Did the Holyfield win enhance Toney's legacy? Did it diminish Evander's?

A bit of both. Sure, Holyfield was definitely past it, but he was still a top heavyweight. He was regularly competing and going the distance with heavyweights like Byrd and Ruiz (and also beat Valuev later), and yet here comes overweight James Toney coming to knock out Holyfield, one of the only two times the Real Deal was ever stopped! It's crazy no matter how you think about it.

 

I just watched the fight last night. Holyfield certainly came out like he had a plan but what people overlook is how early Toney was hurting him to the body with the left hook. As early as the 2nd round Holyfield was reacting to the body shots.

 

Marginally enhanced Toney's, any diminishing of Holyfield's is negligible, imo.

 

She short answers are yes and no, in that order.

 

I don’t know. They were both washed up fighters. At least one of them on steroids ( possibly both. ) I don’t see this result has particularly enhancing OR diminishing to either

 

Holyfield was much more washed up

Toney was a blob but still had good reflexes

 

Id say no and no. Evander was past it

 

It was essentially meaningless. Holy was not what he once was, and Toney ended up being a proven PEDs cheat. Then again, Holy was a more-or-less proven PEDs cheat, but...

This, by the way, breaks my heart, because I love Toney and don't believe he used throughout his career. But it is what it is.

 

Allready well on the downside, in succession Holyfield lost to Byrd, Toney, and Donald.
Holyfield at this point was having rotator cuff issues with his left shoulder. Chris Byrd compounded that by targeting Holyfield's left shoulder, Holyfield during this series of fights could'nt snap a good jab off due to that shoulder and thus without a good jab to set his punches up he was pretty much doomed.

.......and yes, the Holyfield fight was the best shape Toney ever was as a Heavyweight. Toney went on to weight 230 lbs or more for most of his Heavyweight fights after that.
At 217 vs Holyfield, he looked in shape and he was quick and fast wish served him well against a Holyfield who by that time had slowed significantly of both hand and footspeed.

 

I don't think it affected either of their legacies. With the benefit of time passing I can say that if that fight had never happened I would not think differently about either of them than I do now.

 

I don't hold past prime results against fighters. Some simply love fighting too much to quit ahead of time.

 

yes and no. This was a clearly better Holyfield than the one who fought Byrd a year ago

 

Toney beat an ATG HW so that always looks good on record books and boxrec. But in reality we all know EH was maybe not quite a busted flush, but well past his best so I don’t think Toney’s legacy was enhanced, nor was Holyfield’s diminished.
The same way Danny Green and Glen Johnson’s legacy wasn’t enhanced (in my view anyway) when they stopped a fast fading, but still sometimes competitive, RJJ.

 

That's pretty much how I see it, except I give Toney marginal credit, because whilst Holyfield was way past prime, a former MW titleist beating a borderline shot, ATG HW, has a bit of value, imo.