Why do people try to downplay Holyfield's first win against Tyson?

Because they are nuthuggers, fanboys, folk with little idea of reality, Holyfield was simply a better fighter/boxer, it's as simple as that. Tyson just wasn't as good as they think he was.

 

How was Tyson closer to his prime? He won his first title a decade before the Holyfield fight.

The general consensus is Tysons prime was 86-88, Holyfields 91-93.

 

He 'steam rolled' Bruno faster in 96 because in 89, Bruno actually came to fight.

 

I don't agree with this, yeah his most famous victories happened here but Holyfield was unbeaten for a very long time, as a cruiserweight he steamrolled his way through the division then he had success as a heavyweight eventually beating Douglas, it wasn't his fault Douglas had reverted to his bad old ways and been partying and succumbing to the demons he had from his father, Holyfield did what a champion does,,,, he does the job at hand, he was in peak shape and form. The Holyfield who beats up Tyson is not the best Holy there ever was,neither was Tyson but Evander had been planning on ways to beat Tyson from before Tokyo, he obviously found the antidote, ala Max Schmeling before the first fight with Louis.... and here Tyson proves he is nowhere near a Louis in the brain department, he fails to do a Louis in the 2nd Schmeling fight and work out where he went wrong, Tyson just came into the second fight with EH with the same old same old, he had no more ideas left except to do a Ray Price (a rugby league legendary lock forward well known for resorting to biting tackled opponents back in the late 70's and the 80's, lol Ray would bite whatever body part that his head was nearest to).

 

What you wrote has no relevance to my post.

I understand Holyfield was past his best, but someone quoted Tyson was closer to his best which simply isn't true.

 

Tyson's fans are the problem. I saw this fight live at a race track with fans of both.

Tyson fans think a low blow hurt him early. When he lost many Tyson fans were *****ing the fight was fixed.

Never mind the fact that Holyfield being Tyson up, and way ahead on all score cards.

 

Just out of curiosity, who between the two of them would you have picked had they fought a third time, say around 2002? Let's make it the Tyson of the Lewis fight vs the Holy of the Rahman fight.

 

Ive seen the fight too.

The first 5 rounds were close gruelling rounds with a lot of wrestling.

Tyson won the first and fifth, with Holyfield winning 2,3 and 4. But the clearest round was the Fifth where Tyson hurt Holyfield.

In the 6th, Tyson started off strong, then a low blow by Holyfield, a headbutt and a knockdown and Tyson seemed dazed for the rest of the fight. He also claimed the headbutt in the 6th affected him and you see can see from the fight.

Regarding the low blow and head-butt, Holyfield also landed the same 'combo' on Dokes. So i dont think it was accidental.

Holyfield deserves the win, but i don't think a Tyson of 85-91 would have been complaining to the ref every 5 minutes.

 

Not really. His two performances against Tyson were very similar.
Bruno spent most of the '89 fight hugging and panicking, holding the back of Tyson's neck in sheer panic.
He stopped to throw a few punches and got a ton of mileage out of the fact that a couple landed and wobbled Tyson.

I guess he did his best.

 

Mmmm...maybe. Bad choice of words on my part. To me he seemed in much better shape than Holyfield. Holy had been in a lot of tough fights (Dokes, Bowe x 2, Cooper, even first Stewart fight etc.) and seemed shopworn.
Mike did lose that time in prison that is true. On the other hand, he was well-preserved having lost only once and having been on far fewer hard fights.

 

Bruno for me at 247 was even slower and more stiff than he was against Tyson the first time where he was 228. He did okay for the first 2 rounds in their first fight, even hooking off the jab at one point. Not something the robotic Bruno normally did.

 

I think Holy still. You?

 

People remember him hitting Tyson, who admittedly was sloppy.
But Bruno also hit the deck in the first round, and was also docked a point for holding in that first round, so I guess it was Tyson's round by 10-8 or even 10-7

Yeah, Bruno hooked off the jab a little bit, which was cute for him. Mostly that left hand was used to hold an opponent's head in place for a series of mauling right uppercuts.

 

Yeah, nice guy though he was, big Frank was also a dirty so-and-so.

 

Because Holy was probably juiced...