Whatever Happened To Rock Newman?
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Correspondent
Rock Newman was best known as the manager of Riddick ‘Big Daddy’ Bowe, the Hallof Fame World Heavyweight champion on whose behalf Newman negotiated a potential revenue and compensation deal for $100 million for Bowe in November 1992 with Home Box Office, Time Warner and Caesar’s World. At the time, it was the largest compensation package for an athlete in sports history.
When Bowe was charged with kidnapping his family against his will, his legal defense team claimed Bowe incurred brain damage after winning for the second time by disqualification over Andrew Golota. Bowe was convicted and served 17 months for the domestic incident.
The July 11, 1996 Bowe versus Golota post fight riot at Madison Square Garden, which Bowe did not initiate, went down in boxing history as the worst televised indoor sports riot ever seen. Newman, who was previously disciplined for assaulting a photographer in Nevada, was fined and suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission. Bowe fought only three more times between 1996 and 2008. In 2013, Bowe got stopped in the second round of a Muay Thai match against 30-year-old LevgenGolivkin of Russia.
For many years, Newman has a radio talk show in Washington, D.C. on We Act Radio, 1480 AM. Newman was a part-owner of the Syracuse Crunch professional hockey team. Newman was also active in the international relief effort in Somalia, and the battle against apartheid in South Africa. However, Newman was only a public figure so long as was his active association with Bowe.Newman saw Bowe as an Olympian, and managed Bowe’s career from 1989 to 1996.
In Bowe’s first fight with Elijah Tillery, Bowe punched Tillery with a straight left after the bell, a punch which went unseen by the referee from behind, as the referee walked straight forward to separate the two fighters without looking back. Tillery punched and kicked back in self-defense. Newman came onto the ring apron and restrained Tillery from behind, allowing Bowe to head punch Tillery head first over the ring ropes without being able to defend himself. As Bowe punched after the bell first, Tillery could have and should have been awarded the disqualification, not Bowe. The fight ending was an ominous sign of the riot which was to come, and the flaws in the character of Bowe and Newman. At the time in October 1991, the boxing establishment protected Bowe. Six months earlier, Newman watched Bowe win a 10 round decision over Tony Tubbs at Caesars Atlantic City, which Tubbs called a farce. “Everyone could see I won that bout,” noted Tubbs.
In his period of inactivity, many might have wondered how Bowe versus Lennox Lewis, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Tommy Morrison, Mike Tyson, Corrie Sanders, the Klitschko brothers, David Tua, Joe Mesi, Monte Barrett and others might have been in his prime. Bowe was probably the best boxer in the heavyweight division in the era following Muhammad Ali. Bowe’s problems were he lacked emotional common sense and financial understandings. The sports public overall had no long term interest in Bowe.
In the end, neither Newman nor Bowe will be significantly remembered by the boxing establishment. They both had the potential, but neither lived up to their full potential or the boxing public’s expectations of greatness. Without Newman, Both faded into oblivion.
COMMENTS
English