Holyfield On Tyson

Yours is as valid opinion as anyone's.

But you did say :

What Holyfield is really saying is he would have probably fought like a ding dong in 91 and wound up getting beat.

That sentence doesn't make clear any distinction between Holyfield's opinion and yours, it blurs the two completely, IMO ..... but I'm glad you've cleared it up ("I certainly dont think Evander thinks he would lose").

:good

 

Good post.

 

He's also clear that the condition aspect is what gave him the win. And the Holyfield of '91 clearly had better conditioning than the version of '96. Actually I think the difference in conditioning might have even been slightly larger in '91.

I mean compare Holy of Bowe I and Bowe III. In the first fight he just came coming no matter what and in the third he folded. He lost a lot during just a couple of years there.

If they met in '91, Tyson would have needed an early KO to win. I have little doubt about that. Not impossible, but not extremely likely either IMO.

 

Holyfield was beat up pretty good by Bowe in the first fight. He was knocked down and hurt badly in spots and basically outbrawled just as he was in the third. The second fight he barely won because he mixed in some disciplined boxing. What could Tyson do to Evander if he had him hurt falling into the ropes like Bowe did? I think he would finish him, Tyson's timing and accuracy was still pretty good at that point.

As for your second paragraph, Why do you have little doubt that Tyson would need an early KO to win? Tyson was not coming off a four year layoff as he was in 96 and was a fairly active fighter. He wrestled and slugged with a far bigger man in Ruddock for 12 hard rounds. I dont really understand the thought of Tyson being a front runner his entire career. Sure he was more powerful in the early rounds, but he was clearly a prepared 12 round fighter. Tyson was poorly prepared for Douglas in 90, but his fight activity kept him in that fight deep, and that was a very hard physical fight, not to mention Tyson scored a knockdown of Douglas late.

 

I also wrote No **** Evander. A bit of sarcasm mixed in, but I would tend to think Evander understands how his style evolved and how he became more of a thinking fighter later in his career.
Lets face it, he could have saved himself a lot of lumps fighting some of those early 90's fights with a little more tact involved, but then he wouldnt have provided the excitement he did over his career.

 

the 91 tyson was at least 25% better than the 96 version he was faster had more stamina and was battle hardened post prison tyson was a 6 round fighter at best .

 

That KD is quite impressive actually and probably gets underrated. But in general I think Mike's ability to put on a sustained offensive waned seriously after 3-5 rds. What he did was enough against guys like Tucker and Ruddock who let him set the pace. But Holy could still keep a very impressive output over 12 rds in the early 90's, while keeping a lot of sharpness and accuracy in the punches. He was also hard as hell to finish off.

I frankly have a hard time seeing Tyson keeping up with peak Holy after 5 rds at ANY stage of his career. And, yes, there's always the chance of him landing one nice shot as he did against Douglas, but then he would have to finish him also... Won't be easy.

 

I think your post is way off base and frankly I cant see Holyfield brawling with a peak Tyson over 12 rounds. Holyfield was looking for spots to rest against Foreman at a lot of points in their fight and the commentators made note of it. If he fought Tyson like he did Cooper, Stewart, Foreman or Bowe, he most likely wouldnt have even seen the late rounds anyway.

 

I think Tyson would have most certainly won another title. Prison did little to help his skills.

 

Tyson was 29 when he got out of prison. He could have gotten back pretty close to where he was had he hired a qualified trainer. Instead he basically chose to train himself, and it was evident from his poor technique. He didnt take the proper steps to regain his timing and fitness.

Holyfield was old and not at his peak, but he was still fairly active and conditioned to exploit all of Tysons mistakes. Dont think that would have been the case in 91.

 

I think Tyson beats Holyfield in 91 had the fight gone ahead... He may not have had the crisp technique & razor sharp precision punching he had around 85-88 BUT I think 91 Holy gets easily sucked into a brawl, which we say many times in his early career...