on the ring girls all night, or maybe they were prepping for their weekly book club. But one thing is certain: They definitely did not see the same fight that I did – InsideFighting scored the bout 114-111 for Golota.

So, after two razor-thin misses in 2004, Don King secured one final title shot for the three-time championship fight loser (his first shot at the title came in 1997 when Lennox Lewis stopped Golota in 95 seconds).

Will Saturday night finally be Golota’s moment to shine? Or, will Golota come up short once again?

The odds makers certainly believe that the third (consecutive) time is the charm, opening Golota just above a 3-1 betting favorite. The thought is that Brewster is the perfect opponent for Golota because he isn’t that difficult to find, and Golota has always excelled against that type of opponent.

Standing six-foot-four, Golota is one of the better pure boxers in the division. He moves surprisingly well around the ring for a man of his size, utilizing solid footwork and surprising quickness to create punching angles. When he engages, Golota pumps a jab that is both accurate and crisp.

Golota doesn’t react that well to getting hit

Last week, the world learned how much a great jab can actually dominate a fight. Golota’s jab isn’t quite to the level of a Winky Wright, but it isn’t that far behind, either. In his fights against Byrd and Riddick Bowe, Golota used the jab to completely frustrate his opponents. And he can do the same thing to Brewster on Sunday.

Once the jab starts to find its mark and Golota becomes comfortable with the range, he has legitimate heavyweight knockout power in his right hand. Say what you will about Ruiz, but the guy has an unquestionable chin, lightning-quick knockout loss to David Tua notwithstanding. Yet, Golota had enough juice to put the “Quietman” down twice in the second round of their fight.

What all that means is if Golota has a target that he can find, he becomes very difficult to beat. And Brewster is not a difficult fighter to find once the action begins to unfold.

Anyone who watched Brewster’s two major television fights against Wladimir Klitschko and Kali Meehan realizes that the WBO champion’s biggest flaw is his defense. Although he is an excellent athlete, he does not catch or slip punches all that effectively. And he really has no answer for someone who sticks a consistent jab in his face.

So, Brewster should be the perfect opponent for Golota, right? Yes and no.

Although Brewster will be right there for the challenger to hit, he also punches back with serious power, especially in his left hook. And the sometimes mentally unstable Golota just does not react well when someone is blasting him in the face.



Golota’s jab, shown landing against Byrd, is a formidable weapon

Many fans remember back in 1996 when Andrew Golota decided to play bongo drums on Riddick Bowe’s family jewels not once but several times during their two fights. It was so egregious that he got disqualified in both bouts. What made the low blows completely bizarre was the fact that Golota he was winning both fights when he repeatedly decided to intentionally attack Bowe below the belt.

The only plausible explanation for the fouls is that Golota wanted to find a way to get out of the fights because although he was winning, Bowe landed some serious power shots that obviously hurt the fragile fighter.

Golota followed the Bowe debacle with a deer-in-the-headlights performance against Lennox Lewis only a few months later. The monster Pole was clearly intimidated by Lennox Lewis’ power and he lasted less than two minutes of the first round before getting knocked out.

Three years later, Golota had another in a string of mental breakdowns in the ring. This time, it was Mike Tyson that caused him to lose his mind.

During the second round of the fight, Tyson landed some gargantuan bombs that many thought would drop his larger competitor. Golota took the punches well, but he quit after the round – literally.

Golota’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, tried to physically force the mouthpiece back in his fighter’s mouth. But Golota merely shoved him away and refused to continue fighting. He simply did not want to endure anymore pain from Tyson’s power, so he quit.

Suffice to say, nobody knows which Andrew Golota will show up on Saturday night. He certainly has all the physical tools to soundly defeat Lamon Brewster. But whether he can maintain his composure during the fight is question that nobody can answer.


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[naught33]

i don't know much about brewster, only fight i saw was the klitchko fight...where klitchko basically lost due to punching himself out and having no stamina....i think golota will destroy brewster, prob earlier than 6 rounds, and by ko

[naught33]

WOW.....was it a case of Golota being that bad, or is Brewster that good? He totally demolished Golota, in like 40 seconds. Knocked him down 15 seconds into the fight if even that and that was pretty much it, Golota got up, knocked down again, up, and knocked out, LOL. Only Lenox Lewis was able to do that to Golota prior to last night.

[bigben]

i never got to see this fite
and yes quite startling to say the
least a sudden and quick finish

[naught33]

yeah i turned it off for 2 seconds when it just started, and turned it back on and golota was on his ass....the first knockdown was vicious, there was no way he was going to recover from it, i give him credit for getting up and trying but that left hand floored him 3 times