Bowe’s Future Is on the Line Against Gonzalez in Las Vegas

Riddick Bowe talks the talk, but he has to beat Jorge Luis Gonzalez tonight in the MGM Grand Garden to show that he can walk the walk fast enough to run in the Mike Tyson sweepstakes.

“Most people know I’m the best heavyweight out there,” said Bowe, but those who disagree are legion since he lost the World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation titles to Evander Holyfield on Nov. 6, 1993.

Since then, the Bowe and Buster Mathis Jr. fight was ruled no-contest when Bowe hit Mathis when Mathis was down in the fourth round; and Bowe has beaten Larry Donald and Herbie Hide in nondescript fights.

Bowe will be defending the World Boxing Organization title he won from Hide, and will be fighting a man he has not liked since being knocked down twice in losing a 3-2 decision to Gonzalez in a super-heavyweight semifinal at the Pan American Games in 1987.