Well, he didn't make it past the first round, so.... we'll never know now will we? Personally I think you're delusional. While not great in the grand scheme of things, Belfort's skill set is adequate enough to hang with any 70-year-old even former great boxer.
He did'nt get past the first round because the ref panicked and stopped the fight even while Belfort's last several punches completely missed. They can fight it over 100 times and Holyfield will never see past the 1st round in any of them if you have a ref who is not going to take punches landing into consideration and simply stop the fight on aggression alone.
Holyfield would lose no matter how many rounds he managed to survive. A half connected punch was able to hurt him and made him wobbled all over the place so when your punching resistance completely gone, you have no business to be in the ring. A mid 40 guy also naturally possess more stamina than a 58 year old (very close 59). Ali in his last fight looks faster than Holyfield in all his recent training footage.
Kinda sad situation because Holy said he trained for 2 years for this. His aggression, will, and legs seem gone. He was fighting a non boxing pro, smaller than him basically and I thought he'd try something, be first, and do some 1-2's if nothing else. He wasn't in it mentally or physically, and all Belfort did was put some basic combos together. Holy got tagged and wasn't answering but the ref stopped it too quickly. He worked for 2 years, give him a chance to make it out of the 1st round. The whole card sucked pretty much. Belfort - Silva next would be good, boxing rematch, can also throw in De La Hoya against either.
Any ref that let that carry on simply wouldn't have been doing his job Panic? Nope just used common sense
Geez!!! you had a senior citizen wobbled by the first half azz punch he was hit with and you want it to continue? This was not Evander Holyfield, it was an old man trying to make a buck off of idiots who'd pay money and still think he can fight. My hats off to Belfort for putting an end to it quickly instead of dancing around for 8 rounds in an even worse farce
There's still a lot of boxing fans with a laughably low almost cartoonish view of MMA fighters. Belfort has always had good hands for an MMA fighter, is 15 years younger, and JUICED to the gills. The result of this one was very easy to predict, Holyfield is lucky that the ref stepped in when he did.
No, stop it. He went down because even a partial connect wobbled a sixty year old man. Divac: This content is protected
Holyfield a skilled ex champion had balance issues like bambi on ice, and that was without the aid of Belforts punches actually connecting, his neuro system was completely gone, the punches landing speeded up and confirmed that process. The ref saved Holyfield from serious harm, with Holyfields obvious neurological deficits a full on knockout through heavy trauma eg Belforts punches, would have had life changing effects for Holyfield.
Still quite surprised by the result tbh. I m not too sure of belfor...never really heard much of him know hes ufc but dont think he,d boxed before barring one fight. But expected holyfield to be able to manage him...even at 58. Holyfield was solid in his prime...trained every single day at boxing. You,d think even at 58 he,d have too much know how etc to lose in the manner that he did. Although tbf i think holyfields struggled with the rigours of boxing....his brains probably too slow for it now. I,d still expect a 58 year old in decent health ex boxing pro to batter a 44 year old ufc guy at boxing 9 times out of ten. Maybe it is just an age thing tho.
Belfort is one of the freak athletes in combat sport, he was pumped full of steroids. In his prime he was one of the most powerful fighters in MMA.
Belfort would have been a legitimate boxer had he decided to go that route, high level journeyman or fringe contender at the very least.
Imo it did'nt look like the punch wobbled him more than Holyfield trying to react in getting away from the punch. How do I know this you say? Look at the seconds after that punch connects, Holyfield's legs are fine, he's not wobbling. A bit later in the round Belfort throws a combination that from recollection does'nt even land, yet Holyfield went down from a push/attempting to get away from the combination. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Holyield said before the fight he did'nt do any sparring to get ready for the fight. In hindsight that was a bad idea not to have sparred with some sparring partners that were at least on par with the speed of Belfort so that he could get re-acclimated to seeing speed better than his coming at him. Sure Holyfield has been in the gym for two years staying in shape, hitting the bag and working the pads, but thats certainly not the same as getting re-acclamated to actual boxing in a ring with sparring partners. He took the fight on short notice and so maybe he thought Belfort was'nt skilled enough where he needed sparring work for the fight.
