Prime Evander Holyfield vs current Wlad

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And Wlad has been stopped three times and dropped numerous other times by fighters who are not fit to carry Holyfields Jock strap.

 

Wlad doesn't overthrow his punches until his opponent is immobilized...see Byrd 1/2. Evanders counter offense would be ineffective against Wlad and his inside game would be negated by Wlads grappling ability.

Wlad UD/TKO late rounds. Prolly a mercy stoppage or cuts win for Wlad.

 

:smoke prime VLAD hasnt been stopped by anyone . And nobody has come close to outboxing him . HOLY would be easy prey !:deal

 

Real Deal outworks the giant.

 

This isn't the UFC ... ****s sake

 

I have come to the conclusion that these Klitschko fanatics on here are actually insane.

 

I agree. There is simply no other explanation.

 

It boggles the mind, it really does. Nearly everything they come out with flies in the face of all reason and logic. Factual events are totally dismissed or seem beyond their comprehension, while reality is totally distorted within their minds. Paranoid conspiracy theories and delusions run wild, anger, bitterness etc - basically all tell tale signs of some sort of mental problem.

 

Who is this thread about:think

Let's see.....Holyfield and Wladimir.

Holyfield fought his best fights during the 90s, the era of the ART of Clinching. Ruiz was by far the greatest clincher in the history of HW boxing, nearly winning all of his biggest fights using his trademark jab, jab, grab, grapple, R hand on the way out.
While Ruiz was the best at it, Holyfield was no slouch himself. It was during the 90s that holding went from a strictly defensive posture for recovery, buying time etc, to a form of offense or a strategic part of one's arsenal.
While Tyson complained of Holyfield's use of his head, as did Rahman, Holyfield's clinching ability was as big a part of his wins over Mike and the Rock as was his CPing. Tyson and Rahman are arguably much stronger than Evander, but when push came to shove, Holyfield was by far the better grappler than either of them, and used his grappling to frustrate and wear down his opponents.

Wladimir was never good at clinching, tying up, or grappling. He's is so bloody uncoordinated when fighting on the inside that he uses his jab to maintain distance to keep his opponents away from him, and he uses that jab so effectively that he doesn't have to infight all that much. Of course when an opponent rushes him, or slips his jab, Wlad has now learned to use his superior size and tie his opponent up to keep from being hit due to his lack of coordination on the inside.
That's one of the things that sets Wlad apart from great grapplers like Lewis, Holyfield, Ruiz and James Toney. His jab gives him an advantage over those guys(with the exception of Lewis who's jab was =/< Wlad's). When Wlad maintains the distance with it, his opponents try to slip it and find themselves tied up when they do, only to be out-muscled in the clinch.

People will call it a purely defensive posture from Wladimir simply because they hate him, but when Holyfield was perfecting it against Bowe, Tyson, Rahman etc, or when Ruiz was winning HW titles by employing it as his main offensive asset, or when Lewis used it against guys like Tua and Tyson it was a new and improved offensive asset.

Guys like Toney, Holy, Ruiz, Lewis etc get props for it, but Wlad is called a chicken when he does it.......I just don't get it. The man figured out how to mix a style of Lewis, Ruiz, Foreman and Holmes into one package, dominates his weight class for a decade, and all he gets for it is hate.:-(

That said, Wlad is superior to prime Evander in handspeed, strength, power, size, and has perfected what Evander was good at, grappling.

This leads to only two possible outcomes. A 12 round pounding by Wladimir in which Holy(iron chin) finishes the fight looking like Briggs vs Vitali or the referee sees the only inevitable outcome as being a Briggs-like beating and calls a mercy stoppage between the 8th-12th, once that is that Holyfields puncher's chance, becomes non-existent.:deal

 

Evander in his prime was incredibly fast, and they are two different boxers. Evander was 6'2 with a 77" reach, he is more than capable of getting to Wladimir's chin. The question is can Wladimir can fight within close range, because no way Wladimir can keep Evander away with simply a jab.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM3VOSiaUEQ[/ame]

 

the 205lbs approx version of a young Evander was a beast and ferocious, battering big george with 16 punch combos,

Wlad has never been in a vicious fight where someone is putting everything on him, I dont think he could grab his way out of that

Plus you gotta remember how underrated young Holys skills are he was great at getting inside

Look at how well Haye slipped Wlads jab FFS

 

Prime Holyfield isn't just better than anyone that Wlad has fought but considerably better than anyone Wlad has fought. In terms of speed, technique, combination punching, durability, heart and desire he's on another level to anything Wlad has fought.

But style wise he has the perfect style to give Holyfield problems. He's tall, big and knows how to fight on the outside and has the discipline to stick to a strategy and not get drawn into a brawl.

Holyfield is a decent puncher but he lacks the kind of power to take Wlad out with one punch. But I can't see Wlad keeping him off him the whole night and on the inside he is clearly inferior to Evander. If Wlad had a better inside game and had proven he could grind out a tough win against an opponent who he can't simply dictate the pace of the fight to then I would favour him but I see Holyfield getting to a tiring Wlad late and stopping him.

 

Wlad fans just ignore the fact that he never had a fight with anyone even close to Evanders quality, they see him dominating Chambers, Haye, Chagaev etc and think it would be like that, they dont want to face the reality that none of these guys have heart or skill that Evander had!!!

 

I think Evander Holyfield is too skilled and too aggressive not to catch up with Wlad at some point.

Holyfield unlike Haye knows how to move with a purpose to create angles to attack you (Bowe 2), now Wladimir is exceptional at cutting the ring off, meaning it can be difficult to create those angles to mount your offense, as Haye found out, but unlike Haye, Holyfield has a jab to work his way in, a particularly good double jab infact. Holyfield is also a combination puncher, so even if he fell short trying to shoot in, he would be able to advance his feet foward and follow up the combination in order to get into range.

I also think Holyfield would probably be capable of pressuring Wladimir somewhat, because of his durability, skill, and general consistency. Wladimir doesn't have the repertoire of a Lennox Lewis, like the ability to bring the uppercut into play when you get low to make yourself smaller so you can come over the top. That said, Wladimir can pick you up with the right hand (Sam Peter 2) when your coming in too aggressively, and has learned how to move off in circle after landing, as though to keep the fight in center ring and not go back in a straight line and allow you to come down the line bum-rushing him. This is why whilst I think Holyfield would beat him, he would only have a small window of opportunity to KO Wlad before Wlad adapted to what he was doing and started picking him up with that right hand, particularly if he was falling short occasionally and so was looking to follow up the combinations in order to get close and close the range, but I personally think Holyfield would find the punches that would shake Wlad up before Wlad was able to capitalize.

I just cant imagine someone as skilled as Holyfield, with the kind of attitude he's got, not landing on Wladimir at some point, and potentially shaking him up and trying to put him under sustained pressure.

Wladimir likes to calculate everything he does imo, but if you can break his rhythm up, he will as Haye said, start to malfunction imo.