Who'll go down in history as the greater fighter, Holyfield or Tyson?

holyfield will be the greater fighter, but tyson will be considered the better story. people will remember tyson's streak of devastating knockouts and his ferocious behavior inside and outside the ring. holyfield will be remembered as the guy who stood up to tyson and gave him the beating of a lifetime. What about Douglas? He beat Mike up worse; and that was before Mike went to prison. Holyfield beat up a past his best Tyson, not the prime deal. That first fight was the equivalent of Ali-Frazier III. Ali was 33, Frazier was 31.......Holyfield was 34, Tyson was 30. If you're judging Ali's or Frazier's "greatness", do you look at the Third fight....or the first one? Just something to think about. If Tyson never got out of prison, Holyfield is only "very good"; but because of the Tyson "mystique" which got out of prison, while Mike's best years were left in jail.....Holyfield is considered better by some.....off of that fight in 1996. It's an illusion. Tyson was an illusion after prison compared to what he was before he went in. He was still a good fighter; but he was no longer the best.....Lewis was....and Holyfield couldn't beat him. If you take away Tyson, what does Holyfield have left? He has a 1-3 series with Bowe, a 1-1 series with Moorer, and (really) an 0-2 series with Lewis. But; because Tyson came out of prison and people were so gullable as to believe he was still the human wrecking ball he was when he went in....and because Holyfield had looked "shot"......Evander became the all American Hero....and that's a myth built on one upset and several courageous losses. It's the truth....but most can't handle it. And,no, I'm not saying Holyfield wasn't a great fighter because he was. I just want to put things in the proper perspective.

holyfield will be the greater fighter, but tyson will be considered the better story. people will remember tyson's streak of devastating knockouts and his ferocious behavior inside and outside the ring. holyfield will be remembered as the guy who stood up to tyson and gave him the beating of a lifetime. could not have said it better

holyfield will be the greater fighter, but tyson will be considered the better story. people will remember tyson's streak of devastating knockouts and his ferocious behavior inside and outside the ring. holyfield will be remembered as the guy who stood up to tyson and gave him the beating of a lifetime.

Amen K-Dogg. Amen.

Good read..from the post above.

Okay, once and for all, allow me to cut through the hype: Evander Holyfield was not, I repeat, WAS NOT a four-time world champion. He could not have been, for only one man has ever won the World Heavyweight Championshiop three (3)times, and that was Ali. No one, NO ONE has won the championship four times....not Holyfield, not Ali, not anyone. Let's examine this. Evander beat Buster Douglas for his first reign as world champion in October of 1990. He lost that championshiop after three successful defenses, to Riddick Bowe. Evander then regained the World Championship from Riddick Bowe in November of 1993, only to lose it in his first defense to Michael Moorer. Moorer, in turn, lost it in his first defense to George Foreman, who didn't lose a fight until Shannon Briggs was awarded a gift decision over him in 1997, making Briggs the rightful title claimant. In Shannon's next fight, he lost to Lennox Lewis, who then, rightfully, became The World Heavyweight Champion...and Evander never beat Lewis, so Evander isn't even a three time world champion, much less a four time world champ. Here's a little history.... Jim Corbett, the man who beat John L. Sullivan in 1892, was the first man to ever get a chance to reclaim the World Heavyweight Championship in the modern era when he challenged then-champion, James J. Jeffries, who knocked him out in the 23rd round. Corbett would fight Jeffries again and lose again; but sooner. Also, Robert Fitzsimmons, the man whom Jeffries dethroned for the title, got a chance to reclaim his title against The Boiler Maker and was stopped in 8, thus failing as Corbett had twice before him. Big Jeff himself got a chance to regain his World Championship when he came out of retirement to challenge Jack Johnson in Reno in 1910....he failed as well. The next former champ to be foiled in an attempt to reclaim the throne was none other than the great Jack Dempsey when he challenged the man who took his title, Gene Tunney. Gene won a resounding decision once again, thuse making Jack the fourth champion to fail. Everybody with me so far? Other former champions who tried to regain the crown and failed were Max Schmeling, Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and Larry Holmes. When Floyd Patterson beat Ingemar Johanson in 1960, he became the very first man to regain the title of World Heavyeight Champion. Muhammad Ali turned the trick twice when he beat George Foreman in 1974 and when he outpointed Leon Spinks in 1978. Evander joined the list of men to regain the belt when he beat Riddick Bowe and Lewis put his name among the elite when he knocked out Hasim Rahman in four rounds. Guess what all of those men have in common....they all fought for the one true lineal heavyweight championship. To win the World Heavyweight Championship, you must....you guessed it, beat the champion. Sounds simple enough....and it is. Evander beat the World Champion on two occasions; when he knocked out Buster Douglas and when he outpointed Riddick Bowe. When he beat Mike Tyson, as glorious a performance as it was, it wasn't for the World Heavyweight Championship because neither Tyson, nor Bruno, nor Seldon had beaten Foreman to win the championship. How could either of those men be the World Champion without beating Big George? Very simply put....they couldn't.....so, they weren't. Ergo, Holyfield wasn't, either. Saying Holyfield is a Four Time World Champion puts Evander in the same category as Tim Witherspoon, Chris Byrd, and Herbie Hyde, which is an insult to Evander because he has earned his place alongside Patterson, Ali, and Lewis. It's also an insult to all of those fighters who tried and failed because at least they were chasing the real thing. Don't believe the hype. Just becasue Jose Suliaman or some other organizaation's president says it's so doesn't make it so. Evander was a great fighter; but he didn't win the World Heavyweight Championship on four occasions any more than I have. BS like that makes my ass ache.

