What Heavyweights in History would you pick to stop Prime Holyfield?

Corbett still looks really bad, though. The other guy looks beyond horrible. I think guys stepping into a boxing gym for the first time could look better.

Just a sober reminder not to believe the stories about how fantastic the old timers were. For their own time maybe, but only in that perspective.

None of the HWs I've seen before Louis would have any chance to KO a prime and focussed Holyfield IMO. Louis is another story, though...

 

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That version of Sullivan was throroughly sodden and shot, a man who had already survived two alcohol induced comas and was in no shape whatsoever.

I think you get a better estimation of Corbett's skill in the 1920's footage of him sparring with Tunney.

 

Taking the initial question:

I would not want to lay money on anybody to stop a prime Holyfield.

Yes Bowe did it, but it was under some unsatisfactory conditions.

For anybody to do it they would probably have to put together something special in terms of power, delivery and combination punching.

 

Well this statement could be debated, because although he was slower, he systematically took apart a fighter with a lot of restraint and control, and then went on to avenge a defeat in the same one sided manner. Fighters can become better after their physical peak if they change their approach. We saw it with Lennox Lewis for example. He wasnt physically faster, sharper, he just adjusted his style to meet his opponents and approached the fight more calculated.
I think the same can be said for Holyfield. He had a better understanding of his limitations. This wasnt the case when he stood toe to toe with fighters like Riddick Bowe who were far larger and stronger than him. He simply tried to break their will with his own. I believe that would have been a bad move with Tyson in 88.

 

I know there are many factors at play, but it's just too much distance to make up. Even if that isn't nearly the best version of Corbett, the difference between him and Holyfield is just too astronomical.

It's the same with the film that exist of Fitz and Johnson. Holyfield just looks so extremely much better that I can't see anyone from that era posing a serious challenge to him. Dempsey is a leap forward, but he too looks too crude in my estimation. Louis is where it really starts to come together.

The clip I posted is after all of two professional boxers. An era where pros can look like that just can't be that good.

To get back to the question, I wouldn't give anyone a good chance of stopping Evander. The ones with the best chance would probably be Louis and Liston.

 

You do know the deal with the Corbett Courtney event right?

It was not even an exhibition.

It was a trial to test the practicality of filming a boxing match.

 

I have to disagree about the Moorer fight. Holyfield was being outboxed in the early rounds and won by opening it up and turning it into a brawl.

We can say Lewis was a better fighter in his later years because this was when the majority of his best performances and success occured, save the inspired Tyson fights and a tough but strong victory over Mercer, late 90s Evander was becoming increasingly sporadic with a brief retirement and some unusually poor performances: Bowe III, Cycz, Bean, Lewis I, and the infamous Ruiz Trilogy.

 

Lewis became better because of Emanuel Steward who changed his approach. Holyfield also with Emanuel Steward and then Tommy Brooks. The proof is there. Holyfield became inconsistent again when he parted ways with Brooks, and now has performed well in his last two outings since reuniting with him.
I dont remember Moorer doing anything but getting the **** kicked out of him in the second fight?

 

He kicked the **** out of him after a bad start. Evander won the fight by luring Moorer into a brawl and hitting him with short combinations on the inside.

From SI:

There was Holyfield getting wobbled by a Moorer right hook in the first round and then, refiguring his strategy on the fly, turning the whole plan around by the third. Holyfield realized that Moorer could out-box him from outside, so he drooped his right arm low, inviting Moorer closer. "I felt if he got close," Holyfield said, "I could hit him. I just couldn't hit from outside."
So he lured Moorer in, drove left hooks to the body, blows that Moorer said he didn't feel at the time, "but which I am feeling now." The way was also open for upper-cuts. A straight right hand floored Moorer—he retreated three steps and then pitched forward—for the first knockdown, in the fifth, but uppercuts dropped him twice in the seventh and twice in the eighth.

 

I remember the commentators being baffled by Holyfield dropping his guard like that, outright saying it was the wrong thing to do and suggesting that Evander might be running out of puff again.

I seem to also remember they'd spent most of the fight up to that point lauding Holy's punches and ignoring much of what Moorer was landing, so perhaps no wonder it came as a bigger surprise to them.

Moorer actually deserves more credit in both his Holyfield bouts. But I also have a long-standing suspiscion that Don Turner was not much good at training for southpaw opponents...footwork all wrong, it was the same when he had Michael Grant fighting Jeff Wooden.

 

Joe Louis

 

A young George Foreman could certainly stop Holyfield. Tyson from 1988-1989 would have an excellent chance to stop Holyfield. Liston has an outside chance to stop him...thats about it.

 

I think Holyfield- at his best- would set a pace that would exhaust Foreman and make him easy picking in the late round. I just see him as quicker, throwing way better, shorter combinations. And Holyfield was more durable than an approaching-shot Frazier or a chinny Norton.

 

A frustrated Holyfield actually tried the same trick against Lewis a few times as I recall but he was too smart to fall for it. I think Holyfield was a pretty strong in-fighter when he was countering and throwing combinations, it was when he carelessly took breathers that he got himself in the most trouble against Bowe and Cooper. Rather it was Moorer, old Foreman, Lewis, or Bowe when he used it, strong jabs seemed to trouble Evander more than anything, he just couldn't find his way around them.