How Much Do You Respect Holyfield

[billeau2]

To Hollfield's credit: He may have frustrated Tyson with rough tactics and that was not right....but he beat Tyson by pushing Tyson back on his heels at the weakest point of balance. He was coached properly to do this and it is why Tyson could not take his head off. This principle is often used in Ju Jutsu and is one of the reasons grapplers do well against punchers in a controlled environment. Most people backed off when Mike started punching, Holyfield pushed in and made him lack power by being offbalance. Turner is a genius! I don't know what the rest of Turner's training did for fighters but he trained Holly like a real smart G

[umop-ap!sdn]

I never could stand Commander Vander, was always a huge Lewis fan from early in his career sinse he was sporting the box cut. Holyfield just seemed like a sham to me. Something just wasn't right about this skinny legged big headed man with a 70's style mustache and no swag. I respected him as a fighter but never liked him or was a fan of his. Once the drugs came up I was like "i knew it". That something that wasn't right finally made sense. At that point and time the Real Deal was a Done Deal to me.

Too many U.S. Athletes are tainted.. it's really sad because it's MOSTLY in the U.S

Lewis was highly underrated AND avoided and I personally would deem him the king of 90's.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

The other champs of the 90s, holyfield was:

buster 1-0
george 1-0
bowe 1-2
tyson 2-0
lewis 0-1-1

5-3-1,,, Thats is a great record vs that level of competition

[BKM-2010]

^Moorer would make it 6-4-1. Still damn good and he beat all of them except Lewis(though some argue that he beat Lewis in the rematch which I completely disagree with)

[Anthony342]

The only thing keeping him out of the hall of fame now is that he has to wait 2 more years now for eligibility.

[GOD-FR33]

Agreed.

Agreed. By the time Lewis fought my boy, he was 36-37 years old. Lewis won the first fight but Holyfield fought back well the 2nd half of the fight. Lewis was a safety first fighter who didn't like to get hit. He liked to play it safe. Holyfield said after the first fight that if Lewis punched through the target, instead of at it, then maybe they wouldn't be having a rematch. I couldn't have said it better myself. I was/am a Lewis fan though but Holyfield won the rematch. He showed skill and ring smarts in the rematch. He was actually messing Lewis up! LoL. A top 10 all-time great Heavyweight and the greatest Light Heavyweight as well in my opinion.

[BKM-2010]

^I can't see Holyfield winning more than 4 rounds in the rematch. Lewis was more active and landed far more, Holyfield just a lot of good moments where he would try to steal rounds by rallying with attacks on the inside. I had Evander winning rounds 5, 6, 12 and the first round a draw. The first fight was close to a shutout for Lewis.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

^Moorer would make it 6-4-1. Still damn good and he beat all of them except Lewis(though some argue that he beat Lewis in the rematch which I completely disagree with)

Sorry, forgot him,, thanks for the correction

[Mintcar923]

So he used rough tactics against one of the dirtiest fighters of the times in Mike Tyson? He refused to be bullied and the Bully underestimated his heart.
By the time he fought Tyson he was supposed to be through. He already was retired with heart problems, he had been stopped by Bowe and beat by Moorer. Don King fed Holyfield to Tyson as a sacrificial feast and the feast ate him.

I don't recall Mike doing anything dirty to Evander before it was done to him.. Granted, he did hit him at the bell the end of Round 1 in the first bout but you could see it wasn't intentional. However, observe Round 6 and you can see Hoy blatantly head-butting and hitting him very low before the knockdown. Even Rahman and Lewis had their hands full in dealing with that kind of stuff. Was that his way of being anti-bully with them, as well?

[joseph5620]

^I can't see Holyfield winning more than 4 rounds in the rematch. Lewis was more active and landed far more, Holyfield just a lot of good moments where he would try to steal rounds by rallying with attacks on the inside. I had Evander winning rounds 5, 6, 12 and the first round a draw. The first fight was close to a shutout for Lewis.

I agree. I think some people believe because Holyfield did better than the first time, he won. I thought he clearly lost both fights.