A better heart; Holyfield or Frazier?

Evander has the bigger heart imo but he has the weaker heart in terms of physically. But then I'm biased . I grew up watching commander vander instead of just hearing stories about smoking Joe.

 

Dead heat.

 

After Frazier knocked out the man who bit his ear, he'd be knocking on that guy's door that night.

 

I don’t think there’s a difference between most guys who want it. Everyone has fights they don’t “want” bad enough.

 

For what it's worth Holyfield was the one fighter Frazier praised for having the heart of a champion, he criticized other champs of the era such as Tyson, Bowe, and Douglas for being complacent after winning the title.

 

Well, Fraizer never pretended that he had heart disease to excuse a loss.

 

The third Ali fight in Manila would be another good example. Frazier was past it at that point, and it was over 100 degrees...some estimates had it around 120 degrees in the ring with the TV lights and all. That 14th round was an incredible display by Frazier (both guys, really). Frazier was exhausted, getting battered, and his legs were mostly gone, but he kept coming forward trying to land that left hook. Probably not too many Heavyweights since that would have been willing to endure what Frazier did that night, but prime Holyfield may have been one of them. Still think Frazier edges Holyfield out slightly in this category, but these two make for a good debate...

 

Well literally, Joe’s heart never went dicky on him as Evander’s did - and that was likely a byproduct of butt boy’s sideline indulgence.

At best, they both appeared to display unconditional heart - so if the unconditional label is correct in both their cases, then their hearts cannot be separated -

If you pushed further to split them - you could perhaps go to the physical impairments that Joe was also subject to during his career - and the fact that Joe didn’t play the Field on PEDs -

Even if they were more readily available in Frazier’s day, while it’s a guess and perhaps biased, I tend to believe that Joe still wouldn’t have signed up for them.

 

How Frazier kept getting back up I’ll never know. If Ali had taken those exact same shots (arguably the hardest Foreman ever landed), I’d have a hard time believing that Ali would still be on his feet at the end, as Joe was. Joe had very good whiskers but his heart/will were both off the charts.

 

Lol, I just noticed the close date for this poll.

Get in quick fellas/ladies before it shuts down.

 

Bit rich coming from Joe who got fat and spent his time touring with his band once he fought Ali, contenting himself with two fights in two years against Ron Stander and Terry Daniels. He was the definition of complacency and that's why Foreman's demolition job comes with a slight caveat.

Jo's rightly getting a lot of love in this thread but let's be realistic here.

 

Yes, let’s all continue to live long and prosper, the final tally for this is one not to be missed. Trending well for Joe atm, but majority opinion could well change over the course of the next 65 years.

 

At the time he beat Ali, Joe had 7 title defenses since winning a portion of the title against Buster Mathis in 1968 and becoming undisputed by beating Jimmy Ellis in 1970. It was understandable he took it easy from there as he had conquered everything to get to the top and there wasn't going any higher aside from perhaps an Ali rematch. Joe had ongoing health problems after FOTC hence why he took the 2 easy defenses to get himself back into the game. Rarely have there been champions who don't make easy defenses at least in-between big fights. Also, his management didn't want him to take the Foreman fight knowing it was a bad matchup, but Joe wanted it anyway.