Foreman was deadlier and faster and most likely stronger as a prime 25 year old, Holyfield doesn’t have the power, strength or endurance to withstand 8 rounds of relentless punishment Are you forgetting Evander could never resist the urge to trade and show his heart a foolish idea against Big George
As an accomplishment, it would be very difficult to overrate winning the lineal title at that age, after that layoff. This is literally one of the greatest accomplishments in boxing history. Now in a head to head sense, old man Foreman get's massively overrated. Magnificent as his accomplishment was, he was one of the weakest champions to ever hold the lineal title. He was one of the lineal champions, where it was a question of which top fighter got him first. I have seem people suggest that he might have still been able to beat Marciano, or Frazier, of N, and that is just getting into the realms of fantasy.
While I don’t believe Holyfield has the discipline to stay away, assuming he did, I just don’t rate him as that elusive a Boxer to escape Foreman’s pursuit anyway. There’d be an all-time classic round or two to come out of it though, for sure.
He He went toe to toe with holyfield... For the duration of the fight. Which is pretty impressive when you consider holyfields extensive use of PEDs. AND foremans age.
Except Bowe has many of those advantages (particularly in terms of speed and technical skill) over a young Foreman. My point -- Holyfield had those advantages to a lesser degree over Bowe than he would over a young Foreman.
Do you think that, that would be in Evanders best interest? When he fought Tyson he fought at the best point to take advantage of Mike and that same place is where George was weakest, right there where is mid ranged hooks and uppercuts weren’t really an issue. Evander didn’t need to move away from Foreman, Jimmy and Ali showed us it a few times.
Young predominantly did manoeuvre Foreman about to win. Ali didn’t, but he’s so much more the slippery customer than Holyfield is. Holyfield, I don’t know, I’ve never seen him as matching well vs most other ATG’s. He’s kind of the anti-Tyson in that regard - accomplished a lot in his career but doesn’t beat most of the greats, whereas Tyson could probably beat more ATG’s but achieved much less. Holyfield won’t win by staying away, & he won’t win the exchanges. He can box in & out for combinations & hit & run, but for long enough to win? I doubt it personally.
It’s not so much about being slippery but cagey here and Foreman is just too accessible. Strength, Clinching, inside fighting and countering would all be Evanders advantage points here and I think they’d devise a good plan for George he had smart men like Benton in his corner. Considering what Bert Cooper was capable of doing it’s possible Foreman could find him, I think just to me Evander would shut him down most of the time. But I DKSAB.
I’ll agree with that. If Holyfield survives late he would probably stop Foreman short of the final bell.