He was a fringe heavyweight contender in the early 90's best known for being destroyed by Mike Tyson but he did have some decent moments in his career. He started off his career very well winning his first 24 fights in a row all by knock out against light opposition. He was given a very tough test for his first step up fight against Evander Holyfield and gave a pretty good account of himself. He gave Holyfield a tough fight and though overall taking a bad beating and being stopped, dished out his share of punishment. After this fight he'd score two more knock outs over light opposition and again be given a very tough fight against Mike Tyson who was on the come back trail from Buster Douglas and very motivated. Tyson came out and looked much like he did early in his career going after Stewart furiously from the opening bell. Stewart for his part looked intimidated and was dropped three times and ultimately stopped by Tyson in the first round. After that he would pick up another victory before losing a very good fight against another top notch opponent in Michael Moorer. Stewart hurt Moorer in the bout but was ultimately stopped in the 4th in a slugfest. Again he'd rebound with a victory and quickly jump in with another very tough opponent in an old George Foreman. Foreman got off to a good start scoring two quick knock downs in the second round and looked like he was going to finish off Stewart quickly but Stewart hung in there and began to mount an offense of his own. The rest of the fight from the 4th round on was action packed and fairly back and forth with Stewart busting up Foreman's face unlike anyone was ever able to do. Foreman won the decision his early round knock downs playing a huge role in this but Stewart overall fought well. After this Stewart would get a few more knockouts before his final big fight against yet another world class opponent in rematching Evander Holyfield. Stewart would go the distance with Holyfield this time, clearly losing a decision. After that fight nothing of note would go on in Stewart career. He would win a few fights in a row before losing to an unknown fighter, Craig Petersen, via of stoppage from an injury. He would go on to win and lose a few more fights before calling it quits but from what I've seen of his final fights he never looked to be in great shape likely losing desire from his early defeats. How do you guys think Alex Stewart at his best was as a fighter? He seemed in his early career to skip a step and went from fighting no names to champions instead of building himself up through fighting other up and comers and fringe contenders. This may have affected his confidence. How do you think Stewart would've done against guys like Razor Ruddock, Tommy Morrison, Bert Cooper, Ray Mercer,Frank Bruno and Bonecrusher Smith?
I saw Stewart for the first time on showtime championship boxing against Evander Holyfield in November of 1989. Prior to that, I had seen his stats and record on TV as well as in Ring magazine. Being only 15 years of age, I thought his 24-0-0-24 record was incredible, and also noticed that he had size over Holyfield.. But as the fight unfolded, it became very apparent that there was a vast difference in experience and ability between the two men.. Steward ate jab after jab and was visibly cut by the either third or fourth round. He didn't know how to tie a man up and had virtually no defense as well as shots that were telegraphed. Alex had a brief moment of success in the fifth where he had Evander stunned and was openly landing big blows. Lou Duva scolded Holy in between rounds and said " don't try and be a hero and take shots.. Get in there and punch!!!" From there on it was basically all Evander until the fight was stopped in the 8th with Stewards cuts looking like a gushing mess.. I think the best that can be said for Stewart was that he was a high end journeyman type who could occasionally give an elite fighter some trouble.. But he wasn't a true contender or anywhere near world class..
He might have pulled off a win against one or two of them on a good night, but frankly I think most of those guys would have to be favored. Every one of those men had good showings against notable opponents. Stewart rarely if ever did, with the exception of his losing effort to Foreman.
He got us Brits excited for awhile, we were even thinking of claiming him! But seriously, he looked impressive on undercards flattening those who top quality flatten. Then he gave Holyfield a real battle and looked like he had what was needed to be a top contender. The Tyson fight was very disappointing, and he never really recovered. He gave old man Foreman a fright (showed him a mirror after the fight), and Moorer got sloppy/lazy with him, but sadly the Holyfield fight was as good as it got.
I honestly don't think I can classify either of Stewart's two meetings with Holyfield as "battles." He had a few good moments in both of those fights, but truthfully, Evander was for the most part in control in both fights.
From what I remember he gave Holyfield a real fight first time around, not that I thought Holyfield was in real danger of losing, he clearly was the better fighter. But I have not watched it in decades, so I cannot be totally confident about that. Fight two was dire from what I remembered. Holyfield was not in good nick and as mentioned in my previous post, Stewart was past it.
The first fight with Holyfield was a good fight. The second fight was one of the few boring fights a prime Holyfield had. Stewart made Foreman look like Mr. Bill after a bad night.
The fifth round was the only one that I gave Stewart in the first fight. He stood his ground, but I can't call it a " battle" or a "war", the way that another person just referred to it as.
Hanwell born guy, gave foreman a terrible facial beating if i remember rightly, he looked like a gargoyle!!! Fought, a load of stiifs too.
As said he fought his fair share of stiff's and looked to have good power but for me his lack of fluid movement held him back . He always looked a little to slow and purposeful in his combinations
It certainly was a battle. Do not get we wrong it was not up there with Dokes/Holyfield, but it was a fine effort by Stewart against an awesome Holyfield.
A fine effort for a grossly outmatched opponent, I can agree with.. A battle? Not by my definition, but I won't argue semantics.
Alex Stewart was a decent fighter but whoever was handling him didn't do a good job. He was steered very badly. If I remember rightly he was given 24 bums, then Holyfield, then back to fighting bums for a couple of fights, then Tyson, then a bum or two, then undefeated Moorer ..... ridiculous. It's one thing taking that risk/payday with Holyfield, picking up the loss/experience, and then coming up with a better plan .... but throwing him in with Tyson is NOT what I'd call a better plan. They should have been in the phone book looking under "R for Ribalta" and "S for Simms (Jeff)" ... not "T for Tyson" !!
I remember the pre-fight interviews on the night of Holyfield vs Stewart I, and his management addressing the criticisms of his opposition by saying that they tried to get fights with Tillis, Berbick and Witherspoon, but weren't able to settle agreeable terms. Stewart represented Jamaica in the 1984 Olympics and thus far was undefeated in the pros.. An unbeaten heavyweight prospect with Olympic pedigree is a pretty hot ticket item, so its kinda fishy to me that they weren't able to get him better fights by the time he was around 15-0 to 18-0, yet they didn't seem to have problems getting him paydays with the elite of the division and on a fairly regular basis.. This tells me that they protected him and groomed him as a cash cow and not so much about making him a champion or being blatantly incompetent. Hence he was sort of following a similar career template to that of Gerry Cooney's, to a lesser extent.
He did sort of give a good account of himself, definitely the first fight, but your right, M, i don't see him giving Holyfield battles as such. I liked Alex tho, he did fit right in with the times.
