Does anyone find Tyson vs. Holyfield I very overrated?

I didn't realize that people really rate Tyson-Holyfield all that highly. It was a major, major sporting event almost a decade in the making though, so a lot of us who were boxing fans at the time still think of it as being a big deal. Many of us were in denial about how far Tyson had fallen by '96 (even though nobody admits it now), so a lot of people thought it was more important than it actually was. But I'm not sure people really discuss it as an amazing fight.

Bowe-Holyfield is the benchmark for great 90s heavyweight title fights, by the way.

 

It was a massive upset. Nobody doubted Holyfield's greatness after witnessing such a comeback. It was like Ali-Foreman in that respect.

 

I see it as a relatively good fight but light years away from being one of the "greatest heavyweight slugfests of all time."

 

A lot of it was hype.

I was in primary school and everyone in my class was talking about it in the buildup.

Literally everyone.

You just don't see that any more with boxing.

 

Michael Moorer v Bert Cooper was far better

 

There was a lot of hype but it was a great fight in it's own right.

It was a big shock seeing the bully get bullied, the fight was quite competitive until Tyson got cut.

After that incident his heart just sank and he seemed to accept fate. Although the knockdown was from a body shot it helped worsen Tyson's mental fragility.

 

I think that the Tyson fans wanted this fight to have taken place before Buster Douglas had fought Mike Tyson in a heavyweight mega fight clash, the magic would have been there for the boxing public, but Douglas and prison ruined that potential clash of boxing's giants. !996 was just too late, compared to 1990. It left too much to the imagination for us fight fans.

 

FOTY, really? Wow, I don't see it as that. Tyson kind of started folding rounds before the end.

This is the way I saw it. People tell me how much ring wear Tyson had at that time.....so Holy's wars weren't at least as debilitating? Getting knocked the crap out of by Bowe after two no-tomorrow fights...?

Holy was even older than MIke. And he knocked him silly, in sensational fashion.

 

Imo Mike would have gotten his head handed to him by Holyfield in 89-90 anyway.