Former heavyweight contender Andrew Golota shrugged off a warning for the low blows he's known for and knocked out journeyman Terrence Lewis midway through the sixth round Friday night for his second straight victory after a two-year layoff.
Golota, now 35, nailed Lewis with a flurry of punches early in the round and knocked him down in the bout at Turning Stone Resort and Casino. When the fight resumed, Golota pinned Lewis against the ropes, then slammed the back of his head with a right hand, sending him to the canvas in a daze.
Referee Bob Fenocchi stopped the fight at 1:25. It was Golota's 31st knockout and boosted his record to 38-4. Lewis, 30, of Philadelphia, fell to 31-13.
Golota, who fled his native Poland for Chicago in 1990 after a bar brawl in Warsaw, came close to beating former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe twice in 1996. Golota was winning each fight, only to lose on disqualifications for hitting low.
Despite a layoff of 2 1/2 years, the low blows haven't disappeared from his repertoire. He was penalized for them in the third round Fenocchi halted the action with Lewis wincing in pain.
"Everybody's trying to claim it [low blows] now," said Golota, who knocked Lewis down once in each of the first two rounds before Lewis slipped to the canvas in the third. "It wasn't a low blow. What am I to do?"
Lewis, who left the ring unmarked, expressed disgust at the outcome.
"He was punching, and he took the back of my head," Lewis said. ``I stepped away and he hit me with a chop to the head and the momentum made it look like I was sliding into second base.
"I was dizzy in the right eye for a minute and the referee just stopped the fight," said Lewis, who weighed 115.2kg. "I took his best. If that was me, they would have stopped the fight and disqualified me."
Golota fought Mike Tyson in the last fight before his layoff, and that ended in a no-contest after marijuana was detected in Tyson's blood. In the first fight of his comeback, Golota knocked out Brian Nix in the seventh round of their August bout.
Golota said he hoped to fight again in January.
"After Tyson, I was upset by my performance and didn't want to think about boxing," said Golota, who weighed 109kg for the Lewis fight.
"But I was born for boxing. I just need to get in real shape. I'm not in typical shape."
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
RSS