Holy had the better career and is a 4 time h/w champ but he was nowhere near as devastating as tyson. peak for peak id say tyson would beat holy they should both be rememberd as greats.. tysons devestating domination gives him the edge for me

If you were in your teens or twenties in the Tyson era, you won't say Holyfield was the greater fighter. But you had to live in that era. exactly what i was trying to say. you have to live the era of the baddest man of the planet. he made it looked like a weak era. but... as i saw on the 'what's your age' thread, most active posters here are not even over 20.

most people are dumb especially when it comes to boxing. everyone thinks they know it all, and if you ask the average joe who the best heavyweight ever is, they'll say tyson or marciano, which is dumb. Both one dimensional, both ducked huge fights that would've made them potentially greater. tyson isnt even a top 20 all time hw in ring magazine's rankings.. you are out of your mind. well, the avergae joe dont know much bout boxing Stop whining. It isnt my fault Tyson had such an impact on the world as a fighter. You'll be hearing ''He can punch like Tyson'' for a very long time. Yeah people dont know much about boxing, does that chance a fact? Yeah some people are dumb, does that change this fact? Mike Tyson will go down as the greater fighter than Holyfield and the second greatest fighter ever. BUT BUT BUT!!! no no :)

Tyson will obviously go down as the greater fighter. I mean there are millions and millions of people who consider Tyson the greatest of all time. Tyson will go down as the greatest fighter of all time, after to Ali. That is not my opinion, its the people's opinion. well, the avergae joe dont know much bout boxing

i hate when ppl follow the crowd and say he didnt have heart. ppl that say that shit has no knowledge of tyson besides the second holyfield fight.period Ive said he had no heart. Im not just following the crowd. People bring up the Holyfield fight because it was his biggest challenge, and a fight which he needed to show wat he was made of. He had a great chance in the rematch to put things right, and he CHOSE not to. IMO.

Holyfield and easily. In addition to beating Mikes ass, being a 3 or 4 time world heavyweight champ, unifying the cruiserweight division and maybe being its best fighter ever, beating several top level fighters, showing more heart and determination, etc... Beat Qawi, De Leon, old Foreman, Moorer, Bowe, Tyson, Dokes, Mercer, old Holmes, etc...

