Not unpopular at all. I think Mike would have won if they fought in 88 but if you take the bigger, more experienced Holyfield from around the second Bowe fight I think he beats him.
The problem is Holy's warrior heart. He wouldn't back down, both a blessing and a curse. To me peak Holy was the guy who lost to Bowe the 1st time, and I'm positive he'd give 1986-1988 Mike fits, but would ultimately try to fight fire with fire and get stopped in 10. I do believe, however, that even the Holy who beat Dokes would have beat the Mike from the Bruno fight on.
Shouldn't be unpopular. Holy was probably at least as much past his best, so a similar thing should happen in their primes.
This is what I always find funny about Tyson fans. They ignore the fact Holyfield was 4 years older than Tyson and had been in many brutal wars before they fought. They also act like early 90's Holyfield was frail and would have gotten run over despite the fact he survived wars with Cooper, Bowe, Foreman, etc. It's comedy.
It’s a strong possibility but I myself will never be 100% sold on either outcome. It was a travesty for the boxing world that we missed this fight in 1990.
Your opinion is almost the opposite of "very unpopular". I take prime Tyson, because he had lost more, physically & largely due to abandoning most of his movement & effective combination punching. Of course it could go the other way. But I think if so, Holyfield needed the greater strength-& PEDs-that got him to where he was in the mid-'90s. The early '90's greater work rate Evander would not be enough-he would need to have the strength to execute his strategy, including being allowed a good amount of tying Tyson up.