Prime Holyfield VS Prime Lewis

I actually brought it up in passing and I thought if it was going to be acted upon, that Swag who make an effort to score the rounds of the fight himself, not that he would go through the achieves of history and dreg up old threads.

But regardless it was never intended to derail the point of this thread.

The main point of THAT thread was whether or not Holyfield was screwed out of a victory in their second fight, the majority here thought he clearly wasn't and that Lewis won the fight fairly.

The main point of THIS thread is to determine who would win if they fought in their respective primes, and although it's a closer result, so far, the winner is again Lewis. But I suspect Swag is busy creating all kinds of Alts just to prevent this from occurring.

 

The alt comment was intended to be a joke. Lighten up a little, rumor has it that it's almost Christmas.

 

There does seem to be a slight bias against Lewis in this article, he does list some very good points though, seems like opinions are pretty divided on the second fight. Didn't realise this was the case, might have to give it a re-watch tonight.

 

It never hurts to watch fights again. But just to add a little perspective to the above post, here's wikipedia's version of events with respect to the fight.

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Like in the previous fight, it was Lewis who was able to gain the early edge winning both rounds 1 and 2. Lewis would win a close round 3 on two of the judges scorecards, but a late rally from Holyfield during the final 30 seconds in which he landed a hard right hand to the side of Lewis' head before landing several more punches just before the round ended helped him win the round on the third judges scorecard. Holyfield would finally breakthrough after round 4, winning rounds 5, 6 and 7. In an entertaining round 7, the two fighters would go toe-to-toe in the middle of ring during the final 20 seconds, landing several punches on each other prior to the bell. Lewis would then seize control of the fight winning rounds 8 through 11. The two men fought a close round 12, but Lewis again took the round on two of the judge's scorecards. Lewis was then named the winner by unanimous decision with scores of 115–113, 116–112 and 117–111, becoming the first Undisputed Heavyweight Champion in six years.

 

Seriously swag rewatch round 8 for me

 

Meh Wikipedia probably isn't the best source.

Holyfield should have thrown more punches, could have backed Lewis up a lot more. Much of the fight was on the outside and towards the centre of the ring. I think the judges were probably swayed by the fact that Lewis' work was a lot cleaner, he displayed very good punch selection, he also threw better combinations and more often. I can credit Evander with landing harder shots, but that only goes so far, especially considering every time he tried the work the body, 50% of his punches went low, or hit Lewis' back.

If you like Holyfield in this fight it seems like a big stretch to me. I'd disapprove slightly of a draw, but with a few close rounds in their it wouldn't have been the worst decision. Certainly not as bad as 117-111

 

Foreman was right. Because of the outrage from the first fight and the undeserved draw, Evander basically entered the 2nd fight with a handicap on the judges cards. Had the first fight never occurred, and the only time they fought was the rematch, I have no doubts we'd have seen Holyfield win on points.

 

Holyfield on points .he would have outboxed Lewis on the outside just like he did bowe in their second fight .

 

I'm rewatching the fight now.

First 3 rounds all Lewis, although 3rd was close.

4th also Lewis, so far it's Lewis' jab that's controlling the fight.

5th round close, gave it to Holyfield

6th round Holyfield (his best round so far)

7th round Holyfield (Holyfield dominated his best round)

8th round - Lewis

9th round, best round of the fight, scored it for Lewis, but it could be either way

10th round - Lewis

11th round - Lewis (clearly)

12th round - Holyfield ( I don't know how 2 judges could have
given this round to Lewis)

8-4 for Lewis, with a swing round (round 9) which could have gone either way)

so 8-4 or 7-5 is about right.

 

Pick Holyfield if you want, but not based on the strategy you laid out.

If you watched this 2nd fight, you'd see that most of the success Holyfield had was on the inside, and most of the success Lewis had was on the outside, where his jab controlled the fight. I suspect Holyfield would alway have trouble outboxing the bigger Lewis give his reach disadvantage.