Now I know I may be lambasted for this but do you guys think Holyfield gave up in some of his losses especially when he was out of gas? I know Mike Tyson gets a lot of flack for giving up but Holyfield did give best on a few occasions to me. Fair enough he might have not had much in the tank but it was not always a case of him going out on his shield, contrary to popular belief.
I should have worded it better, not quit in the sense of refusing to fight but in a sense of giving up and accepting your loss. This is not a knock against his character but I don't think it's true that he went out on his shield every time. I'll post all of his losses and let you decide for yourselves. This content is protected
In the absence of any specific examples of Holyfield phoning it in, I'd put his latter career lack of intensity down to age, stamina and not being able to pull the trigger in the same way as when he was younger. There was a gradual decline in punch output from the first Moorer fight onwards; he compensated for a while with increased strength, bulk and one-punch power, but there was a big drop-off in workrate by the late 90s from what we saw in his early days at heavyweight. This was evident even in his wins. Holyfield declining with age like most fighters do, seems the more likely explanation than him giving up mentally.
Holyfield gave a exclusive interview for Aust paper ( Mon ) this is a abstract '' I remember the last time i fought in 2011. I was sparring a kid who was 18 yrs old and he was bashing me. I found myself getting hit first. I had to be on the defence a lot and work out what i had to do to protect myself and not get hurt. I sparred with him for about six weeks, then i went ahead and ko the guy out. But i knew that was it. I had found somebody i didn't want to fight. I wasn't angry. I knew my time was up. " Doesn't sound like a quitter to me competitive to the end.
