Whilst the first fight had the best single round, it was more one-sided and the second one kept you guessing till the end plus has lots of back and forth action too. Can you make a case for Bowe-Holyfield 2 being the better fight?
Hard to say really. According to my memory, I remember Bowe-Holyfield 1 was more one sided than how people described the fight to be. Although I still think Bowe-Holy 1 is better than Bowe-Holy 2, I feel like the first one was more intense and action packed even though a bit one sided.
The first fight was better. But the second was almost as good. Both were great fights. As was the third one.
Holyfield vs Bowe 1 Punchstats Holyfield Bowe Landed 242 357 Thrown 475 711 Percent 51% 50% Holyfield vs Bowe 2 Punchstats Bowe landed 353 of 786 punches (45 percent), and Holyfield connected on 253 of 514 (49 percent). Just an interesting little stat i thought i'd share, so in the 2nd Bowe and Holyfield fight. They actually threw more punches but landed at a slightly lower percentage, but overall punches landed only 15 punches separates the 2 fights. But despite the Bowe vs Holyfield 2 stats being comparable to Bowe vs Holyfield 1. The actual fight itself didn't resemble the same type of fight. Bowe vs Holyfield 2 was more of a boxing match with some heated exchanges, rather than an outright toe to toe slugfest which the 1st fight was from beginning to end. Also the 2nd fight despite being very good, didn't have any rounds anywhere near as memorable as the 10th round of there first fight. Unless you count the infamous fan man in the 7th round. So my overall feeling would be Bowe vs Holyfield 1 was a better fight to watch, because it a slugfest from beginning to end. But Bowe vs Holyfield 2 was better in the sense it was more competitive, but the fight itself wasn't as exciting as there first meeting.
Bowe would have easi won the second if he showed up in the same shape as in the first fight. Futch had clearly lost control of him by then.
The first fight was better for consistent action but the second was a much closer fight, and still had good action. I picked the first. I like all 3 of them though. Great trilogy.
The fact that Bowe came in out of shape yet outdid his own workrate from the first fight is crazy to me
No, he wouldn't have. 'Hate to break it to you, but Holyfield was an all-timer, guy. No way was he losing a rematch with Bowe, I don't/didn't believe.