The great limit of Evander Holyfield

2 things. His tendancy to brawl, and being too small for Lewis and Bowe

 

A little undersized against some of his better opponents (Bowe and Lewis most notably); decent, rather than exceptional or tight defence; let the red mist descend and sometimes brawled when he should have boxed. Made for great viewing, though.

 

Punch power was his biggest limit. Id say perhaps followed by head movement

Holyfield was a very well rounded fighter who didn't have 1 uber weakness imo.

 

I don't think so, his power is underrated. His left hook was excellent at HW and CW. He dropped Bowe, Tyson and Mercer and hurt all 3. He also KOed Douglas brutally thanks to his unbelievable counter punching skills. Basically what I'm saying is that with his best punch he could put a guy away and put down tough mutha****ers as well.

I'd say his power is better than Ali or Holmes, and on par with Frazier

 

Look at the age of which Holyfield was still highly competitive at elite level and how many years past his prime he was. The first Tyson win came 3-4 years past his prime and by the time he fought prime Lewis he was 7-8 years years gone. The robbery against Valuev was 15 years after his peak.

 

Inconsistency, he should have beaten Moorer and he fought terrible plan against Bowe. He shouldn't have that two loses on his resume. He's complete fighter but sometimes he didn't use his abilities to his advantage (Bowe fights as the main example).

Still one of the best fighters ever.

 

Sums it up again!

 

I agree with the three points. 1) He brawled when he shouldn't have 2) he was small for HW 3) he had good, but not top-tier power.

On the plus side I agree that he was a very well rounded fighter and could do a bit of everything well. He also took his conditioning very seriously and I can't remember Holy ever coming to fight with a spare tyre around his waist. This translated into real toughness in the ring.

 

Was a brilliant fighter.His accuracy was unbelievable .similar to Hagler