holyfield was at the disadvantage in every attribute except speed, he was unfocused his brother Bo' had just died and in addition he fought a horrible fight trying to slug wih bowe, getting caught with right uppercuts everytime he lunged in with lead rights. Bowe was bad stylistically for holyfied as well. The fact that it still ended up such a tight, fierce battle proved to me that bowe is very overrated because he had EVERY advantage and still didnt dominate. Now it may sound a little harsh on my part because bowe was young and still learning but he never got any better!! He was just bigger than holyfield, holyfield was much much better IMO. Bowe IMO was just big. not very skilled not very great even at his best.
Holyfield older, waaay smaller, stylistic disadvantage, unprepared using a horrible gameplan and it still a close fight. Bowe should've murdered him but holyfield proved his greatness.
It was an excellent fight with lots of real action unlike most of the heavyweight title bouts we've seen in recent years.. In fact all three of those bouts were great. Evander showed real grit in defeat that evening. A true champion by all standards
It was a tough fight, but Bowe clearly won. I think he did better against a prime Holy in this fight than Lewis did against an older more shopworn version in their two fights. And I really rate Lewis. No one had an easy time with Holy until he was way past it, and only one person beat prime Holy and that was Bowe. If you want to question Bowe's greatness, the Golota fights and his lack of top opponents bar Holy is the way to do it. Not his win in this fight. Because it was a great one.
Holyfield had a horrible gameplan vs bowe the first time. He fought the best fight he could vs lewis and lewis was a better stylistic matchup because of his occasional cautiousness.
I know my boxing. Yes his inside game was decent but the fact is if he was anywhere near as skilled as holyfield he would have killed him. If he was really skilled he wouldn't have been as hitable. Lil 205 holyfield was mixing it up with him. Tucker, douglas(at his best), lewis, golota, Kbros and tyson fury were all more skilled boxers. Bowe didn't have anything special except an uppercut and size
First, I wouldn't start your argument off with "I know my boxing". Second, I didn't say he was as skilled as Holyfield. You claimed he had no skill and was merely a big body which is just an asinine thing to say considering he was probably the best inside fighter the hw division saw in the 90s
A 43 year old foreman did better than bowe against coetzer. Bowe was getting tagged, he was lucky that guy was feather fisted
A skill probably developed for beating tyson. Yes he had a good inside game I concede that but it would've only been a major factor against a tyson or a tua. A disciplined holyfield or lewis or a mobile boxer it's almost a nonfactor
Holyfield clearly was the better of the two fighters and unlike Bowe wasn't afraid to take on all comers. Had he not been sick in the 3rd fight he would've taken 2 of 3 from Bowe.