That's a nice post. Bokaj, do you man that Holyfield is literally the best technical heavyweight you've ever seen?
The only thing Holyfield was missing at his respective peak was the ability to use all his tools and smarts correctly during the course of a fight. It wasnt until later in his career did we see a better disciplined fighter. The fact is he still won most of his fights, but with the proper gameplan he would have most likely made his fights alot easier on himself, and possibly never lost to Bowe or Moorer, (losses by fighting the wrong fight, and injuries that perhaps would have not occured).
I love the man but simply do not know the roll drugs played in his career ... his highs and lows, his weight gain, his post Bowe 2 crashing .. how terrible he looked against Moorer the first time, the way he looked in the Bowe KO loss, the Czyz fight, even the Moorer rematch , the man had many funky moments ... I have to believe that steriod usage was major in his career ...
Holyfield is a complete fighter. He dealt with all different styles with sucess. But he was small. Very fast but his arms are quite short and he is very light for the era. He also struggled with slick boxers abit
Small? He was still 6'2, comfortably around 210-220lbs through his heavyweight career and his 78" reach was slightly better than average for his height too. Not to mention very comperable to most of the heavyweights on a consensus ATG heavyweight listing too...Lewis would be able the only guy significantly bigger, with some of them smaller. No doubt he was no superheavyweight, but for all the 'blown up cruiser' tag that got attached to Holyfield, he was a pretty big cruiser. Bit like Paul Williams at light-middle. I'd argue that he was more of a natural heavyweight than he was a natural cruiser.
He just might be. That's never easy to determine exactly, but I'm tremendously impressed by his technique. His weakest point was probably his jab, which still was very good.
I agree he accomplished a lot. But when I break him down on paper, I'm surprised he didn't achieve more and with more ease.
He had some off nights for sure. He's human. But, Evander is one of the greatest heavyweights ever, and should be on any serious fan's all-time top 10 heavyweight list. He had some flaws, but which top 10 heavyweight doesn't?
what was missing was a backfoot. a fighter is a fighter of course. but he rarely used his very good jab and foreward motion to keep fighters at bay or mix it up. it's strange but in that aspect he was pretty 1 dimesional even though he had a VERY big dimension.....no homo. having heart is a great thing and can keep you in fights till the bitter. but he seemed to just think he could run over anybody he wanted. when he was hurt or outpointed he just tried harder didnt revaluate his gameplan. agaisnt toney it's clear he just kept piling forwards. agaisnt qawi he almost killed himself throwing punches. not seeing how he could of made it more economical or easier on himself.
No one is perfect, but there are few other HWs who had as few flaws as Holyfield IMO. Perhaps no one. He's in my top 10, but when I watch him I can't help but wonder why he didn't achieve enough to be even higher.