Tyson Names Holyfield As Best Puncher He Met

No mention of Lennox at all?

 

Fighters notoriously leave off fighters they lost too when creating lists based on career accomplishments. I am surprised he gave Holyfield credit but perhaps the commercial they just filmed together has softened their stance against one another. Most fighters when asked to pick who was their hardest opponent will always pick a fighter they defeated rather than name a fighter who beat them. I would suspect it's a combination of ego and pride but that's just my theory.

 

On a side note Tyson has become refreshingly candid in his later years and I am glad to see he has turned his life around. His choices in Mcvey's list are interesting. Mitch Green as best footwork is surprising and I love that he took Tucker's jab over Holmes, although Holmes didn't bring his weapon out till the 4th round right before he got caught with the perfectly timed overhand right.

 

I would have thought Ruddock if anyone. Tyson was very complimentary about his power.
It's also interesting in that he said recently that the only guy to hurt him with bodyshots is Tillis.
I see no problem with Tyson naming Holyfeld as the best puncher.
Perhaps he meant the best overall puncher, as opposed to one who merely hit him the hardest.
I recall Alex Stewart as being another that was very impressed with Holyfield as an overall puncher. When asked many years ago who would win a prospective Holyfeld-Tyson fight, Stewart said that although their power was not comparable, Holyfield hit hard and that he kept opponents off-balance.

But it amuses me when posters constantly reference a fighter's opinion when it suits them, and then dismiss it out of hand when it doesn't. Cracks me up.

 

I don't want to say I agree with Tyson but maybe it's style thing if you watch how Holyfield fought Tyson it was toe to toe with every punch thrown with full power compered to Lewis who jabbed most of time and than landed atomic bomb that kod him!

So maybe what Tyson thinks is that Holyfield hurt him more trough fight~!

 

He might not mean 'best puncher' in terms of raw power. But in terms of timing, accuracy and putting punches together

 

LOL what??? Holyfield was the first and the only one who knocked down and out iron-chinned Qawi.

Holyfield dropped and badly hurt Tyson, being second fighter to do that besides Douglas.

At HW Holyfield knocked down Riddick Bowe and Ray Mercer for the first time in their careers (Which Lewis failed to do against Mercer despite hitting him with best punches).

Holyfield is also the only one who knocked down Vaughn Bean.

Surely, Lewis hits harder than Holy but to say Holyfield is featherfisted?:-huh

 

good post :good

 

I know Mcvey, thanks for posting this.

I think we all tend to speak and think in absolutes on the board. What I mean is, is that we expect all-time great fighters to be better than everyone else at footwork, power, speed etc. simply because they had ATG careers.

Lennox was a great heavyweight, and for what it's worth Tyson in his new book called Lennox's skill level 'superb', but I think it's perfectly possible that he was not THE best at any one thing out of the guys Tyson faced. He fought a lot of good fighters, so I don't get the butt-hurt to be honest.

 

Hmmm... Tucker's jab over the jab he met from Douglas is also interesting. And Jose Ribalta being stronger than Bonecrusher or Lewis...

 

Agreed; we get very caught up here in absolutes here, to the detriment of discussion overall.

It's also possible that Tyson is cognizant of the fact that he wasn't at his best (to say the least) when he fought Lewis, and his resistance to hard punches wasn't what it had been. I mean if a young, strong, prime killer like that comes away impressed with your power it means something different than a heavy, thirty-something with no legs being impressed with your power. Therefore, it's unfair and inherently inaccurate and misleading to rank Lewis' respective power to others at various points in Tyson's career.

And while it's true that he wasn't at his best for Holyfield either, that was still quite a few years before he tangled with Lewis.


Or maybe he is just being bitchy and doesn't like Lewis or somethng. Who knows.

 

Interesting misspelling considering the topic is Tyson.