Max Schmeling vs. Evander Holyfield

Not in this lifetime he wasn't.

 

What? One's a ****ing welterweight and the other is a light-heavyweight. Of course Qawi's better, he'd kick the **** outta Walker

 

Qawi is better at 175lb +

Just being pedantic.

 

Good fight, but Holyfield is the clear favourite and I'd pick him to earn a later stoppage.

 

Walker beat at heavyweight
Risko x2
Dekuh
Uzcudun
Christner
Levinsky
And drew with Sharkey
At Lhvy he beat
Rosenbloom
Berlenbach
Lomski x2
McTigue
Belanger


Qawi beat at heavy[ish]
Murphy
Spinks
Crous
At Lhvy
Davis
Rossman
Martin
Scott
Saadx2
Is there really such a gap in the quality of their opposition?

 

Not my point, Walker's era was stronger, and more allowing for fights all the time. Qawi at his LHW+ peak could've got a draw (or even won) against a prime Holyfield... Sharkey and Schmeling are minor compared to Evander imo. Could Walker do that?
Who looks better on film? Who'd win if they fought? My point of Qawi being better wasn't a P4P statement, I meant it in an actual sense. Prime Qawi is much harder to beat than a Walker was whilst the same size.

 

Qawi, at light heavy was much better than Schmeling. Over that weight, Qawi was inconsistent probably because of his training, but the Qawi that fought Holyfield the first time was good too. Qawi at his best had a great jab, used it to get where he wanted to be, and then a great inside game. At his best, IMO there is no better model than Qawi for a fighter who is short for his weight class.

 

I agree with all this, but even if you think Schmeling was overrated, he had a very tactical mind for Boxing.

Qawi is one of the best you can see in terms of an aggressive counterpuncher. He was usually the one baiting the opponent, and his short stature and aggression off the counters seems to confuse some. He also had a brilliant jab as you said; very varied and strong.

 

The at first glance pick is of course Holyfield, This won't be easy , Max at his best is going to nail him, Evander was never a great defensive fighter and was hittable. I still see an old George Foreman hitting Evander with jabs and straight right hands very often, if George could hit him, Max will hit him. I don't see Max being lured into a brawl, and he could box, if he could beat a young Joe Louis, he can beat Holyfield. I make it a 60/40 fight Holyfield, but with good odds I'd bet on Max

 

Could somebody explain what he/she sees when watching Schmeling that makes him think Schmeling would be competitive with Holyfield? In the Schmeling - Baer fight there are two stiff fighters standing in front of each other, the fight goes back and forth in straight lines, there is no rhythm, they are fighting at the same slow pace, little or no head movement, a lot of lunging, and when one does land a punch he usually is off balance and can't follow up. From what I'm seeing, Holyfield could fight them one after the other and probably wouldn't need 3 rounds to beat them both.

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I don't see any clear advantage here for Schmeiling other than power, and I can't picture him knocking out Holyfield. Holyfield by UD or stoppage.

 

What tips it for me is that Holyfield is just too damn durable.

 

Yeah, people just flat-out ignore Schmeling's performance in this fight. He looks terrible.

 

I think the power differential may be very close too.Holyfield knocked Bowe down and floored Mercer.

 

I think the power differential would be close to negligible in 39 kos Schmeling only stopped 12 heavyweights.
Holyfield floored Bowe and Mercer, Tyson,Douglas,Bean,Rodrigues
Cooper , Botha,Savarese,Moorer , he could whack a bit.