His hook was as good as Ali's (people seem to sometimes forget that Ali had a really good hook, just not Foreman or Frazier level). The other punches... Ali had a serious right hand when he bent at the waist, came off his toes, and stepped in. He only really threw it when he was trying to wind down a fight and when an opponent was mostly through, but it was NO JOKE as a punch when he did that. Certainly harder than Holy's/ As mentioned, Holy was mostly a cumulative type of puncher. Ali too...except Ali had a heavyweight shot in each hand, he usually just chose to mix up his velocities and not leave himself open.
Holy definitely rocked George, but I never saw George's eyes go spacey...nothing like that. Seen the fight eight zillion times. What I remember most is Holy coming back to his stool and asking if George knocked all his teeth out. George certainly showed he had more than a right to be there. Holy was unbeaten, indubitably in his prime, and so much younger. That's why he won. However, the prime George would have beat him worse than Bowe, (though of course, I rank Holy significantly higher than Bowe as ATG).
The Holyfield who fought Mercer is not the same guy who fought Foreman. He was heavier, bulkier and undoubtedly hit harder. This is the reason why he was able to drop Bowe with a left hook in fight 3 where in fight 1 and 2 the smaller frame Evander who landed plenty was unable to effect the same damage.
What sucked is, as his power increased his prime faded away. Still, what a great fighter, #4 on top ATG heavies, just above Lewis.
The problem is Holyfield was a significant more agressive fighter, often regarded as a boxer puncher. If you put a young Ali into that style, there might be very less between them in therms of power. In hindsight of talking about the most professional part of HW boxing here on BF24, he´s not more than avarage "heavy handed" than other HWs. He might be a better puncher due to beeing a better fighter, and as stated above a very agressive fighter and/or willing to trade. Force a good HW into Evanders style an agressiveness, Holyfield imho is not above avarage as puncher.
It really did have to do with what GOAT says here about Holyfield's style. He was so great going in and out, almost like a darting fighting style. I saw in a recent TruSchool interview Holy talked about some specifics regarding his style...wait, I need to find that video (sorry folks)...be back.
Holyfield had Foreman on ***** street but didnt have enough time in the round to finish him off, because Holyfield isn't a true power puncher to begin with. But the fact that he had Foreman wobbled and almost out shows Foreman was in fact there to be taken down and out, he just didnt fight the fighter that would have done it. Like Bowe Lewis or Tyson.
Here's what I was talking about and what Sammy is referring to. Round 9. 3:40 of this video. Evander finally catches Foreman good on the jaw and looks to have him out on his feet before time runs. This content is protected
Foreman is hurt in Round 9 from a clean punch to the chin over his jab and saved by the bell. Like I said, Foreman despite taking punishment kept his jaw tucked and arms up in those big flurries. It was the rare time he got caught reaching with his chin out
When Tommy Morrison faced George Foreman in 1993 it was after: a) Losing to Ray Mercer via brutal KO b) Going life and death with journeyman Joe Hipp who broke Tommy's jaw in the 2nd round and almost had him out in the 8th. c) Surviving 2 knockdowns and a near KO loss to a faded Carl "The Truth" Williams. By the time he faced George Foreman, he hadn't faced a ranked contender since Mercer and he had already established a reputation of being chinny. George who ultimately wanted to become champion again, could have faced the Heavyweight Champion Riddick Bowe (who begged him for a shot on a live telecast) or the WBC Champion Lennox Lewis. Instead he chose to face Morrison, the lesser threat, for a title that was at the time (WBO) lightly regarded. Facing Morrison was a challenge but Tommy's vulnerability (glass jaw) was well known. Not to mention his reputation of training with Double Whiskeys and Strippers proceeded him. George was looking to exit the division; ABC had green lit a sitcom called George and this was likely the biggest winnable fight he could make. Given George's attributes his best shot at a title was to come against a chinny fighter. All things being equal, Morrison was threat, after all he was the slight favorite when they fought, but not a genuine threat.
This is the truth, there has been some history revisionism since Morrison's death or at the very least since the 90s have been overly glorified by nostalgic fans.
