There has been a lot of speculation on this site that the Klitschko brothers might have beaten some past greats due to their physical advantages. How do people think they would have fared against the version of Evander Holyfield who fought James Douglas and Riddick Bowe. A fighter who was himself 205-212 lbs.
It would be very hard for Evander imo, but he could possibly beat Wlad with that handspeed, bound to pay off at some point and finish the fight you reckon? Vitali might be harder still, but who knows, if he can outfight Riddick Bowe one time then he certainly has a chance here.
Commander Evander can win both..**** the fact he is undersized, he is one of the hardest fighters the weight has seen, he is well conditioned, mobile and quick...And plenty strong. I could see him upsetting and catching Wlad eventually...Vitali might be a harder task because of his extra durability and great conditioning but he could very well drag Vit Klit away from his preferred fighting distance like he has so often done against bigger guys. That version of Holy is a ton better then any of the the guys they have faced thus far outside of Lennox. I wouldnt exactly instill him the betting favorite but Im certain he is a big chance of pulling out a win against either of them and even in losing would push them to the brink.
Except he didn't outfight the Riddick Bowe who beat him... he beat the lazy champion who was more concerned with gaining popularity than preparing for a rematch with a warrior like Holyfield.
You know what i mean, he has a good win over Bowe. But yeah you'd favour Bowe over him in a hypothetical matchup, he proved it so.
I think Evander Holyfield is a higher level heavyweight than either Klitschko, therefore I would bet on him to defeat both brothers. Unlike some, I think Wladimir would be harder for Evander to beat than his brother Vitali, but I'd take a prime Evander over both.
evander also would have gotten stopped against the klitschkos. i saw both the lewis fights and some 3-4 times each of his bowe fights which i believe will be more like what would have happened had he fought the klitschkos except that they would have beaten him even worse and easier.
Here are some of the differences mate 1. Holyfield was not just a mere low end 200 pounder. He probably had a body comp ratio of about 96-4%. He was extremely strong and not one inch of his body was wasted. 2. He was professionally managed his entire career,and started fighting in the amateurs at childhood. 3. He won a world title with only 11 pro bouts in grueling 15 round bout against another hall of famer, and in a division that had size dimensions comparable to what a lot of earlier heavyweights weighed. 4. He consistently tested and proved his chin against very heavy punchers his entire career, whereas a lot of earlier fighters did not fight the same breed of hitters. 5. He continued to be competitive well into old age, and last December, probably should have been the oldest man to win a world title, and against the largest holder of all time. CONCLUSION : Just because Holyfield has a chance against the Klits, doesn't mean that every man who weighed around 210 lbs, and fought prior to 1950 would.
I've always felt that Bowe was a bad matchup for Holyfield. In fact, I think Holy at his best may have more of a chance against Lewis than Bowe, even though I rank Lewis in my top 5 and Bowe out of the top 15. Brawling with Bowe when you don't have true top end power and have defensive holes yourself is going to lead to serious hurt. Bowe very well may be the best offensive SHW of all time, he certainly is on the inside. It's a different story with the Klits. Neither of them are offensive on the inside, inside fighting to them is basically tying up which results in them getting seperated to the outside which is their game. Holyfield wouldn't be drawn into a brawl like he was against Bowe, Wlad would never engage in a slugfest anyway. The thing going for Holy here is timing, his sense of knowing when to throw his jab combined with his accuracy makes him a hard fighter to outbox. I don't care if you're 6'6, Holyfield's jab and timing is incredible and an equalizer. We very well may see them getting taken out of their element against Holy's combination of speed, timing, toughness, and skills. Byrd and Holyfield are two entirely different cats. That being said, beating skilled SHW's without knocking them out is a hard task. I think Holy's dirty tactics and strengths match up better with Wlad.
Yep, Holyfield is a physical specimen, plain and simple. Yeah, he weighed about the same as a lot of past greats but there's not a fighter pre 1950 that looks like this This content is protected Guys like Jersey Joe were ripped to the bone, but what did they weigh? Less than 200 pounds. Complain about it all you want and try to find justifications, but there's NO denying that the BEST athletes of today and the past decade or so are at a severe advantage physically. Lewis, the Klitschko's, Bowe etc. all benefit from modern nutrition and training.
