How Great was Holyfield?

[TheGreat1]

I just watched his 1st title fight against Qawi. This was only Holy's 12 professonal fight, but he whas great. The annoucers where trying to down play Holy the whole fight. After 15 tough rounds I only gave Qawi rd 5 and 15. and if you saw this fight it was toe to toe all night, no clinching. Holy seemed to get the better of the veteran champion all night. This was only the beginning, throughout his career he has always taken the toughest fights available. His resume is almost unmatched. My question to you is who has had a resume as good as or better than Holyfield. Does he deserve to be the highest paid fighter in boxing history which he already is?

[spinksjinx]

Olympic gold medal winner
Unified the cruiserweight division with pure domination
Never took an easy fight always fought the best

Dwight Muhammad Qawi X2
Pinklon Thomas
James (Buster) Douglas
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Rid**** Bowe
Ray Mercer
Michael Moorer X2
Mike Tyson X2
Lennox Lewis
John Ruiz
Hasim Rahman

Easily one if not the best resumes in boxing today, Holyfield is a great and aside from him going on far to long like most boxers will not be detrimental to his hall of fame career. Holyfield has the riches any man can only imagine. He earned everything and was always an underdog who never quit most of all he is deserving of everything that has been earned.

Holyfield one of the greatest (if not) boxers in the history of the sport.

[Cletus Funk]

Probably the best resume in the last 20 years. Awesome fighter.

[moochi]

not bad....although he was unlucky to be around whilst Lennox Lewis was......he dodged him for a long time and even corrupted a draw from the first fight......

definitely a great fighter, and probably in the top 10 heavyweights of all time.....Lennox Lewis was much greater though..

[TysonKO50-5-0]

He hit's the #10 spot on my all-time HW top 10 list.

The problem with Holyfield was unlike Lewis and Tyson, he was never dominant. It was clear, at one point, that Lewis and Tyson were the top guy and they held that status for consecutive years. With Holyfield, however, it was never clear that he was the top guy and on top of that he was never dominant for multiple, consecutive years.

Also, if he keeps on fighting, he is gonna damage his legacy more and more. There is only so many times you can give the guy a free pass on being past his prime. He just keeps getting embarassed nowadays and if getting shutout to Larry Donald doesn't get you to retire I don't know what does.

That said, he has a good resume and made more of himself with the average skills that he had.

[josenoway]

Great fighter and now a victim of his own success...he can't walk away from that taste of victory, he's enjoyed it so many times.

I'd never tell another man what to do with his life...but I'd be happy to see Evander enjoy his golden years outside of the ring.

[paul750]

he's got to be one of the greatest warriors the heavyweight division has ever seen, i think the fact that he fought bowe, lewis and tyson also makes him stand out from the rest, i don't think a fighter has ever been written off as many times as holyfield has either,i think before the tyson fight 19 out of 20 top boxing ''experts'' thought that he would lose to tyson

[oldgringo]

Holyfield is the man. You can't argue with what he's done in his career and he'd give any fighter to ever do it a run for their money if he didn't beat them in the first place. His first fight with Bowe was unreal...he took on one of the hardest fights ever against that young Bowe and showed that he would never quit.

[ejk22]

One of the best ever. I put him up there with the great ones like Ali, Marciano, Dempsey etc.

[The Pretender]

Holyfield the best fighter of the 90s easily. Great person and 2nd best heart the hw div ever seen!