now I haven't voted yet, because I feel that if I vote for Mike, people will think it's just bias, beccause I'm a Tyson fan. So I'm just going to say what I think because I think both are up there. Now I've read people say in posts that Tyson is overrated because he was in a weak heavyweight division. Well that really isn't his fault, He just happen to become pro at that time and he dominated everyone that was put in front of him at that time. I've also seen posts about when Tyson beat Holmes and Spinks, and how they said that Holmes was too old or Spinks wasn't a real heavyweight. Holmes was in his late 30's when Tyson knocked him out, but who else has knocked him out? Now I know Spinks moved up in weight, but the man beat Larry Holmes twice. Some were still considering Spinks the "the real champion" since he never lost the belt. And we all can't forget that he was the youngest man to ever win a heavyweight belt and was the first man since I believe was Ali to unify the belts. Now Holyfield. Is one of the greatest cruiserweights ever and moved up in weight and had incredible success. He took on everyone he could and showed great heart. He is also the only 4 time heavyweight champion of the world. he beat Tyson twice, went to war with bowe three times. 4 time heavyweight champion, unified the cruiserweight titles I personally think they are both up there, because they're both great fighters who will always be remembered in the sport of boxing whether it be good or bad. So right now I can't vote.

Damn, I thought this poll was gonna be onesided but for Tyson. I voted for Holyfield for one reason; Heart edit; I'm not saying tyson didn't have heart, I'm just saying Holyfield was ALL heart.

Now, on the issue of Tyson having no heart....bullspit. Tyson was getting the crap kicked out of him against Douglas; but fought back and dropped him in the 8th...and charged after Douglas in teh 9th to get him out of there. Even after Buster hurt him again in the middle of the round, Mike found that same uppercut again; but this time, Douglas fell forward on top of Mike, who's back was to the ropes. What that means is Mike was still trying to win......THAT'S HEART, FOLKS!! Against Ruddock in the first fight, Razor landed some monster shots all night; but Mike kept coming. In the 6th, Ruddock nailed the hell out of Tyson and had him hurt at the bell; but Mike came out in the 7th and hurth Ruddock badly. If Richard Steele hadn't stopped it prematurely, odds are Mike would have ended matters in that round. And then, Mike challenged this dangerous hitter again.....folks, once again, THAT'S HEART! if you want to go back farther, Tyson was hurt in the first round against Frank Bruno as well; but came back and stopped him in the 5th. The Tyson that came out of prison was not the same man, much less the same fighter as the one who went in with a record of 41-1. Could Holyfield have beaten him in 1991 is anyone's guess; but the fighter he beat in '96 was not the same man, period. Was the Ali of 1960-67 the same as the Ali of 1970-81? Was the Foreman of 1969-77 the same as the Foreman of 1987-97? You can't have a double standard, here, folks. i hate when ppl follow the crowd and say he didnt have heart. ppl that say that shit has no knowledge of tyson besides the second holyfield fight.period

most people are dumb especially when it comes to boxing. everyone thinks they know it all, and if you ask the average joe who the best heavyweight ever is, they'll say tyson or marciano, which is dumb. Both one dimensional, both ducked huge fights that would've made them potentially greater. tyson isnt even a top 20 all time hw in ring magazine's rankings.. Who did Marciano duck?

Tyson will obviously go down as the greater fighter. I mean there are millions and millions of people who consider Tyson the greatest of all time. Tyson will go down as the greatest fighter of all time, after to Ali. That is not my opinion, its the people's opinion. you are out of your mind.

I don't remember the odds on the Spinks fight; but several people gave Michael a good chance to beat Mike....the sure as hell didn't expect the equivalent of a steamroller and a cockroach.

can't believe this poll is close

Gotcha. I see your point, Bobby. I sure as hell wish Mike would have had just one of those fights where it looked like he was going to lose but turned it around. Ruddock is about as close as he came....and that one was never really in doubt. I think if Mike and Evander had clashed in 1991 a lot of these questions would be answered solidly and all the speculating and analysis would be moot. Fate's got a funny sense of humor. I agree, id have loved Tyson to kicked a big names ass. I guess at the time a alot of people thought Spinks could beat Tyson. Id like to see wat the odds were that night. I also love the Ruddock fight. Although not at his best Tyson took some shots and fought back well. It shows Tyson wasnt just a bully, and could fight with guys who werent intimidated by him.