What if Evander Holyfield never turned pro....

What if Holyfield decides after the 84 Olympics to pursue a different career instead of professional boxing.

I think this what if is pretty fascinating as the ripple effect from this would be immense. Lots of changes and questions. What happens to the cruiserweight diviison during the later half of the 80s? Is there another number 1 contender for Tyson in 1990? Who dethrones Douglas? How does this effect the Foreman and Holmes comebacks? What happens to Bowe? Moorer? Lennox? Tyson post prison? John Ruiz?

 

Well- While Mike is in prison the top dog would be...Lennox and Bowe.... George isn't winning the title from either... Moorer never gets a shot I feel as though for the 90s it would be them two just passing it between one another. We get to see 90s Mike fight Bowe and Lewis though so that's nice.

 

He would have both ears intact.

 

He'd compete professionally in Lethwei then.

 

Dwight Muhammad Qawi beats Carlos De Leon to become undisputed Cruiserweight champion during the late 80s.

At heavyweight MIke Tyson beats James 'Buster' Douglas in their rematch which takes place in October 1990. Tyson holds on to the title until he gets convicted for ****. Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis win title belts but Bowe ducks Lennox thus we get no unification. Eventually (as in real time) Lewis is unseated by Oliver McCall and a flabby Bowe drops decision to Michael Moorer who in turn loses to George Foreman. History then gets put back onto it's original path.

 

Ahhh what a lovely thought.

 

Sounds boring.

 

Whichever of Lewis or Bowe gets to Douglas first dethrones him. We then get a great trilogy from those two, probably with Lewis coming out on top. Foreman and Holmes have to fight each other. If Holmes wins that one (I tend to think he would), he gets the title shot, loses, but goes the distance and looks good, cue the Rocky theme song. If Foreman wins that one, he probably loses, but has a small percentage chance of landing a lucky fight winning shot.

Somewhere in there, Tyson gets a title shot against Lewis or Bowe, loses. Somewhere in there, Tyson fights Foreman or Holmes, probably wins via KO. (don't hate on me for that, it takes a sustained beating to get Tyson out, and I don't think old Foreman had the gas tank or speed to manage a sustained beating of Tyson. I bet the fight would be good though and he rocks Tyson a couple times)

Cliff notes: likely outcome is Lewis rules the 90's.

 

Tyson might not even fight Douglas if not for Holyfield. Douglas was considered a tune up fight for Holyfield. With no Holyfield, Tyson might have fought someone else instead of Douglas. Or he might have fought Douglas at another date. That changes everything.

 

Not quite to the last part. Once Tyson comes out of jail and wins the WBC title back from Bruno, he faces Lewis next.

 

Tyson beats early 90s Lewis by KO.

 

Rooney Tyson vs. pre-Steward Lewis, ok yeah, I have to agree there.

 

The only answer I can come up with is that the 80s and 90s would have missed some very good fights

 

So many ifs with this! Here's what the heavyweight rankings from the ring looked like at the end of 1989, a month before Tyson-Douglas

1. Mike Tyson*
2. Evander Holyfield
3. Michael Dokes
4. Francesco Damiani
5. Tim Witherspoon
6. Orlin Norris
7. James (Buster) Douglas
8. Carl Williams
9. Razor Ruddock
10. Gary Mason

So Holyfield is out of the picture, Mason will be done by the time Lewis gets to him, Williams already beaten by Tyson, no way Witherspoon gets a shot at a King managed Tyson.

That leaves us with Dokes, Damiani, Norris, and Ruddock. I think Tyson-Douglas goes off in the potential build to a Tyson-Dokes match. Both men are upset by Douglas and Ruddock which would land Ruddock vs Douglas in the fall of 1990, the winner presumably getting another payday down the line against the comebacking Tyson. Ruddock crushes the overweight, unmotivated Douglas to win the heavyweight title. Tyson beats Ruddock and has that rematch with Ruddock to become the champion again. Mike goes to prison and the titles become vacant (all of them). Ruddock vs Lewis for the WBC title, Tucker vs Bowe for the IBF, and in a strange twist of fate Moorer vs Foreman for the WBA.