Could Evander Holyfield make it 49-0 in the 50s?

Walcott
Charles
Satterfield
Thompson
Brion
Has some other halfway decent wins as well. Who had a better top five?

 

Layne was small, slow, physically weak and had a leaky defense. He would get slaughtered in the 1980's. No one watching the sport as competition and not as some cosplay activity would think otherwise. His win over Charles was a travesty in rendering a verdict. The Walcott he beat would win only two more fights in his long, long career. The fact that this inconsistent journeyman (as described repeatedly by his contemporaries) was able to grab the crown in that time only underscores how lacking his era was.

 

I think we can all agree the Charles win was robbery. Satterfield was not ranked. Box rec is playing up I'll try and get back to you.

 

I don't.

I would put it more in the class of "controversial decision."

 

Why am I not surprised?

 

He wasn't even ranked...then he went off to jail. Where all this "He was ducking Sonny Liston"crap comes from lately.....the younger crowd I guess...

 

It was a close fight. And he had close fights w Baker, Lastarza, and others. He was a good fighter. Satterfield was a good fighter then. I don’t think that’s fair criticism. I thought the easier argument was Thompson was on the way down which was true. Charles was close and Satterfield was obviously a prime fighter. I get it he sucked really bad after Marciano which hurts his all time rankingsz. But in that short five year window or so he was a force.

 

I think the Qawi fight Comeback Foreman had got about as good as he was going to be. He certainly got his weight lower and looked as good physically as he ever did on his comeback.

I disagree that Comeback Foreman was a bad matchup for Marciano. I think the younger version would have been more of a problem because young George had more of an offence to compensate for the lack of defence Old George had against all the right hands he caught from Qawi.

 

Because you have your blind spots!

 

Oh, hell yes.

He should have won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics by KO'ing every opponent (which he would have, except for..). He should have KO'd Tyson II inside six/eight rounds in 1997 (which he would have, probably earlier.. except for..).

Holyfield is underrated because of THOSE TWO situations.

'Now aint no cruiserweight ****ing with Holyfield. Marciano > and Usyk (why not?), must be prepared for hard punches from all angles. Too much heavy counterpunch (plus Holyfield could lead if he felt like it.. very underrated.. boxer/puncher.. I WOULD like to see Holyfield 1990 -Foreman 1973.. oops.. Holyfield lead right).

 

Layne was ranked no6 in1950,no 2 in1952, and no 7 in 1954. Where do you get the 5 year window from?Satterfield had won7 of his last 12 fights when Layne upset him and would lose his next 2.

 

Well, Rocky was much of the time a swarmer...

 

3* year. Went back and checked you’re right was a shorter window.
One can watch Satterfield on film and obviously see for themselves that he was prime. He already had wins over Lee Oma Oakland billy smith and others. A year later he would beat Harold Johnson and later Baker. Let’s not pretend he wasnt any good. Using the rankings at the time to take the win down a notch isn’t a rational/fair argument in this particular case.
That being said there isn’t a contender from the 80s with a better five names.

 

He'd been back for a year after 10 years off when he faced Qawi and hadn't faced anyone of any quality whatsoever earlier in his comeback, so I definitely think he was still improving. Qawi was the first fighter above club level he'd faced for 11 years and he knocked him out without any real problems, so I think it's a bit grasping to bring him up as proof of something.

The younger Foreman would be more of a problem for Rocky, but I think the version that faced Holy still beats him. He had that jab and uppercut and an iron jaw, and Rocky would be pushed back which I don't think would suit him.

 

About the best performance of comeback George against a guy who offered resistance was probably between the Holyfield and Pierre Coetzer fight. But when you analyse these two performances, there is nothing there he wasn’t already doing as well as he was doing against Qawi. Whatever way you look at comeback George it’s still a Relaxed past prime fighter Using best of what he has left against smaller men. Amazing veteran who always would be quite limited against elite fighters. We will have to agree to disagree here.