On paper it's Evander Holyfield. A fighter that's not on that list that gets undersold is Zeljko Mavrovic. Undefeated, 2 time Olympian and European Champ. He was far tougher than Golota or any other Eastern Euro that Lewis fought. He was like a HW Antonio Margarito. It's too bad he got sick and had to retire after the Lewis fight. He was briefly scheduled to fight Maskaev and Rahman in 1999, if he was healthy I have little doubt he would have knocked out both those fighters.
I think the Holyfield that Lewis fought will give the Vitali that Lewis fought a very very tough fight. Probably a SD of sorts for either man.
There's really two Evander Holyfields. There's the skinny athletic and good handspeed tough as nails young Evander that went to war against Bowe and the older,bigger,stronger, more experienced Holyfield that fought Tyson/Lewis.
I will pick the older one over young Vitali.
It's probably
Holyfield
Vitali
Mercer
Ruddock
Tucker
Bruno
Tua
Tyson
Morrison
Despite people bashing the older Tyson that Lewis destroyed, I bet that older version of 2002 Tyson will still beat Bryant Jennings.
Its definatly Vitali even though then he was somewhat green......people may laugh but i would say Morrison who then was better prepared than he was vs Mercer ,had he jumped on Lewis early after a hard body shot he may have even won ,would be my second ,Ruddock was already on the decline and i think he just fought cautious with Mercer ,when Lewis deliberately went for a k.o he usually got it ,Vitali by far was the only guy able to go punch for punch with him .I think some looked like tougher opposition ,like Holyfield ,Mercer and even Tyson but he was in control or fealt he was ,guys like Golota ,Ruddock and Morrison i think he was more aware of the size and power and best bet to end the fight early with them.Vitali was just to tough for him to walk through like the others.
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