Evander Holyfield vs Lennox Lewis in their primes?

What about Lewis, less than stella prime performances: Mavrovic, Akinwande, Butler, Tucker, Bruno, Fortune, Briggs.. If McCall and Rahman can put Lewis lights-out, then Holyfield smashes his lamp into a million pieces.

 

It doesn't work like that because fighters are static and sometimes they just do enough to win. If you followed your logic to it's conclusion than the rematch between Rahman and Lewis would have ended exactly like the first fight. It's not good only fight good enough to get the victory, but at the end of the day, that's all that matters on that particular night. So no, it doesn't work like that.

 

I watched it and unless you know what's normal for amateur fighting it's hard to say if it was a bull **** stoppage or not. Certainly if it was a professional fight, I would agree, but they protect fighters much more in the amateurs. I will say I think he hurt Bowe but I also think Bowe could have continued. Also I don't recall Bowe protesting the stoppage at all, but it's been so long since I last saw it, I could be mistaken.

 

I think prime 4 prime the most likely scenario is Holy by decision, but either man can win this.

The KO is highly unlikely in this fight. Lewis would not underestimate Holyfield, Evander won't underestimate Lennox, too. Holy's got an iron chin, and Lewis chin is far from bad. So 12 rounds everytime they fight.

 

You need to go back and watch it and see how corrupt the entire debacle was. Bowe was warned more than 15 times in the opening round. He was even warned for landing a punch on Lewis, and as soon as Lewis landed a decent shot, the corrupt referee stopped it. I have read various theories of how it was down to the scoring at the previous Olympics, but it was certainly a corrupt stoppage.

 

Holyfield would grind out a decision.

In his prime, he was too dynamic, quick and relentless for Lewis to handle.

 

I think Holyfield struggled a bit with tall jabbers . Under Manny Steward he would have always had a solid game plan to win . Holyfield said he couldn't get past Lewis jab ,i thought Lewis won both fights . If Lewis fought the lighter Holyfield of the early 1990's i think he knocks him out , Holyfield had a huge neck in those fights and he always had a great chin but Lewis takes this imop 4 out of 5 times .

 

I kind of agree with that, Holyfield's prime was 89/93 whereas Lewis' prime is quite hard to pin down, Steward made him a more complete fighter but i suspect he may have peaked as an athlete prior to Steward's involvement, the night he faced Ruddock was probably Lewis' finest moment. Holy would out work him in a close affair and win either by late round stoppage or split decision.

 

Pretty bad if you are the only top 10 heavy weight to have been taken out by D level fighters by single shots to the face in fights you havent even faced any punishment in. He himself keeps mentioning "He threw a great punch which my chin got in the way off", "This is the heavy weight division, anyone can end things with one punch", "We are 2 big guys and we both can finish things with one punch".

These are statements which the likes of Ali, Foreman, Holyfield, Tyson would never even make even if someone puts a gun to their head. I have never seen a tough warrior ever make such statements.

 

This is rubbish, Lewis is not gods gift on Earth that he is going to knock evander out. Tyson couldn't do it, Bowe couldnt do it, Foreman couldn't do it, Mercer couldn't do it, Hasim Rahman (the so called wrecking ball Lenni Nut huggers claim to state) could not do it with the same single right hands to Holyfield's face but Lenni Chinny cant take a punch to the face Lewi will do it.

Puhleez

 

Tyson has made statements to this effect. UFC fighters, who are plenty tough, admit this all the time.

 

The quote that Tyson has said is "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face". This is by no means saying that a fight can end in one punch. You should watch his post fight interview Razor Ruddock 1, that is the attitude of a man and a warrior when it comes to taking big bombs on the face.

 

I recently watched these fights again. Lewis's style defiantly bothered Holyfield, having that size advantage as well as skill would always be a problem, as it was with Bowe. But when Holyfield got aggressive he did find success with Lewis, and had him hurt, I wonder if the extra energy he had a few years earlier would have finished Lewis or at least had more of those attack bursts.

Lennox wasn't exactly at his best physically either, he seemed to gas in the 2nd fight with Holyfield's improved performance. Somehow Lewis seemed the more fragile, he took some big punches that would have knocked out a few fighters but a couple of time he looked legitimately hurt. whereas Holyfield seemed to take a shot better, even though he was hurt by a few uppercuts. Its a fairly even matched fight really I think, Holyfield's aggressive attacks could have found success as well as Lewis's dangerous long range boxing skill.

I sway towards Holyfield if he fought like he did in the 2nd Bowe fight, I think he would out work Lewis over 12 rounds. Would probably be another trilogy. That 2nd fight showed that they could produce a fairly decent fight. Funnily enough I think their styles gelled and with them both being more active it could have be a barn burner. Shame they didn't fight sooner.

 

I definitely go with HOLYFIELD here.

 

I thought past prime Holyfield deserved the nod in their second fight. So prime Holyfield wins a close but UD decision in my opinion.