Having just past the 20 th anniversary of the unification fight between Lewis and Holyfield, one of the last times we had an undisputed heavyweight champ, what were your thoughts going In to the fight? Did you see Lewis finally getting the belts, or perhaps Holyfield pulling off another shock win? And did agree with the decision?
I just watched this again during the past week. HBO call===which was crappy with Foreman. Lennox won the bout. Comfortably. All Evander would and could do was a 5 second flurry. And hardly anything would land but it would get the crowd excited because he was finally throwing combos. While Lewis rode them. So very very few of Holyfields punches landed clean during those flurries. Actually his head was his most effective thing landing & was a main reason Lewis would cover up and not fire back--so he would not get butted and cut in an otherwise safe bout. Lewis is just too good defensively for Evander to ever win many rounds against.
Not seen it for years but from what I remember I thought Lewis won the first fight easily and lost the second fight
Everyone I watched it with thought the same, Holyfield had taken the rematch. Myself, I thought Lewis should have done more but he did just enough to scrape by. The first fight, no doubt in my opinion that Lennox got it.
Lennox won both for me; the1st was clearer than the 2nd. I've always felt that if the 1st fight had been judged correctly & Lewis given the UD, the 2nd fight may not have happened as there wouldn't have been much demand for a rematch...
I actually watched it for the first time since it happened about 3-4 years back. I always felt it was close enough to be a draw but upon re-watching it I realized I must’ve had a bad day at scoring because Lewis won it clearly. Not as clear and dominantly as the first but something around 116-112 with some close rounds.
Definitely wouldn't have been a rematch imo to. Lennox would have gotten the belts and moved on. It's how it really should have been.
Didn't expect Holyfield to win, he was shopworn by now & started to look his age, With all of his advantages Lewis should have won this very convincingly.
I was pissed as a fart when I first watched it, but my recollection was that Holyfield was the aggressor and landed the more telling blows, including hurting Lewis badly in round 7. Watching it again recently with the benefit of sobriety, Lewis won more rounds than Holyfield, and Holyfield's eye-catching shots weren't as damaging as I recalled. Lewis was wobbled in the 7th but quickly recovered, and was firing back later in the round. I think expectations played a part in the perception of the fight. Lewis was supposed to finish the job he started in the first fight, while Holyfield was clearly on the slide. Based on the first fight, there wasn't any reason to suspect Holyfield could turn it around, other than that it being Holyfield. Most people, myself included, thought that Lewis would leave no doubt in the second fight, and that he may have stopped Evander in the first one if he had committed more.
The stink around the 1st bout, the dubious draw made this sort of a weird atmosphere. Like Lennox you got to beat this guy twice because 1 judge didn't see you dominating the 1st fight. It happened in a squared circle under bright lights in front of the world but she didn't see it. Anyway, Holyfield did do much better. He picked his spots and put more pressure on Lewis. Evander did a better job of neutralizing Lewis's leftjab. Holy block most of LL's uppercuts. Lewis won the bout. Holyfield made him earned it. I had 7-4-1 LL.
Gotta give credit to Holyfield. He was borderline dominated in the 1st fight and I'm sure that stung his pride. He made some adjustments and made it tougher.
I scored that one for Holyfield by 1 point.He blocked many of Lewis shots.So all in all a draw and a Lewis win was fair to me.
Holyfield had a far better performance in this fight than in first however I felt he still lost. He should have hung up the gloves after this.
Would have been a perfect time for him to go. Losing to a dominant champ and taking him the distance. Yes, he came back to beat Ruiz but by then he was well past best. The fights he lost after that, Donald, Toney, Valuev should never have happened, should have followed Lewis.
I did not have a problem with the first fight. I had Lewis winning by a couple of rounds, but as Holyfield was the champ and fighting at home, a draw seemed fair. Fight two was always going to have a Lewis bias, but in the end it did not matter Lewis deserved the win, he showed over 24 rounds he was the better fighter at the time. Personally; fight one I thought Lewis would edge it and fight two I figured Lewis would win, it was just a case of if he could get a stoppage.
