Holyfield's tactics vs Bowe 1: why so totally wrong ?

I think his prior defenses need to be taken into consideration too...….going the distance with two geriatrics in Foreman and Holmes, which he was roundly criticized for, and struggling unexpectedly, even being knocked down, by the replacement for a replacement in Cooper. He must have felt a lot of pressure to win and win big against Bowe. Merely jabbing and dancing wouldn't have been enough in a lot of eyes.

 

He just loves a tear up, he always had them

 

True.
But one can get a KO different ways, and going to the body against an iron chinned but hittable foe is one of them.

Holy was in love with his power: too much brown, not enough brains.

 

Bowe was taller, longer, with a good jab, so Holyfield was going to have to close distance to land punches. But you wouldn't want him to stay inside because he liked to lean in which made him vulnerable to an uppercut; Bowe threw a very effective uppercut on the inside.

So, ideally, you would want Evander to move in, punch and get out. Whether he could do that doesn't matter because he didn't do it, not consistently, not in the Bowe fights or in any others that I can remember off the top of my head.

You can say that he is coming in light to be mobile but all you are doing there is hoping that you are speaking your wish into reality. And you can walk him through it in camp and talk about it and drill it all day long and, come fight night, the fighter will (almost always) fight like he fights.

 

Excellent post and excellent point. In hindsight, it was the wrong way to fight THAT Bowe. Other Bowe incarnations we saw in the ring, he would've wilted more than he did here, and Holy likely would've won with the wrong strategy. The difference was Bowe and his physical and mental condition.

 

While true in a broader sense, you also have to put yourself at range to dig to the body. As such, you open yourself up to the shots form the bigger, more powerful guy. It also wasn't a forgone conclusion by any means then that Bowe would be as resilient to his power as he turned out to be.

In retrospect, he should have just boxed and taken the win any way he could. When he did bother to use the jab in that fight, he was doing much better.

 

Agree. Fighters are going to do what they want to do, if a trainer teaches good fundamentals and the fighter has talent, the trainer will look like a genius. The trainer can't make the fighter fight the way that he (the trainer) thinks will be the most effective unless the fighter chooses to fight that way. I was watching the NCAA wrestling finals last weekend and after one of the Penn State wrestlers won his match, the interviewer asked him what Penn State did that was different and how they had won so many championships. The PSU wrestler told him, "we don't do anything different, we just keep our elbows in and don't reach." That will win boxing matches too.

 

George Benton never wanted Holy to brawl. Benton always preached defense and turning the other fighter while getting off first. He was very frustrated with Holy in that regard. I know he was quoted somewhere saying Holy didnt like to listen.
I think it just goes back to what some other posters said and what he exhibited time and time again is that when tagged he got pissed and strategy tended to go out the door and a brawl took place.

 

Well it was Friday the 13th so my theory is that it was a curse. Holyfield suffered from the Friday the 13th curse and keep in mind it was his first loss. So was it just a coincidence that his first loss would come on Friday the 13th? I don't think so. Had it been Thursday the 12th or Saturday the 14th, I'm confident that Holyfield would've been victorious.

Although, it could've had something to do with his slugging it out with a fighter 30 lbs bigger and 3 inches taller who was very technically skilled and had a big punch while Holyfield didn't have the punching power at 205 lbs to win an outright slugfest against the bigger man. But I'm going to go with it being a curse.

 

Only thing would be that Foreman didn't have Bowe's work rate, technique and stamina. If it went into the late rounds, Foreman may have been stopped.

 

Holyfield = Over rated

Put aside his two fights with a washed up Tyson, on which his entire legacy is build on, he never fought a smart fight, foul fights , yes, smart , never. Without the fan man he goes 0-3 against Bowe, that gave him his second wind, without it, he would have brawled again like he always did when he got tired.

Holyfield fought fan friendly entertaining bouts which he usually lost or struggled to get the win.

To put it blunt and putting the Tyson fights aside, Holyfield lost more than he won once he stepped up, he had zero consistency and ultimately he lacked real Heavyweight punching power to turn the tables on the upper level..........Moorer was about as chinny as they get , could not keep him down in the first and needed the referee in the second while a slow as molassses grandpa waxed Moorer with ONE punch lights out.

 

I thought he started taking the roids for the second bout because he was bigger and much stronger.

 

Holy couldn`t have taken Foreman`s power at that stage, standing in front of a young George was suicide as Cus D`Amato told Tyson as they studied Frazier fighting Foreman.

 

He got hit far too much in that bout.

 

Holyfield and Tyson had superior chins than Frazier. At least when it came to taking single heavy shots.