Something I'm noticing about Holyfield's title defenses compared to Bowe and Lewis'

Bakole couldn't put away Hunter a former Cruiserweight who beat him up and schooled him.

 

Holyfield fought Bowex3, Lennox x2, Moorerx2, Tysonx2 and Foreman. He only won half of them and got a lot of undeserved title shots but Lennox, Moorer, Foreman and Tyson only fight 2/5 and Bowe only fought 1/5. Can't really go after Holyfield on the SOS front. Its more he didn't deserve these oppurtunities, he lost too much and people overrate him for cultural reasons.


1)Beating a top 10 contender from one ranking source is arbitrary. In the modern era contenders beating top 10 sort of guys without belts attached is rare even if its the NABF/USBA etc.

Holmes's win over Mercer was only win over even a regional level HW since his final title defense in 1985. The only one you listed with a worse SOS than Holmes before getting their shot was Bean. And while Bean had no quality wins he almost beat Moorer.

2)Fighters someone fights on the comeup needing to "pay off" is an excellent point. Bowes pre title SOS is excellent. Dokes and Jesse Ferguson are defenable title shots. The problem is Bowe ended up fighting very few of the top fighters in the era. His lack of longevity was a problem too but looking at the Usyk cheerleaders you'd never know people held a fighter being 43-1(3) against them.

3)You could make the case Lennox beat 17 of the 20 best HWs of his era. The problem is the 3 he didn't fight might have been the most difficult 3 in Bowe, Moorer and Foreman(early 90s). The quality of his defenses is not in question.

4)Yup. He was on steroids. I try and ignore them because anti steroid complainers are just the worst. You don't need them to make a case Holyfield is overrated. You only need to bring them up when people start bringing up his heart problems like a random act of god. "Moorers win should have an asterisk".

5)I personally rate him below Moorer and Old Foreman. Way ahead of you on the Holyfield is overrated train. But his SOS is great. Same with Walcott. Hes not mr undefeated against easy opponents hes mr .500 against top opponents who makes peoples HW top 10s because he beat Tyson and Tyson is the greatest because nostaglia".

Another reason Holyfields overrated is the "4x HW champ". In the latter 20th century being a 2x,3x champion got hyped to high heaven because promoters in the 50s misled the public into thinking no one had ever won the HW title twice before. So now Holyfield whose getting all these title shots in an era with 3 belts wins this prestigious award no one else has not even Muhammad Ali. Because the WBA decided to steal it from the guy who beat him and give it to Holyfield for beating John Ruiz.

 

Holmes did beat top-10 The Ring opponent in his most recent fight prior to Holyfield (Ray Mercer was undoubtedly top-10, likely top-5 having beaten undefeated Damiani and Morrison back-to-back).

When you state that Holyfield was on steroids, are you sure Lewis wasn't? Cause I am not sure. I think both were. Lewis bulked pretty significantly since the Ruddock fight where he was already 27. Lewis looked far more muscular and much bigger in Mercer, Golota or Holyfield fights.

Add to that, Holyfield did beat more lineal HW champions (7 - Douglas, Foreman, Holmes, Bowe, Moorer, Tyson, Rahman) than any other HW in history, that's a great achievement and can't be denied.

 

Usyk has WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

 

Bakole hasn't really done much of note has he ? Poleaxed by Parker and looked terrible in his last fight.

 

Lol don't bring humor into a serious situation.

 

Why did Floyd's hair fall out mid career ?

So Tyson was naturally heavily muscled as a15 year old? Then went bald quickly after prison.

Stop being a hater/ fanboy You’re apparently an adult though this entire thread makes me question that.

 

Cmon, PEDs were rampant and available by the 80s. People are tempted to even the playing field, sometimes it's necessary. I'm under the belief the majority of world class boxers were on the juice by then like they are today, but there was no drug testing so I'm just going off logic here