Interesting fights, Holyfield has the advantage in speed, intensity, skill, footspeed. The Klits have the reach/jab/strength advantage on him which could be very telling. Holyfield would find it easier to hit Vitali with his low hands, most cant hit Vitali but Evanders fast feet and combinations would land on a Vitali trying to lean out the way. I also cant see Vitalis power bothering Holyfield but I see Vitali getting plenty of his own shots off too but favour Holyfield here. Wlad is a bigger puncher, better technically but more vunerable and shakey under pressure. I lean towards Evander here too. I think both would be close fights and wars BTW I think the 215/220lb Holyfield may do better
Hm, some of you guys do as if the Klitschkos would be the same type of fighters. I disagree strongly, they are very different. Also, it seem, most of you think Vitali is the better of the two, I also disagree. So, let´s look at the assets here. Holyfield is a fighter, he can box but he loves beeing in a and making a bout into a fight. He is a bit faster than Wlad and even more faster than Vitali. He has a great chin, very good footwork, a decent jab, power and defence and good infighting ability. Against both Klitschkos he would have the disadvantage in reach, height and weight and with Wlad also in power. Wlad is boxer-puncher with a big reach, height and reach advantage to Holyfield. He has great power, a great offense, good footwork, decent defensive and thanks to Stewart always the right game plan. His weakness of not beeing a good infighter was turned into a strength by Stewart by showing Wlad how to tie up and lean on an opponent to tire him out. The stamina issues he had shown in the past seem to have gone but he still has some weaknesses. The biggest is that he shows signs of gunshyness and panic when he get´s pressured hard. We don´t know yet how he reacts when pushed to the limit. Holyfield may very well be the one to do so. Most people think he is fragile. I disagree. Look at his three losses. Against Purrity he was in against a hard hitting very durable Jounreyman for 12 rounds in his first fight beyond 8 rounds after three fights in 4-6 weeks. He gave Purrity a nice spanking until running out of gas and beeing stopped but he showed that he wanted to go on, he wasn´t KOed! This was more of an management mistake than a sign of Wlad´s fragility. Similar to the Brwester fight. The plan was to bomb out Brewster early and he looked damn fine until he ran out of gas. Again. And he was not KOed, he got up everytime he was down. This was the sign of a bad gameplan and stamina issues, which are solved now, but not the sign of a bad chin. The loss to Sanders was a real KO loss. I don´t believe into the Sanders-hype of some Wlad nuthuggers talking about Sanders would be trouble for every atg on his best day. No, sanders was no atg potential but he good punch and had very fast hands for his size. Over all I think Wlad´s chin is decent, not great but good enough to take Holyfields best shots. Vitali is awkward. He has is complete own style with his biggest assets beeing his size, chin, stamina, workrate and judge of distance. But he lacks in the technique department and has shown to be neither a good infighter nor as good as his brother in tying his opponent up on the inside. Also his hands low, lean back defence may work against lower class hws but not so much against atgs like the Lewis fight showed us. So, how would the fights turn out? Imho Wlad beats Holyfield on points. He will keep him on the end of his jab and ties him up on the inside. Holyfield will make the water deep for Wlad at times and he would trouble him but in the end Wlad overcomes him. Wlad has the right mix of technique, footwork, power, style and size to beat Holyfield. Vitali on the other hand may very well drop a decision. If Holyfield finds a way to get to the inside and score there. Holy has the faster hands and feets and would expose the flaws in Vitalis´s defence more than any other ever did bar Lewis. It´s a close 50/50 type of fight but I lean slightly to Holyfield. Depends who he is trained by I think.
great post:good a lot of people don't see it, but wlad is right now the much better boxer the vitali. it's right now near impossible to reach his "so called weak chin", if you watch his fights, where he gets hit, you can see that he can take one big punch, but he can't take punches in a row from big punchers. his jab is in my opinion perfect, it's so hard and fast, that his opponents don't get the chance to get in an infight, cause they get staggered all the time by the jab. the only one who could beat wlad is lennox lewis, cause he was fast, very powerfull and had a long reach. and i think that corry sanders would beat wlad 10 of 10 times. he is wlads nightmare stylisticly. but do you know an other boxer, who is 6.5, southpow, great power and who is very fast? i don't. Vitali is difficult to tell, there is no one who was ever able to outbox him, but holyfield is an alltime great who has all skills and is a tough warrior. to be honest i have no idea who would win
Vitali drop a decision? He has never lost more than two consensus rounds in a his professional career. I think Vitali decsions Holyfield or TKO's him depending on what type of shape Holyfield is in. Wlad vs Holyfield can go either way. On their best nights, I'd go with Holyfield vis mid to late round TKO. Holyfield has a pretty good hook, and that punch could drop Wlad and lead to a finish through attrition. I will say that 5 years ago, these type of threads only got a snicker. I'm glad to see people are not affraid to share their thoughts.