When did Holyfield skill set start to decline

I think that after of the first fight with bowe when he lost badly he lost a lot of confidence he was not the same anymore. Yes you can cameback showing heart but after a fighter loses for first time he lost his magic of undefeated fighter

 

You could see a change in him after the first bowe fight IMO. The rematch with Alex Stewart and the fight with moorer.
Something was missing, this wasn't the same holy field from the Douglas, Holmes bouts.

 

Yeah, Holyfield was so stressed and damaged after the Bowe fight, all his hair started falling out. Lol.

 

His boxing skills? Probably not until after the 2nd Lewis fight.
His workrate and reflexes? Around the first bowe ight he started taking longer breaks in clinches and looking unusually tired and limp in clinches between exchanges, almost like he was about to collapse. He would always start bouncing again but it started to become more noticeable around 92.

His reflexes were still sharp enough to "not get caught by any of Mikes big bombs" as he saiddhimself and to counter sharply.

He did gain strengh and punching power with the added muscle after the first Bowe figh but it further slowed down his workrate.

His stamina really looked bad against moorer in 94 and din the rematch in 97.
In the 3rd Bowe figt and the first Moorer fight, it may have just been an isolated incident but by the second moorer fight it was a clear trend

 

1991 or '92

 

1999

 

After the first fight with Tyson was cancelled in 1991. It deflated him and he started to talk about retirement. A man with one foot in retirement has lost something and I think the fights against Cooper and Holmes and, although an heroic effort, the Bowe loss showed he had lost a step. It came back periodically but he was never again able to put two really good performances together as he had with Douglas and, though we didn't realise it at the time, Foreman.

 

Well said, how I see it ! Like he was about too collapse I recognise clearly. Pushing them away or coming out of a clinch like he was on empty !

 

Holy was one bad mofo for his size. I would love to have seen him in the 70s with Ali Frazier Foreman Norton and Holmes..I think he breaks a lot of fans hearts against Ali !

 

Vaughn Bean in 98, It was obvious he had peaked and was on his way Down...

 

He changed his style after the 1st Bowe fight. I don't think his skills declined as much as he intentionally added weight. Holyfield started fighting more like a heavyweight, not wasting as many punches and sitting down more on his shots. In his early years as a heavyweight Evander would sometimes gas because he would throw these whipping combinations on a much larger man and the guy would still be there. Look at the end of the Foreman fight who was holding on for dear life? Even the Cooper fight he punched himself out a few times.

It`s fair to say that Holyfield lost some speed as he added weight but his skill set didn't decline. I would say he didn't lose much until around `98

 

after Bowe, but he regrouped and became more experienced and used it to win more and get more defensive . Hearns did the same. Hearns regrouped and got a better defensively. But with Evander, it was very gradual...

 

Holyfield gassed worse against Moorer (both fights), Bowe 3, even against Czyz where he threw loads of punches, than he did when he was a few years younger.