Joshua v klitschko. :comparison s to holyfield V Holmes?

Prime Holyfield is better than this pre-prime version of Joshua.
Holmes did better than Wlad

 

holyfield got cut from a nasty holmes elbow. experience counts.

 

And that cut kept holmes in the fight. the pace of the fight was way too much for Larry at that stage of the game. He was barely moving his legs in there trying to save energy. And he'd go into a Jimmy Young impersonation trying to roll and absorb everything the opponent was throwing and then just throw flashy flurries the judges love. Back up to the ropes and do nothing for 20 seconds and then throw a 3 second flurry which mostly missed. they aren't effective and they sure did not bother Evander 1 iota.

But Evander took his foot off the gaspedal after the cut. He had to. And, he had the ability to pull something like that off. Not many do & Larry goes on to get the stoppage win under that scenario against other fighters. Holmes is a real good finisher in there and he got rid of tons of guys with cuts having the ref step in. Holyfield had to fight the second half of the fight not taking any sort of risks and protecting that eye from further damage. And he pulled it off.

Remember Holmes throwing up at the end of the fight going back to his corner? He's very fortunate there were not any rounds left. He had to be severely dehydrated and over-heated to do that kind of thing. no condition to absorb punches & especially to the midsection. And I'm sure the holyfield corner would have sent him out firing combinations the next round once the bell rang.

 

Yes these two cases are comparable as we had 40+ y.o. contender vs young champion.

Holmes was always better boxer than Wlad, I mean purely boxing skills.

Wlad on the other hand is a harder hitter. He almost pulled it off against AJ.

Holmes performed well but never came close to win his fight against Evander.

Still both Holmes and Wlad deserve tons of credit for their fights as they did better than expected

 

I thought Holyfield beat Holmes 8-4 with Holyfield's work rate winning in the end. Holmes was tricky in there and I remember in an interview him claiming Holyfield didn't know what he was doing.

I think Joshua got Wlad at the right time and showed some heart coming off the canvas to win. I've heard Tim Witherspoon thought the fight was gob shight...

But no, I wouldn't compare the 2 fights. But in actuality they might be the closest things to each other in the division.

 

Holmes lasted the distance but imo he didn't do near as well as Wlad. Wlad come very close to winning the fight and going into the final round many cards had him ahead so he was certainly going ok.

Wlad was a much stauncher challenge for mine and far closer to his best than Holmes.

This may be offset if Joshua turns out not as good as everyone thinks, particularly now he beat Wlad. We know how good Holyfield was. Wlad looked damn good in there however.

 

All this is assuming Joshua is the best in the division. It remains to be seen and Fury beat Wlad in his last outing. Joshua could well be top dog but it's miles away from proven yet.

 

If only Terrible Tim had the heart and desire of Joshua. When Larry Holmes started firing back after Terrible Tim hurt him Terrible Tim went back into his shell and that lost him the fight.

 

Totally different fights. No real similarities.

*I thought Wlad was a punch or two away from victory at several points in the fight with AJ.
Holyfield beat Holmes clearly on points and was never in any real trouble.

*Holyfield was undisputed champion of the world, fighting a Holmes who a few months before had eliminated one of the ranked new heavyweights in Mercer.
Joshua is a paper champion, defending his paper title against a former champion coming off a loss and a long lay-off.

*I don't think Joshua lost any credibility at all with the fight. He gained credibility in my eyes. I wasn't one of those who went over-the-top overrating him or expecting him to steamroll Wlad, in fact I thought Wlad should beat him. Joshua deserves all the credit in the world, he beat his first proper world class opponent, got off the floor to do it, scored a TKO in 11th. He answered a lot of questions. The hype and the unrealistic expectations for this fight aren't his fault. He should only get better from here.

*Holyfield didn't really lose credibility either. It wasn't a great performance but a clear enough "workman" win over a cagey veteran. Styles make fights.