Did Holyfield Adding Weight As He Moved Up Help or Hinder Him?

His punching power went up but his skill level in other areas went down. He was never the same after Moorer 1.

 

He bulked up further in between the first 2 Bowe's fights. It helped him in that situation as Gil Clancy noticed he was able to move Bowe back and hurt him. I think it may have cost him some speed but IMO he began to fight like a heavyweight. Not wasting as many punch perhaps sitting down more on his punches.

I think being bigger certainly made a difference against Tyson. He pushed Mike back was able to more than hold his own on the inside.
It was a positive. Not as pretty to watch but style points don't count.

 

Ultimately, his bank account, ergo quality of life outside the ring benefitted from him bulking up. So big win there. Also, despite bulking up he was still a naturally smaller man and therefore better able to maneuver and move than most of his opponents. Not much case can be made for him staying at cruiser. Financially it would have been stupid and he'd cleaned out the division besides. Onward and upward, etc.

 

His sole victory over Bowe was at 217 i think ? But he weighed the most out of his win out of 3 fights!

Make out of that as you will........

Answer is it helped him at HW...but was a better cruiser.

 

The answer that most seem to be alluding to is that it aided him and made him more successful at the higher weights - and I agree.

 

Overall it made him a more "effective" fighter.

 

Good question and a little hard to answer. To a degree it aided him ,seemed to make him hang better with fellow heavy s .Seemed to give him more punching power slightly .For the era he was mixing in it looked right ,he looked the part .But it slowed him down that's for sure. The smaller Holy field seemed to have more bounce to him with out the added weight. But if I'm truthful I don't see a smaller EH being as successful with out the added packing. Not in the era of super s .

 

CWs dont really lose much going uyp because they are proportionally pretty much the same as HWs.

 

He thought it did guess that's what counts....probably would have done as well with a few more pushups chinups...one of a handful of boxers who may have benefited from weights etc i think...exception to the rule

 

With Evander robust style of boxing it definitely did help him like it did Michael Spinks. EH wouldn't have been able to out muscle Tyson with the extra bulk or be so competitive at HW.

 

Roids helped him

 

Helped him, and without a doubt.

He wouldn't have had the success he'd had at heavyweight (remember, it was an era of juicers) at the top end, nor the extraordinary longevity he'd had without some chemical assistance to give him bulk while minimizing the drawbacks that typically come with bulking up. That was simply the price of doing business at that level.

 

Yep, he gained muscle to deal with the bigger stronger heavyweights like Bowe but his boxing lagged....he had the speed and skills where he could have outsped most big men but when he fought Bowe he ran into a big man with the boxing skills and inside superiority due to the size and strength he lacked.....IMO he was a fighter first and a boxer second which was a double edged sword for him he needed the size to survive his instinct to fight.