Why did Evander Holyfield fight so far past his prime

History is littered with boxers who just couldn't call it curtains. Even a guy like Larry Holmes (who preached openly may times that he wouldn't be one of these guys like Ali who didn't know when to stop) kept on rolling and rolling. Thankfully some of them, like Larry, end up quite ok.

 

He altered his style quite a bit in order to continue on. Far fewer times pressing on the gaspedal like he used to do compared to say the version fighting Thomas or Dokes. Let alone the version fighting Bowe 3X. He used to throw 3 and 4 punch combos and would clean up on the other heavies with punches 2/3/4. Later on it was a single shot and maybe a 2 punch combo.

He also started holding his hands up higher during the course of the bout. And he'd lean at the waist to his right and not be straight up.

And opponent selection became far more crucial after the Donald and Byrd fights. No more mobile heavies and he wanted catchers that stood in front of him. Not guys to chase down. And not defenses to have to slowly break down.

His top conditioning and whiskers could see him through those kinds of fights. He was also fortunate to have had excellent skin---no scar tissue worries. And he really did not suffer from bad hands the way most long in the tooth heavies do.

But he was not facing the Klitschko brothers in a series of fights. Or rematching Toney or Byrd. He could stay in the game fighting other guys. Nope. Much different opponents and much different defenses to break down and not going in against offenses with tools.

 

might be the decline in standards gave him thought he could still cope at the top level.

 

Holy ****, he has 11 children from 9 different women? Thats insane lmao, how did I not know about this.

 

What a specimen of a man.

 

Money and ego.

 

It's money of course , but some guys really love to fight. Duran quit after a car wreck when he was over 50.

 

he needed money for patrimony, and probably because of HGH use.

 

The man is broke.....

The man was a great fighter but nobody has ever insulted him by calling him smart.......

 

Yeah, that probably had a LOT to do with it. Look, I'm the last person to begrudge anyone else's wealth - especially Evander's. He has a unique talent, along with a ton of courage and determination I'll never know ... but that's just a stupid use of money. Over 44,000 square feet, 12 bedrooms, a 100 person dining room, and a bowling alley. The pool takes 350,000 gallons of water to fill; there are smaller ponds. And forget the odds-and-ends; property taxes, utilities, insurance, etc. Money, like life itself, isn't eternal. Certainly enjoy what you have while you can, but know it can end tomorrow and plan accordingly. I wonder if he ever had any financial advisors (apparently not, or if he did he ignored them) ...

 

I agree...extremely stupid. Lacking completely in wisdom.

 

maybe he was planning ahead for his 9 sets of 9 grandchildren lol with his 100 person dining room

 

maybe he wanted to singlehandedly create a new country called Holyfield land.

 

Part of it is delusion. They can't see what everyone else can- that they don't have it anymore.

It's not just ego, it's an inability to see reality as far as what they have left as a fighter.

Not all fighters suffer from this.

But, some do.

Ali
Saad
Holyfield
Roy Jones

These are examples.