Bowe from 1st Holyfield fight vs Holyfield from 2nd Bowe fight

Duva was telling Holyfield to retire I believe which he didn’t like to hear

 

Bowe.

He was such a tough matchup for Holyfield. He had a very good jab and straight right hand (although he seemed to prefer the overhand right) to help him succeed from the outside, and was even better on the inside. He was so well schooled up close, and had a high workrate.

Emanuel Steward worked with Holyfield on his footwork for this fight and to use in and out movement to try to nullify Bowe’s successes at long range and up close. It was a pretty difficult gameplan that Holyfield needed to execute well.

The rematch was a very close fight. I’m not big on Compubox, but for whatever it’s worth, Bowe had a pretty big edge in punchstat numbers. I remember having two late rounds (maybe Rd 9-10 or Rd 10-11) very close for most of the way, and giving them to Holyfield based on late rallies. Ultimately, it was the difference on my card as I had it 115-114 for Evander.

If Bowe was in the type of shape he was for the first bout, I think he wins a competitive decision.

It’s difficult to say. Holyfield had a big 5th round, hurting Bowe late in the round, and then had another good round in the 6th. Bowe was having a very good 7th round though, controlling with the jab, and then Fan Man came down.

it’s possible Bowe was turning things around in his favor and get momentum. Or maybe it was just temporary success.

 

That version of Bowe wins a close decision

 

I feel Bowe won the 2nd fight too. Guess I'm in the minority here lol

 

It took fan man, and his wife going into labor ringside plus an elite performance for Holyfield to even barely win the 2nd fight. Had those things not happened Bowe would've won the 2nd fight as well, as I believe he was up on the scorecards until all those things happened.

 

Holyfield is the better fighter by far imo and Bowe just had his number similar to ali and norton, he cant beat Bowe at his best unless he fights the perfect fight on the outside.
He would need the gameplan he had in the rematch withthe quicker lighter body he had in the first fight.

Ironically heput on 12 lbs of muscle and then tried to move MORE and trade LESS than he did in fight 1

 

Holyfield was going to knock him the **** out (round 9) before fan man so..

 

Given how close the second fight was, it’s hard to think that Bowe wouldn’t have won if he had been in the same shape as fight 1.

On a side note, the second fight is one of my favourite heavyweight fights - it was a great fight in its own right, if not quite as dramatic (fan man aside) as the first fight.