For years, Riddick Bowe dreamed of getting back into the ring - just not this ring and this sport, in this country.
Next week in Thailand, the former world heavyweight boxing champion will step out of retirement to make his debut as a Muay Thai fighter - the brutal martial art that makes boxing look gentlemanly.
“I’m just rolling with the punches, baby,” says Bowe, during a training session at a rundown Bangkok gym that has no air-conditioning, a few practice rings and a lot of mosquitoes. Stitched across the backside of his shorts is the nickname from his glory years: “BIG DADDY.”
At 6-foot-5 and weighing 300 pounds Bowe towers over his sparring partners who say he’s learning how to kick. The 45-year-old still has a ferocious punch but his prize fighter physique is gone along with the millions he made from boxing. Bowe says that friends and former foes, including Evander Holyfield, have told him he’s “crazy” to try Thai kickboxing. His wife compares it with street fighting.
Bowe shrugs off the risks. Thai boxing, he says, “has brought me back to life”.
“I’ve been sitting at home bored to death, twiddling my thumbs, trying to figure out what to do.” And this is what he came up with.
During a series of interviews at his gym and Bangkok hotel, the fighter spoke openly about the loneliness of retirement, his fondest memories and some of his regrets from a career that has been described as triumphant and tragic.
