Holyfield beat a better version of Foreman than Ali did

Or - counterpoint - he'd be fighting against bigger and much harder hitting opposition than in the 70s which would find the holes in his aggressive reckless style and put him to sleep a few times too.

 

The big thing Foreman gets credit for in the 90s was beating Moorer. And he was losing until Moorer got dumb, stood toe to toe with him, and Foreman set him up for a perfect shot. (Watching in slow-mo, it was a brilliant subtle setup and guard pull)

For me, a funny takeaway I have from 90s Foreman was how damn good of a jabber he was when he actually decided to box for points right at the end. It suggests he could have fought more like that and maybe avoided losing to Ali and Young. Jab would have been quicker and stiffer when he was young, and to be able to follow that up with sledgehammer rights, damn.

Holmes didn’t have Foreman’s power so he had more limited success (although he did look great against Mercer and Holyfield). The thing he did show though, more than Foreman (because he didn’t have the power to bail himself out of a fight he was losing), was that the skills of guys in his era were not inferior. He was an outboxer who had lost his ability to box from range because age took his legs, forced to become a canny mid and close range fighter, a pure boxer type who had lost his agility due to age and had lost some of his hand speed, and yet he still took a gold medalists 0, won 4 rounds against an ATG, and came damn close in two more title fights. His relative competitiveness was the proof that his era was good. If Holyfield was one of the most skilled guys of his era, what does it say that a degraded Holmes was looking capable of winning on the cards (before old man cardio got the best of him)? A prime Holmes would have beaten Holyfield, and would have scored shutouts (or close) against McCall and Nielsen.

 

I do tend to think there’s a real possibility a prime Tyson or Lewis would have found a hole, and they were way better finishers than Lyle.

of course there’s also a real possibility he’d have taken their heads off before they found said hole.

 

Why is Frazier doing a dance in the middle of a boxing match??

 

Holyfield fought ALL of the 90s top heavyweights?? I don't remember a Bruno or Ruddock or Morrison on his resume

 

A younger Foreman was far better at cutting off the ring and would come straight at Morrison with more speed and aggression.

There is no way Morrison could repeat his ultra defensive approach that he did vs 40+ year old Foreman and not get tagged at some point by a prime Foreman.

 

I agree about defense but I think that he used to cut ring better in his prime.

 

I don't think so.

Holmes had easier time with Holyfield,Mercer and McCall than against Norton, and he was old against those.

 

There is however, a way that Morrison gets to the smaller Foreman first and stretches him out with his fearsome left hook. Morrison is probably the wrong guy that you want to get into a shootout with.

 

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Norton was a damn hard fight for anyone without top tier power. He was a good chin away from being an ATG.

 

Hard fight for boxers but for good fighters no, and that's was prime Holmes against past prime Norton, and Norton gave him tougher fight than anyone in the 90s which shows how good was 70s era.

 

A stiff breeze could knock Morrison over.

 

Nah. I mean, his chin wasn't exactly iron but he took shots from punchers without folding right away. Even Foreman landed some decent shots and he was still there. Tommy's big problem was gassing out. I agree that once he was gassed he became much easier to mop up.