1988 Tyson vs 1990 Holyfield

Holyfield KO 11, Holy was just as quick, more athletic, fluid, disciplined, and more stamina, and HEART! Holy wouldn't be intimidated by Tyson, if anything i think Mike was scared of Holy...

They were supposed to fight in the fall of 1991, but Tyson chickened out, even admitted it in his own book...:deal

When they finally met in 1996, Holyfield beat his ass even thou he was 4 years older and had a lot more ring wear and brutal fights, and we don't want to talk about the rematch:-(

Holyfield overall was more superior in every way, SMARTER, MORE HEART, MORE ATHLETIC, BETTER ALL AROUND BOXER, ENDURANCE, and fought and beat better fighters..

Holy's only problem is he didn't know when to quit...

 

In this scenario,I see Tyson stopping Holyfield somewhere between the fourth and seventh rounds. The 1988 Tyson would stun Holyfield with fast accurate shots and The Real Deal would n't be evasive enough to avoid most of them.


Shame,because I'd have wanted Holyfield to win.

 

88 Tyson would beat him up lets not forget it took Holy 11 rounds to beat Post-jail Tyson whilst Holy was active and obviously NOT a shot fighter Tyson was nothing like he used to be the tape shows all, he looks nothing like the fighter of pre-jail, plus he thought everyone hated him he wasn't the proud fighter he used to be.

 

Holyfield wasn't prime either.

 

Steward claimed holyfield never shut up about how bad he wanted to beat Tyson, aparently its all he ever talked about in traning in 89, 90,91,92 was how much he wanted to beat him after that incident in the olympics, in fact Holyfield's career goal was to one day beat Mike Tyson.

The thing is, holyfield had the will, but so did Tyson at that point, he was a warrior ready to go out on his shield (example the Douglas fight he never stopped coming forward never showed any emotion never stopped fighting until the end).

Holyfield had lots of wars becuase he's much easier to hit than Tyson and he's smaller and easier to rough up, naturally with that style he has to display his heart much more often. Tyson didn't have to display his heart so often becuase of his skill level, no-one could get him into a war, when they did he showed alot of heart (Douglas, that 8th round knockdown might have gone down in history like Maricanos KO of Walcott, and the Ruddock fights).
Tyson was never the same fighter after prison he wasn't the same warrior he had been.
Also...
Douglas, Holyfield and Lewis all had one thing in common when the faced Tyson, they were all at the emotional and physcial height of their careers, whilst Tyson was somewhat the opposite, for Holy and Lewis their wins over Tyson are pretty much what defines their greatness which is saying something.

 

Holyfield was 34 years old with on and off health issues. He had fought only once in the previous year against an overmatched boby Cyz while Tyson had dispatched four fighters within that same time frame.. Evander looked like hell against Riddick Bowe the previous November. He was past his best..

 

Il repeat, Holyfield was at the physical and emotional peak of his career when he fought Tyson, he trained vigourously for 12 weeks this was the one he'd wanted all his life, it meant EVERYTHING to him, he OBVIOUSLY wasn't far past his best those rumours are made redundant by his perfomance in the first fight he looked pretty good to me.
You might know abit about the history but from what Iv'e heard from you so far your'e not the smartest fight analyst.
Besides it doesn't matter the topic is about the fight 88 Tyson vs 1990 Holyfield.

 

LOL@ you for telling people what you think they know about boxing. I followed both of those guys growing up religiously, and it was the consensus of nearly everyone in 1996 that Evander was the one who was washed up... Not Tyson.. There were even some who feared for his health..The fact that he had Tyson's number stylistically doesn't change the fact that he was just as, if not further past it, but the eventuality of the matter has you fooled.

 

I think a 4year 2 month layoff for a fighter in their prime years not doing any boxing training of any kind is worse preperation than what Holyfield had. Tyson had to start from scratch again look at his training, especially the heavybag workouts before Holyfield and compare them to pre-jail, nothing alike, these are extremely indictive of the vast decline in technique he had suffered, not to mention his chin he had to re-adjust to taking punches which is not good.

 

Yeah, Holyfield was damaged by 1996.
Look at the fights he had before that. He'd been through it.

He got himself up for Tyson, performed way above most expectations, but he always would have.

 

Holyfield was the LESS active of the two within the previous year going into that fight, and was 4 years older. He had health issues of varying sorts over the years and in truth, wasn't all that busy during the time Tyson was away. The third Bowe fight put the lid on his career as far as a lot of people were concerned. Tyson was expected to kill Holyfield.. Trust me on this. I was 22 years old in the fall of '96 when that fight came off and an avid follower of both their careers from the beginning..

 

Ditto, people seem to conveniently forget Holyfield had heart problems, before 1996, was beaten up 2x by Bowe, and looked very sluggish against little Bob Czyz a former middleweight, in his previous fight:deal
By 1996, Holy was way past his prime, and already a worn 34 years old..

 

I remember reading were kevin rooney said he would have love to train mike for holyfield.

that every time holyfield lead with his head he would of had mike punish him.

He said that he really thinks mike from 86-88 would stop holyfield in 5