Evander vs Czyz just before EH vs Tyson

Èvander was 41 and had been in many wars when he fought Toney. James did great, but Holyfield was badly faded by then.

 

Evander was a guy who did better against tall guys, as opposed to short guys I guess, Quai was very short, and I thought he won in 86, and Bert Cooper was 1 punch away from a ko in 91, and he was built like Tyson, 5-10 or so..
Evander just had an off night against Czyz, and should have retired after the Toney fight, jeez he was awful that night:dead

 

holyfield took it easy on czyz.

 

Holyfield wasn't expected to have much trouble with Czyz, and think his performance suffered as a result.
Evander strikes me as the type who needs to be truly motivated to get the best out of him; when he had a point to prove. In many of his fights when he was a firm favourite, he looked less than stellar and I think motivation issues played a part in that.

But you have to give Czyz a lot of credit too. He was clever and tough and made Holyfield look pretty bad at times.

 

.. and the way they claimed that holyfield had something on his gloves was beyond disgraceful

 

Evander says in his book that he got so frustrated with Czyz during the fight he considered quitting.

Ironically, it was that under-par performance which finally secured a Tyson fight after it had failed to happen on two previous occasions.

 

After the Bowe wars and before the Tyson fights, I think getting up for this fight would be a difficult. Maybe if he had to dig deep it would have been different....just another day at the office for Evander. Funny that he had no bother getting into much bigger fighters but the short/stocky guys gave him problems.
If czyz was a couple of years younger (or more patient) he could have been a fine Supermiddle and then Light-heavy, rather than zooming up in weight to LH / Cruiser and then HW.