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Oklahoma, USA. 26th September 2004. Former heavyweight champion, Riddick Bowe returned to ring last night for the first time in eight years. Bowe, now 37, dropped Marcus Rhode four times before the fight was finally waved off at 2:45 of the second round in a ring on a tribal reservation. Bowe looked heavy and a little slow, but there was nothing wrong with the way he punched. He put Rhode down once with 10 seconds left in the first round and then knocked him down three times in the second round before Rhode's corner stepped in and the fight was stopped. "It's good to be back," Bowe said. "I feel like a kid in a candy store." Bowe showed no ill effects from getting hit again, although Rhode didn't hit him very much. In his last fight before retiring, Bowe showed signs of brain damage and there were worries that getting hit in the head could damage him more. "They said crazy things like I was punchy," Bowe said. "They're the ones who are punchy." The first knockdown came on a right hand to the head, while the second came on a combination after Bowe stunned Rhode with an uppercut. The end came on a right, left, right that put Rhode down alongside the ropes. "The uncrowned champ, that's me," Bowe said. "I was very nervous and anxious and I guess it showed a little bit. But this is something I've been craving for eight years." Bowe's only official loss came in a rematch with Evander Holyfield, but he took a severe beating in both of his last two fights against Andrew Golota in 1996. He won the fights when Golota was disqualified for low blows, but his reflexes were slow and his speech was so slurred it was barely understandable. Rhode, who is 29-25-1, weighed 273 pounds and came in strictly as an opponent for Bowe's first fight. He connected with a few punches in the first round, but never hit Bowe hard. Bowe, who improved to 41-1 with 33 knockouts, said he wants to fight every three weeks and eventually fight Vitali Klitschko for the heavyweight title he once held.

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