Colonna: Golota no longer 'The Foul Pole'

How about the mega match against Mike Tyson at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit in 2000? Golota quit in the third round, with trainer Al Certo following him around the ring, trying to reinsert his mouthpiece as if it were the missing key to a wind-up doll.

Then there was the time Golota bit Samson Po'uha on the shoulder during a match, and the time he deliberately head-butted Dannell Nicholson, and the time he quit one round after putting Michael Grant on the deck. Oh, yeah, he was leading in that fight, too.

Golota, a native of Warsaw, Poland, was not-so-affectionately dubbed "The Foul Pole" by noted boxing writer and curmudgeon Michael Katz.

Surprisingly, none of that has derailed Golota's career. Golota (40-6-1, 33 KOs) will meet Mike Mollo (19-1, 12 KOs), a young heavyweight contender from Chicago, on the undercard of the Roy Jones-Felix Trinidad show Jan 19. at Madison Square Garden.

Hardly anyone outside the 40-year-old Golota's inner circle believes he has a chance of winning a heavyweight title. He has had four cracks at winning a world championship and has come up empty each time. The most recent chance was in 2005, when Lamon Brewster knocked out Golota in the first round to retain the WBO title.

"He clearly loses to the upper-echelon heavyweights, and he can barely hold his own with the mediocre," said Carl Moretti, chief of boxing operations at DiBella Entertainment.

Moretti was at Main Events when it began promoting Golota shortly after he arrived from Warsaw in Chicago in 1992.

"He had all the ability in the world, and he would train very hard," Moretti said. "There wasn't anybody around him for those two Bowe fights that didn't know going in that he was going to win those fights. But what did he do? He lost.

"He gets to a certain point in the fight, and he just can't handle it mentally. He's a bully in a way. He's a lot like Mike Tyson."

Golota won 111 amateur fights and scored a bronze medal in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Between the Olympics and the start of his pro career, Golota honed his talents as a thug in Poland. He was noted for his bar fights -- a great athlete using his powers to do wrong.

Moretti offered some insight into Golota's character with a story about the aftermath of the riot at Madison Square Garden following the first Bowe fight in 1996.

"It's like 3 in the morning, and it's still crazy at the Garden. So the police put all of us in a paddy wagon to take us the one block from the Garden to the Southgate [Hotel] across the street," Moretti said. "We're all sitting on the benches, and Golota is sitting next to one of the cops. When we get out of the van, Golota lifts his sweater. He had stolen the cop's nightstick."

Certo, who trained Golota for four fights, said Golota's character flaws always manifested themselves in the heat of battle in the ring.

"This guy has so much talent; you have no idea," Certo said. "But he's got larceny in his heart. He was a car thief in Poland. He never took boxing serious. It was all about what he could get out of it. I'm convinced that he quit against Tyson because he knew he was going to get his $2 million anyway. If I was the commission, I wouldn't have given him a nickel."

Tyson-Golota was a match of the misfits. Tyson had bitten off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear, and Golota was hauling his own foul-filled luggage into the ring.

"I told him, 'If you're going to go into this fight and do something stupid, or if you think you're going to quit, then go get yourself some other jerk to train you,'" Certo said. "He told me, 'No way I'll quit.'"

Certo said they took Golota around to a Polish hall in Detroit to show him how much support he had in the community.

"There were 500-600 people there, chanting and screaming his name," Certo said. "They treated him like he was the president. I said, 'Andy, you can't let these people down.' He said, 'I ain't ever going to lose.' He had me fooled."

Tyson dropped Golota in the first round, and Golota came back to the corner and told Certo he was quitting. Certo coaxed him through another round, but Golota had made up his mind. He spit the bit again.

Because Tyson tested positive for marijuana before the fight, it was ruled a no contest.

"He's only an imitation of a fighter," Certo said. "He's a fraud. I hope they let him bring his mattress and a pillow [into the ring] for his next fight."

Golota and his current trainer, Sam Colonna, say Golota is a changed person. He is no longer "The Foul Pole."

"It's got a lot to do with him growing up," said Colonna, who was Golota's first trainer when he moved to Chicago in '92. "He's out to prove a point. He wants to prove that he's not a quitter and he's not crazy."