ATG: Who Ranks Higher? Holyfield or Hopkins?

holyfield for me

 

Both are cheats. Although Hopkins bends the rules, I have respect for him.

Evander is worse.
He knew exactly what he was doing when he headbutted Tyson to an emotional breakdown in the ring.

 

Cmon. What about his past accomplishments. Undisputed cruiserweight champion. Four time heavyweight champion?? I believe he became a bit of a cheater to compensate for his diminsihed skills, but his previous resume speaks for itself.

 

Holyfield imo

 

Ok, I was being unfair. My mind is still fresh from re-watching the Tyson-Holyfield fight.

After that fight I thought Tyson was some kind of animal. But years later after re-watching I can see what Holyfield did to wind him up to exploding point.

I'm not excusing what Tyson did as it's inexcusable but I can see why he lost it now.

Onto the topic. I think Holyfield has a better resume. Hopkins has amazing skills and what he is doing at 40 something is legendary.

BUT his biggest wins have been against smaller men (De La Hoya, Trinidad and Pavlik) and his biggest losses, when he really needed to pull something special out he did not do enough to win. He lost his biggest fights - Calzaghe and Taylor x 2.

And he lost to Roy Jones Jr but you could argue Hopkins was a bit green.

Evander ranks higher at the moment but he is finished. Hopkins is still very much still in the mix.

Although if Hopkins beats a prime, hungry big Light Heavyweight like Dawson I'll say Hopkins.

 

STFU dude....Tyson is the biggest cheat of anyone....

 

Holy for me is in the top 5 OAT , that puts him higher than Hopkins .

 

than why do you have him as your avatar?:huh

 

Four times heavyweight champion also means he lost the title three times. His comebacks against the odds showed his great heart, but not necessarily his dominance. Holyfield won one out of five against the two best opponents in his career, Bowe an Lewis. He is also 1 - 1 with Moorer and 1 - 1 - 1 with Ruiz.

Hopkins dominated Trinidad, Tarver, Pavlik, three younger top fighters. He jumped two weight classes at age 41 to annihilate Tarver. Holyfield fought hard battles against any elite opponent who was in shape. Holyfield had a great career, but he didn't dominate the division and wasn't the best HW of his era. Hopkins is the greater fighter, Evander is the greater warrior.

 

I dont think there is anything Hopkins can do to pass Holyfield.

 

Holyfield has the better resume but Hopkins only lost once decisively and that was to a prime Roy Jones. That saids a lot.

I say tie. They were both great.

 

I would say that Hopkins' biggest win was Tarver, jumping two weightclasses and completely owning a bigger man was amazing. So the argument that Hopkins' bets wins are against smaller men questionable.

Holyfield won the title from a fat, unfocused Buster Douglas. He lost to Moorer when Moorer was in shape and beat the fat version. His wins against Foreman and Holmes came against ancient versions of these fighters. So you can always discredit big wins in each fighter's career. I would say that Holyfield has more losses than Hopkins and fewer impressive, dominant wins over favored opponents. You could also say he lost the biggest fights of his career, against Lewis, the fights that would determine who best HW of this era was.

 

I pick Hopkins though, to remain champ of a good division for ten years and take out all of the best fighters in it, then to move up and take out Tarver, then take out an unbeaten Pavlik, it's really impressive. Hopkins only losses (besides the first fight of his career) were to top p4p fighters, two of whome are ATG, and all of his losses were debateable (except the Jones one). Holyfield meanwhile has 10 losses and some of them were to mediocre fighters, I mean he lost to John Ruiz!

 

Two of my favorite fighters, but I have to say Holyfield takes this not by a mile, but clearly.