he would have beat Holyfield in their first fight if Atlas and/or Rooney were his trainer/corner from one of the angles of the replay of the headbutt it looks like it's actually Tyson that's going for the headbutt at 7:17, it looks like Tyson bails on the right and lunges in with a headbutt This content is protected
1991 Tyson loses a UD. Mike looks great early on and manages to knock Holy down anywhere from the 1st to 3rd. After that he sees Holy's not going anywhere and slows up. By the 5th he's dialed it way back and is getting hit more. He progressively gets outworked, and begins to get overwhelmed in the 10th. The last two rounds hes suffered swelled eyes, one from a butt and one from that left hook. By the 12th Holy is potshotting him, but he doesn't have the bulk to finish him (he did later, by whatever means). Mike is near blind at the end. The average is Holy by 5 points ahead.
The fight was signed and didn’t happen bc Tyson hurt his ribs. Holyfield went life and death with Cooper instead.
Holyfield was consistently growing bigger and stronger. In an early 90s tale of the tape for instance his neck was listed as 17.5. By mid 90s it’s said to be ‘over 20 inches’ in commentary. He probably doesn’t absorb a shaper Tyson’s power.