Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993 TAG: 9304140022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HOT SPRINGS LENGTH: Medium
BOWE FINDS HOMESTEAD TO HIS LIKING
THE HEAVYWEIGHT champion of the world is training in solitude as part of his camp's plan to clean up boxing's image.\ At first, it seems a strange mix, Riddick Bowe and The Homestead.
Boxing, the sport of tuxedoes, big money and gem-studded belts, long has had an earthier underside: renegade promoters, rogue fighters and managers, squabbles over who will award what title to whom.
Now, boxing's biggest road show - the training camp of the undisputed heavyweight champion - has parked at The Homestead, better known for being host to people who raise their pinkies sipping tea than who make their living with a closed fist.
But listen up.
"If it looks like we're making a conscious effort to change the way boxing people are perceived, we are," Bowe's manager, Rock Newman, said at a news conference Tuesday in the resort's Crystal Room. "The fact that we're here at this magnificent facility helps us in that process."
Even Bowe knows. And it seems he's set on becoming the new, improved heavyweight champion.
"A lot of people think fighters aren't intelligent - they're from the streets so they have a ghetto mentality and can only do one thing and that's fight," said Bowe, who is from Brooklyn. "I want to show people and the kids of America that you can go to college if you want to."
It isn't hot air to the 6-foot-5, 230-pounder. For example, in recent months he traveled to South Africa, Somalia and Kenya with food and medical supplies for needy people. And he has filed a custody suit in North Carolina to determine whether he fathered a child outside his marriage. If he is the father, he wants that baby to join his wife and three children as one family.
Why? In part, to send a message.
"Take charge of it," he said. "Be a man. This is your child. Take care of it.
"A lot of guys who are fortunate, they become selfish. This is my way of giving back. I would like to go back to the ghettos, do drug programs, literacy programs, whatever."
Before Bowe does any of that, he will fight 35-year-old Jesse Ferguson on May 22 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The 12-round title defense is his second. Bowe, a 25-year-old who won the title by beating Evander Holyfield on Nov. 13 in Las Vegas, is scheduled to train at The Homestead until May 11.
Bowe's workouts from 4-6 p.m. are open to the public daily except Wednesday and Sunday. A tip: Bring a T-shirt or other light clothes; Bowe wants the temperature of the gym kept between 85 and 100 degrees.
His only complaint, in fact, was that the heat in his room was too low and he caught a cold.
Bowe, who has trained at other mountain resorts, loves the solitude and fresh air they provide. When Newman was searching for a camp site, he looked into sites in Oregon and in the Pocono and Catskill mountains.
He hit it off with Dennis Mills, The Homestead's executive vice president and managing director. There is no long-term deal, but both hint the relationship may continue.
Homestead people coo that Bowe's camp of fewer than a dozen people doesn't demand, it asks. The Homestead doesn't have a handful of staffers on 24-hour-call, only one liaison. Newman raved about the treatment the Bowe entourage has gotten.
In fact, this young marriage between resort and fighter is still so sweet that Bowe may stick around longer.
"I got the shock of my life last night," Newman said, noting that Bowe usually tires of training and gets the itch to break camp. "[Bowe] said, `I don't want to go to Washington before the fight except for just three days before.' He always wants to know when he can get out. This one, he wants to know `How long can I stay here?' "