I think Holyfield would stop Wlad in the late rounds but it would be a tough fight for him. With Vitali I could see this going either way,but it goes the distance. Maybe Holyfield by razor close decision,I think he could get inside but hed take a lot of punishment before doing so,I think Holyfields advantage in speed would work well for him. If they fought 3 times it would go 2-1 Holy.
I dont think you can just write off his infighting weakness because he is now good at holding, Holyfield would be so much quicker to jump in and so much more skilled in there he would test him more than he has ever been. I agree that his chin is not as bad as people make out, more worrying is that he tends to panic when caught. Its not just stamina although that plays its part - plenty of fighters have been terribly tired and managed to work around it, when he was hurt he started running backwards swaying all over the place rather than successfully covering up or returning fire . Peter really should have finished him too, and he hasnt been tested enough since and I think its a massive stretch to say that Holyfield wouldnt even do enough to check his ability to fight back from being hurt and personally I've seen nothing to suggest he will be able to. Wlad is good but I find it hard to pick him in these fantasy fights most of the time because I just think when youre talking about a Holyfield level of boxer, of course hes good enough to at least make it a fight rather than an outside jab fest at some points and as soon as its a fight Wlad is in big trouble.
The Klitschkos have established one thing and thats technically they are very good. Probably better than most of the fighters of the 90's. One thing they are lacking and the biggest factor in these fights is their ability to do anything other than box from the outside. Vitali is a bit more well rounded, but still Holyfield would present a whole different challenge. Vitali started busting up in the Lewis fight because he was getting hit very cleanly as Lewis got closer. He really showed no ability to avoid punches on the inside or at all, as the fight got more physical. I just cant see a prime Evander Holyfield not being able to get close to them. He was very quick, mobile, and worked behind a very good jab, which at its best, could offset a far bigger mans jab. If I had to choose I would say Holyfield wins both fights, by stoppage, both later rounds, Wlad sooner than Vitali, with Vitali having the best chance of winning because of how mobile he is.
Of course not. Having said that there have been harder punchers and better boxers of around that weight. Perhaps a few fighters who were both. What weights would you see Holyfields career spanning if he had fought before the 50s? Without the amateur programe of his era he would probably have had profesional fights under the lightheavyweight limit in his early 20s.
I'nm not going to attempt to speculate at what point he would have turned pro or weather or not he'd have an amateur career. That said, with heavyweights generally being smaller in size back then, perhaps the need to reach 210 lbs, would not be as prudent. I speculate that he would have been comfortable between 188-200, but again this is all guess work.
Bowe was lazy as hell and only really trained hard for a handful of fights, but against Holyfield he was something else. What fighter pre 1970 had Bowe's, Lewis, or either of the Klits combination of size and speed? None, and the fact that people don't think that size is a very important part of a fight is laughable. And no, Lewis and Klitschko aren't "fat" before someone says that's the reason HW's are bigger now
Size means little when there is little skill behind the size. Size with ability is definitely more dangerous. Bowe was really the first big skilled man to burst onto the scene, and really him and Lewis have been the last to emerge as complete fighters, although I think Bowe had a little more dimension to his game overall. Thats kind of the difference here. Holyfield was more of a complete fighter at his best than the Klitschkos have ever been so taking them into a fight they werent capable of fighting would certainly offset their size advantage.