Bowe To Compete In MMA Bout On December 12th

In the latest boxing news, former heavyweight champion of the world Riddick Bowe (42-1, 33 KOs) plans on fighting in an MMA bout on December 12th. Bowe, who retired from boxing in December 1996 and then made a short-lived comeback seven years later, says that he’d like to hold titles in both MMA and boxing at the same time. However, to do so, Bowe, 40, has a lot of work cut our for him to get in fighting shape for either sport.

In his last bout in 2005, against journeyman fighter Billy Zumbrun, Bowe came into the bout weighing 280 lbs, which is 40 lbs higher than his prime weight of 240 lbs. Just paring off the weight will be a monumental task for Bowe, not to mention all the learning involved with the ground aspect of MMA. The only advantage Bowe would have would be on his feet, where he would have much more skills than the average MMA fighter. However, most of the MMA fighters are former wrestlers, and spend most of the time on the mat where they place their opponents in submission holds.

To that end, Bowe would have a huge learning curve. At this point, it remains doubtful that he could fight one hard round without quickly tiring out and getting taken out on a submission hold. Bowe still has excellent boxing skills, as he showed in his bout with Zumbrun in 2005, so even if Bowe never learns a lick about submission holds, he has a chance - a small one - of defeating one of the MMA fighters as long as he can keep the fight off the ground where he would be in danger of being stopped.