Hard to look at his record and not have him rated fairly highly. He fought everyone, he was like the Ali of his day. Winning his first heavyweight title in 90 then his last in 2000 , incredible. Beating Bowe and Tyson great achievement s. He obviously had his bad days but didn't go down hill till after his loss to Ruiz.
No doubt about it (but top-40 P4P). When he decided to box he dominated. But it seemed to bore him.. anxiety issues.. byproduct of quick twitch muscles. I compare his quick twitch muscles to Dominique Wilkins, very much. Exact same legs (but in boxing you keep your feet on the ground at all times). Somebody questioned if Holyfield could hang with super-heavyweights. He had no problems throwing punches up at Bowe, Lewis and Valuev. Throwing punches above his head.. which you're supposed to train to do, youngsters FYI. This content is protected
"Evan Fields" record will always be suspect for me. Drug cheats don't belong in the history books amongst ATGs.
Hovering around the top 10 for me, maybe just outside. That will be sacrilege to some and I do like him. He had some great wins but always lacked the consistency I would look for at top level to really rank higher.
Number 1 or 2 best CW. HW top 15 or so. He could be considered sort of a Barry Bonds. To those not familiar to Bonds, he was a great baseball player who too do many steroids his head expanded. Do Holyfield ever fail a drug test?
Very overrated because of the cultural relevance that came with beating Mike Tyson and getting his ear bit. At that point he didn't even deserve a title shot. In terms of positive stuff he was the first "CW" to jump to HW and win a belt. He had a great chin and he fought well past 45. I think Moorer was better then him but Moorer II was a great performance. He should be nowhere near the top 10. I play loose with the phrase "ATG" but top 10 is something tangible. Being .500ish in your title fights shouldn't yield you that sort of ranking.