Evander Holyfield's achievements are extremely underrated. This is a natural CW who fought at LHW in the Olympics, to go onto become a 4x HW champion (should be 5x but was robbed against Valuev) - fighting & beating some of the best HW fighters in history. He had speed, skills, respectable power, chin, heart stamina & work-rate - & despite being undersized, he was competitive & problematic even for skilled & powerful SHW's (Foreman, Bowe, Lewis), letting them know he wasn't gonna be easy or pushed around by them. This man was capable of beating any HW who ever lived & at the least would be a serious threat for them all in a h2h, prime for prime battle. * My bad. He fought at LHW not SMW in the Olympics. Still a very impressive feat he would go onto achieve.
He was one of my all time favorites but I wish he would have hung up the gloves after the Lewis fights. He took a lot of punishment in his career and I hope it doesn't come back to haunt him in his later days but with that said, prime Holyfield was certainly something to behold. By the time he fought in the 84' Olympics, he was already a complete fighter thanks to a long amauter career that was quite impressive. He truly was the Real Deal.
Yes, he's a living legend. He's up their with the greats at Heavyweight imo. At his best, put him up against anyone and they come out knowing they've being in a absolute war!
It's a great shame he didn't retire after the Lewis loss, that would have been perfect timing. Losing to Toney, Donald etc, should never hv happened.
I am a huge Holyfield fan, too. He also must be one of the strongest mentally to ever do it. He did not seem to have any fear whatsoever.
I disagree that he would have a chance at ALL heavyweights that ever lived in a H2H, as Sonny Liston and '67 Ali could probably beat him with some difficulty. But yes Evander was definitely underrated. I believe that he could have beaten Mike Tyson at any point in Mike's career, even during his days with Rooney.
If he would have retired after the second Lewis fight ...most people would have him in their top 5 at heavyweight....I truly believe that
YES! What a resume he has! And I thoroughly enjoyed watching his career. I probably rate him higher than most do. I have him at #3 on my all-time Heavyweight list, right behind Ali and Louis. Holy was the complete package! I firmly believe that most will rate him higher as time goes on. It was also that way with Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. They needed to be retired for quite a while before people recognized what they had seen.
Legacy wise he is top 3 all time at Heavyweight, you could even make a case for him in the top spot, purely legacy wise... Style and skill wise and h2h matchups, he is probably top 7 to 10 all time greatest HW Great, great champion indeed
I have Holy only behind Ali, Louis, and Holmes as ATGreatest. He won the title what...four times? Who else has done that? He knocked the bejesus out of the guy who knocked the bejesus out of prime Tyson, whupped Tyson twice (past Holy's prime!!!) and stood up to a red hot Lewis for two fights and even made a fight out of both. In his prime he was breath taking.
