Was Holyfield beating Tyson really a massive upset?

I didn't think so, I was telling everybody that Holy was gonna win, they thought I was nuts. I won money on the fight, the first fight.

 

With the benefit of 30 years' hindsight, and our ability to look back on the whole careers of both fighters, it obviously doesn't seem like a huge upset. But at the time nobody had these advantages. Tyson had had his wobble against Douglas but was still seen as a kind of basic force of nature on legs, who'd simply obliterated most whom he'd fought. And Holyfield was a jumped-up Cruiser. If Tyson as an entity was a little less knowable than he had been, after his time out, it hardly surprises that people still erred on the side of seeing him as a near-unstoppable phenomenon. Those odds do seem a bit naive though!

If Pac was fighting Crawford tomorrow, there'd still be people on here predicting Pac KO 6.

 

Same here, my friends thought I was crackers when I kept saying Holyfield would win.

 

You say this with decades of hindsight. Holyfield going into the fight was not looking good against mediocre bobby czyz, got brutally stopped by Bowe before that and had them retirements. Wheras the Douglas fight was before prison and Tyson coming out of prison trashed Bruno quicker than he did in their first fight

 

The more knowledgeable persons in boxing who also knew Holyfield was sparring with Tua probably anticipated a close fight and perhaps a win from Holyfield. But it was a tough call when you look at it in the perspective prior to the event.

 

He'll yeah it was. Holyfield was looked at as easy pickings in 96, but little did Tyson and his team know that they were dealing with an angel of god and Holyfield would not be denied. Holy overcame 25-1odds.

 

All of this is wildly out of context and specifically phrased to lead the reader towards your position, which is that it wasn't that big an upset.

Maybe people should just make threads called "I don't think holyfield Tyson 1 was really an upset" instead of these passive aggressive threads called things like "was fight of the century really THAT impressive?" or "was Marciano REALLY undefeated?"

 

This happens often in boxing. Hindsight changes our perspective on fights but Tyson was still expected to crash Holyfield.
Same with Oscar vs Pac, Wlad vs Fury or Pavlik vs Bhop.

 

In retrospect it wasn't but at the time you would've been hard pressed to find a single person outside of Holyfield's camp who seriously thought he could win.

 

Holyfield vs Tyson was a fight that fans was highly anticipated dating back to 1986. Evander Holyfield's style was all wrong for Mike Tyson, the strength and size was too much.

 

In interviews post prison Tyson admitted that he did not want to box, that should have been a warning to anybody who was betting on Tyson. When a small pressure fighter loses desire and slacks off on conditioning, he is not the same fighter as he was when he wanted to fight and was in great condition. Tyson, after getting out of prison never wanted to box, if he could win quick he did, he just no longer had the desire necessary to fight long, hard fights.

 

Yes, many people bought the hype that surrounded Tyson. Heck, even now people act like Tyson was the beast his hype machine portrayed him to be. He never beat a top prime HW but the reputation he built crushing cans and knocking out shot geezers worked well. Fans are still suckered into buying it.

Evander actually trained for the Tyson fights and was clearly the better fighter in the ring. Once Tyson was exposed as a marketing creation it was over for him. He never beat a prime top HW opponent. The Hollifield domination should not have surprised anyone but it did. He was a heavy underdog going into the fight. Tyson bit his ear off to try to take the cowards way out because Hollifield was close to knocking him out.

 

It was a pretty big upset at the time. Yea Tyson lost to Douglas but then came back and went on a short winning streak ending in the two Ruddock fights before coming going to prison. Post prison he mopped up McNeely (who cares), Mathis Jr, Seldom and Bruno. While not the most electrifying opposition it was 6 years since his blip vs Douglas and he was the #1 heavy seen by many, especially since this was the year Bowe looked like crap vs Golota twice (the second time happening shortly after Tyson-Holy 1). Evander looked like it was the end of the road for him or close to it, there was the Bowe KO loss and the weird Bobby Czyz fight and he was having health issues as well, it doesn't paint a great picture of a guy who is ready to KO Tyson.

So, an upset and a big one at least to the general public but not on the level of Douglas KOing Tyson

 

Yes without hindsight it was a massive upset, there was actually some boxing experts actually worried for Holyfield's health fighting Tyson. Holyfield had looked old and shot vs Moorer 1, Bowe 3, and most people thought his best days were behind him after those fights. So it was a huge shock for everyone that Holyfield fought the fight he did vs Tyson. Because there was certainly no evidence that Holyfield could produce that kind of performance, basing it off of his recent fights vs Moorer 1, Bowe 3, Czyz.