PRIME Tyson vs PRIME Holyfield...Who wins this and Why ?

Holyfield also got the better of Tyson, by all accounts, when they sparred at the Olympic trials. That's when Holyfield= light heavyweight and Tyson= heavyweight in '84.

Holyfield always beat Tyson- that's why he couldn't wait to finally move up to heavy and challenge Mike, even though Mike was supposed to be the most feared man on the planet.

 

All accounts say the spar was competitive as both combatants went at it hard. It had to be broken up. No one got the better of each other. Although Holyfield has said that Tyson worked harder than anyone else, including him.

 

Not what I heard. Holyfield (light heavyweight, mind you) was givin it to Tyson pretty good. And it wasn't really a spar/touch up- it was more devolved into a fight.

Holyfield always beats Tyson

 

Prime for prime I'd choose Holyfield everytime. :deal

 

Holyfield would have won, Mike may have done better though but Evanders style is designed to deal with Tysons style.
if you were around back then old enough that is, you knew that the Duvas tailored Evanders style and conditioning to prepare him for that Tyson fight he was set up as the man to beat Mike Tyson.
they moved him up from Cruiser weight and had alot of good match making behind them to prepare Evander for that fight.
I think that version of Evander out performs what the 33 year old Evander was able to do with Mike.
in other words both guys would be brain dead had we had the fight in 91 as we were supposed to. They both just fought that way. I am truely blessed to have witnessed such a great era as it unfolded in the heavyweight division during the 90s

 

Holyfield,why cause he wont back down to Mike and in turn Mike will fold

 

Who'd you hear this from? Just curious.

 

No, it's the 205-210 pound ectomorph who would muscle Tyson around the ring just the same as the inexplicably bigger and denser 1996 version apparently. Vast underestimation of how much Tyson had declined, even compared to the 1991 version. A curious combination of Holyfield's athletic prime mixed with the mid-90s Holyfield's brute physical strength and sense of strategy.

 

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Indeed. :good

Do you see the point of that gif, TaylorSwift? :deal

It's prime 1991 Evander getting dropped in the third round against a fighter and puncher vastly inferior to Mike Tyson in virtually every conceivable way. Yet, Mike wouldn't hurt Holyfield? :rofl:rofl On the contrary, witness Tyson walk through 230+ lb Razor Ruddock's power shots with enough stamina to last the distance.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUAG1bjht40[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcVJVvDTJeo[/ame]

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GIFSoup

 

That's why I was trippin when you said Vladimir23 had the Swift handle.. :rofl No ****ing way. You actually make me laugh out loud on a regular basis.

 

Interesting clip.
Holyfield's a mentally tough MFer. He can be hurt but he can be hard to take out.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqsAuImjKU[/ame]

BODYSHOTS. I can't recall which fighter said it prior to facing Holyfiled, but he said you need to go to Holyfield's body. He doesn't have a true HW waist. It's small. Keep banging to the body and zap that strength.

Tyson would have to mix up the attack: Head/Body, Body/Head. And I do think he would need his Jab. Same Jab that went missing for many of his fights, especially against Douglas which even Atlas noted.

The thing is, Tyson felt confident he could beat Holyfield, even post-Douglas, however; how confident was he after the two fights with Ruddock?
After all, he even later admitted he was burnt out by the second fight, if not the first. That is, if we are talking about this specific timeline. Or are we doing something else?
Like if he had stayed the course with Cayton which had him setup to fight Holyfield after a Wold tour?
Or post Ruddock I and not have him go through a second battle?
Or simply after the two Ruddock fights?


Holyfield too was confident he would beat Tyson. He felt you needed to be able to box and fight him. Keep the pressure on him.


I know people hold their actual fights as proof Holyfield would have always beaten Tyson but I don't think its fair at all given Tyson's state Mentally, Physically, and Technically...even though Holyfield himself was past his prime as well. But we're talking two different types of past prime and two different paths and mental states.

I think it would have been a great fight but "timing" will always be an issue.




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Well, if we're going by the thread title it would be 1988 Mike Tyson in the ring with him. I sort of went and spun off the 1991 timeline as it came extremely close to fruition in reality. I think it's easy for Mike to say he was finished after the Ruddock wars in hindsight today. Take him to the moment though and you doubt he'd be able to get up for that? It was probably as motivated as he'd been since before the Michael Spinks fight. I think he would've went ape **** on the smaller Holyfield and dominated the fight early, possible scoring a couple KDs like Bert Cooper (not to say the man couldn't punch like hell) did in November '91 when Tyson would've fought pretty much that exact version of Holy, and they'll serve as a cushion for when Mike's work rate begins to slow and Evander smartens up and starts to box and move, counter, utilize his strengths and starts taking the mid-rounds. He won't dominate the clinches in nearly the same fashion he did in 1996 because he just wasn't built like that at that particular time. Tyson WILL have enough left in the tank to see through to the final bell and Holyfield will not stop that version of Tyson. People will be tempted to bring up the Douglas fight but the extreme size, reach and jab that Douglas displayed just aren't there to cause the same sort of problems. Not to mention it was Mike at obviously his absolute worst ever. IMO it's a close, but clear brutal UD.

 

People saying Holyfield wouldn't have been hurt by a prime Tyson shot is just... crazy. He's been hurt by less, even got wobbled by Double M with a quick hook.

 

It falls under the stereotype that Tyson couldn't win a decision as well, I think. Tyson never lost a decision. He won a handful though And I don't think Holyfield is capable of stopping any pre-prison version of Mike Tyson. His stamina and punch resistance was pretty damn good, especially for the style with which he fought. Anybody who throws as many punches as he did that fast and that hard is going to lose steam. Even in his prime years, his defense would begin to taper off after the first four or five rounds and he'd start walking straight in more often. Most of the time he got them out of there before that.