And to think, people used to give Mike Tyson so much **** for bringing the sport into disrepute when he bit Holyfield, admitted he tried to break Botha's arm and initiated the brawl with Lewis in the buildup to their fight.
Haye has repeatedly said he’s getting what he got for the bellew fight. I may be wrong but I was under the impression that figure was around £2.8m. I just don’t see how they weren’t even on the original bill, had this “argument” so rang up the guy at triller and he just said “yes no problem you can be on the card and I’ll pay you the best part of £3m” Someone is lying somewhere. Or everyone is lying.
Exactly why I thought Holyfield stood a chance and did stand a chance had the ref not panicked and stopped the fight only because Belfort was letting his hands go and despite the fact he was missing almost everything he was throwing and what did land was'nt landing square. Again folks, Holyfield went down from being off balance not because of having taking a good shot.
Dont feel to bad for him, he did'nt get hurt in there. Immediately after the ref stepped in to stop the fight the look on Holyfield's face was to turn to the referee to let him know "what are you doing, I'm fine he's not landing those shots." Then when the amatuer crew of boxing analysts who called the fight were looking at the replays trying to justify the stoppage one of them was like "look at that, one two three four five six seven eight...... unanswered punches getting in on Holyfield who was'nt returning punches." Never mind that only one of two only partially landed, because the facts are none landed square and clean. It was a case of a near 60 year old Holyfeild getting blitzed and smoothered with volume and he was dealing with it the way an experienced fighter should, covering up, bobbing and weaving and in the midst of riding the storm. There is little doubt in my mind that Holyfield would have easily survived the round and imo the fight would have really began in the third round once Belfort was arm weary and realizing he has'nt really caught Holyfield with any clean shots.
The last person alive a shot fighther with no chin, stamina or heart left, is Belfort. It wasc always gonna be a destruction.
And if Belfort killed him instead? The ref did the right thing, Holyfield ... the reflection of the shadow of Holyfield, to be more accurate - was never going to win that. Vitor was much more likely to send him to ICU.
I just saw the fight. The only reason that was stopped is because Evander is 58. We are all scared for him and so was the ref. Take that factor out and that was a terrible stoppage.
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...lfort-silva-vs-ortiz-rbr-9-11.4203933/page-16 Not the only place where people were people had wishful thinking. Nearly 42% actually picked Holyfield to win(in a much larger poll)
Bingo! I did'nt make a pick in this thread for precisely the same reason that Holyfield looked painfully slow in his workouts. .......but it was a sanctioned fight and as it is a ref has to be paying close attention and I mean really close attention of when a barrage of punches is being thrown by a fighter whether those punches are actually finding the mark. Listen, I'm one that does'nt like fighters over 50 stepping into a ring. Its really an old age to box professionally. But on the other hand, the Florida commision gave the go ahead and sanctioned it, they let Holyfield climb into a boxing ring with their permission and if you're going to do that, you have to give the man the same opportunity in the ring that you would Belfort and that just did'nt happen in this case. I guess thats what happens when you have an incompetent referee. Maybe incompetent is a bit harsh, but certainly with the ammount of money the event was bringing in they could have afforded to pay for a better referee, certainly a more experienced ref that has a much better eye to differentiate whether the actual punches are even landing.
Yeah, no ****, which is why I picked Belfort to beat him and by KO. And yes, clearly the punch resistance of a man who hasn't been punched in the face by an actual fighter in almost ten years, nearing 60, isn't going to be top notch. Which is why the first solid shot Belfort landed on him slightly staggered him. It's okay, no one is going to hold it against Holyfield, most 60 year olds have glass jaws. And what would have happened? They'd both be gassed. Holyfield just with a little bit of pressure was looking spent. It's not like he'd of mounted some Herculean comeback.
This is all about the head trauma from all those ring wars, not age. Those constant blows to the head throughout the years have caused a noticeable balance and reflex problem.
That Holyfield would'nt have mounted a comeback is where we disagree. From the beginning I was of the opinion that Holyfield would'nt look good in the first round maybe even two, but once Holyfield got by that barrier with Belfort having shot his power bursts early and shooting his load, the speed difference would narrow between the fighters and thats when the the skill of Holyfield would have took over and yes I'm going to say it, Holyfield imo would have dominated had the fight gone past the 2nd round. An arm weary Belfort does'nt have a chance against the boxing skills of even a 70 year old Holyfield.
