Evander Holyfield - "small" heavyweight?

Bowe was a bit of a big heavyweight, though, graded on the large curve.

Holyfield happened to give up some size in a few of his most famous and highly publicized encounters, but as illustrated in my original post almost half of his opponents at heavyweight alone were smaller vertically, and a good number of his opponents also weighed about the same or a little less.

Whether he was a natural 210-220lbs or bulked himself up is irrelevant...he wore the extra muscle quite well and did not sacrifice any athletic integrity. In fact he was quite agile and fluid for such a well-muscled heavyweight and this probably gave him an advantage over opponents who weighed more but had more fatty tissue.

Other than genetic freaks and fat slobs, Holyfield is perfectly average by every metric. His height certainly is average for a modern heavyweight, and his weight - regardless of how he came to weigh it - is the ideal of what a well-conditioned heavyweight of his height ought to weigh. and was probably above average in muscle mass compared to fat. That isn't a disadvantage and doesn't make him "small".

 

:good

There was a growing trend for a while to cast him in that light, as the perennial underdog, by making him out to be this minuscule cruiser who said his prayers, ate his vitamins and lifted some weights and through sheer will and hard work caked on enough brawn to rumble on even terms with guys twice his size on a regular basis in a division at which he never had any business competing, let alone excelling. Pure fantasy.

What always struck me as odd was that none of those same people would extend that 'extra credit' Tyson's way. He wasn't some tiny,plucky giantslayer, but Holyfield was. :blood

Dude was a ginormous cruiser.

 

Holy : HW :: GGG : MW

Both bang on average. :good

 

Sure, but even though he did happen to start at cruiser you don't consider him small compared with, say, Byrd, do you?

Contradictorily, I've seen many claim that Byrd could've started & reigned at cruiser yet nobody ever seems to give him the extra kudos that Holyfield gets for clawing their way to HW titles whilst undersized and lacking a proper HW punch (truer for Byrd than it was for Holy!)

...and Chris far more often found himself in the giantslayer role on the wrong end of size mismatches. He fought K2 thrice, Ike, TOS, McCline, Golota, Ribalta (granted, not all elites but all contenders at the least...and numerically that all squares to more than compensate for a Bowe trilogy and pair with Lewis, with the brothers adding some legitimacy in terms of quality) - I think his only substantial advantage in size over a name opponent, ever, was Cooper?

Hell, nobody even sings his praises for bravely, past his prime, getting in the ring with a prime Sasha, who bullied him with size as much as youth and skill - and most objective people in moments of sober clarity agree that Holyfield is roughly of a size with Povetkin!! (literally to within half an inch, with Holy actually the larger man going by official tale of tape...and Holy's natural frame is closer to Povetkin's than Byrd's, weightlifting bulk notwithstanding)

 

Hooray, validation!

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Don't just repeat the bare essence of the stance against which I've constructed a meticulous polemic without addressing the key arguments or providing new insights! :beat