This is a good matchup, very close. I think it could go either way, but I think I'd bet on Cooper taking it.
Cooper’s a bit unlucky there, though. The shots he used to fell Holyfield would have done Lewis in, while Rahman’s KO punch that won him the belt wouldn’t have turned the trick against Holyfield. As to who would win, toss a coin. Both were awful most of the time.
Yes Cooper did come close there with Holyfield. I remember thinking, so soon after Buster Douglas.. What the hells going on?? Just shows anything can happen in boxing.
Interesting that Cooper did much better against prime version of Holyfield than Rahman did against shot one. Boxing, however, isn't that simple. I think both Rahman and Cooper were extremely inconsistent. Rahman could KO Lennox Lewis and stop Corrie Sanders on some days, but get KTFOED by much lesser fighter like Oleg Maskaev who wouldn't last long against Lennox or Sanders. He could outbox David Tua on some days and on the other ones barely defeat old, shot cruiserweight Al Cole. But Cooper was probably even more inconsistent, so I'd give Rahman a slight edge to beat him by close decision. Saying that, if Cooper catched him with the same shots he catcher Holyfield, Rahman would be knocked out
& that fight against Cooper is why I always baulk at people saying Holyfield would always have definitely beaten Tyson, at any stage of their careers.
I just think that the Douglas fight has blinded people to the truth surrounding a potential prime fight between Tyson and Holyfield. Evander was great, but he would've gotten wrecked by Mike- Never believe a triangle theory.
Kinda off topic discussing Mike and Holyfield bit hell, it's a great point to discuss. I do subscribe to the thought that Holyfield would have beaten any version of Mike and its nothing to do with who beat who and when, because it just never is!! People forget that Tyson was used to fighting big fighters whereas Holyfield had wars with people Mike's size, shape and style...and won. Coop was a very late replacement for a replacement from memory and he used to be hired to be 'the other guy' in sparring. The fights with Qawi were wars, Dokes etc, Holyfield was always, always in fights. And, as Jim Watt said in one of his most lucid comments, to be a great fighter, you have to be in great fights. Evander never had an easy day on his way to school, the store, the ring. He was, simply, a hard, hard man with a will to win that has rarely been equalled and a borderline personality disorder amount of self confidence. And he was disciplined, in a way that would have seemed inhuman to Mike. Mike might well have battered Evander, knocked him down, bust him up. But Evander wins the fight. Every. Single. Time. Other opinions are available and equally valid, for clarity, y'all dig...
I do think I'll try not to continue the conversation for the sake of the thread, but I will say that it was Francesco Damiani who Cooper replaced as Holyfield's opponent. He was just off of the Mercer loss, but the Italian still looked pretty good in that fight, so either way, Evander likely should've prepared more for the match. And yeah, all opinions are cool. We learn more by having people to disagree with.
Damiani was a whole different cat to Bert, and Vander certainly wasn't training to fight a manic buzz saw with a grenade launcher in his hands!!
No doubt. Damiani was strong, but if he had an AK, Cooper had ten of em stashed with a case of hand grenades.
