If anyone recalls scoring that one who did you think should have won? I saw the fight live when it was happening but never watched it till just recently. Perspective change quite a bit. At the time Dwight was probably a victim of expectations. Holyfield not just being in his hometown, Olympic Medalist, but especially Evander going for the title in his 12th pro fight. It was commendable but did he actually beat Qawi that day? Not a robbery but I had Dwight winning close but clear with giving Holy the benefit of close rounds. Evander did rally but I felt bad for Dwight after viewing it again.
Haven't watched it in a while but I remember having Evander by a couple of rounds. Freaking love Qawi though. He is definitely in my top five favorite fighters of all-time.
I saw it live and thought Evander won by two rounds IIRC. Watched it again on video when I got home and felt the same way. I’ve seen it since, in whole or in part, but I don’t think I’ve scored it since.
This was my scorecard earlier this year when i rewatched it. Evander Holyfield vs Dwight Muhammad Qawi 1 1 Holyfield 2 Holyfield 3 Holyfield 4 Qawi 5 Qawi 6 Qawi 7 Qawi 8 Holyfield 9 Holyfield 10 Qawi 11 Holyfield 12 Holyfield 13 Holyfield 14 Holyfield 15 Qawi 144-140 Holyfield There was a point deduction i believe between rounds 11-14, i only found out after the fight there was a point deduction. So since i don't know what round it was i don't know which round to give 10-8, so i'll just round it off with 144-140 for Holyfield. So i rewatched this fight after seeing Holyfield vs Qawi thread recently, i'm not gonna go into too much detail. As i think everyone here knows what an amazing fight this is, so you don't need me to state the obvious. What i will say is despite this being an amazing fight i felt Holyfield won it quite clearly. The first 3 rounds were very easy to score, with Holyfield clearly out punching Qawi and keeping it range. The momentum then changed and Qawi started to close the distance and bang away at Holyfield on the inside, i thought Qawi had a very good period between rounds 4-7 where he made it his kind of fight. But then Holyfield seemed to get his 2nd wind and started giving as good he got on the inside, outpunching Qawi with combinations despite Qawi holding his own very well. The middle rounds were competitive and each men had good periods, but for me where this fight was clearly won from Holyfield was in rounds 11-14. Holyfield won these rounds quite convincingly in my book especially rounds 12-14, Holyfield clearly had the much better workrate down the stretch out punching Qawi 2 to 1. And despite Qawi coming back with a good 15th round, Holyfield just done too much work down the stretch to take a close but clear decision overall. Lastly i found it quite strange the referee, never made it really apparent he took a point away. The commentators only knew after the referee told them after the fight was finished, and i or they didn't know in what round. Overall an amazing fight great heart from both fighters.
I was impressed by the good work Qawi was doing inside with both hands. I thought his punches were the cleaner shots, if I recall he was jabbing inside effectively. Interesting for me because I always sort of resented Dwight for taking down Saad years before. I felt he fought one of the best fights of his career. His last great one.
By coincidence, I just watched this a few days ago. I had it 146-138 Holyfield. I noted three close rounds, all of which I gave to Holyfield. If I'd scored those three the other way I still would have had EH winning 144-141. I thought the rounds were close but that Muhammad-Qawi was just a bit behind in most of them.
