Holmes vs Holyfield

Holyfield always loved grinding that head of his into his opponent !!!

 

Watch this one about once a year. Huge comeback Larry Holmes fan. Wish he would have done more in this one. I still feel as though he could have pulled it off with the right gameplan. All well...

 

I used to play and pit these two against each other almost a countless amount of times on the old Knockout Kings game on the original playstation unit and always thought that it(Holmes-Holyfield)was a war, no matter who one. Tell you this much, Larry "The Easton Assasin" Homes vs Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield in their primes together would've been an all out classic for the ages!

 

I still play that game, man. Still a great game all these years later!

 

It begs the question, are the 90's era seriously overrated considering Foreman and Holmes abilty to compete? Almost everyone regards it at 2nd behind the 70's.

 

Holmes said he fought that fight with one eye. He was wearing contact lenses and one of them came out early during the fight. With that being said,he didnt have a bad showing. Prime Holmes beats Holyfield and even that version with two eyes might beat Holyfield.

 

:? Weird. Frazier said the same thing about his second Foreman fight. There should be a PSA about this or summat.

I don't know, Vy. What's a better HW era after the 70's, if not the 90's? In some ways, you could do this with any era and ask why fighters coming up in weight can compete with the best, or fighters coming out of retirement, or fighters overweight, or fighters who are old or fighters who are Quakers, etc.

 

The 1990s era of HWs is overrated. Well-marketed fighters and the spread of Pay-per-view perhaps account for that.
The 1980s crop was actually better.

Oliver McCall and Bruce Seldon were 'champions' in the mid 1990s. Frank Bruno, Frans Botha, Axel Schulz, Michael Moorer, old George Foreman, Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison, Joe Hipp, Alex Stewart, Shannon Briggs ... these guys were all in the mix. Not a great bunch.

Holyfield was a great fighter but, yes, he didn't look as convincing as he should as old men who were 10 or 20 years past it.
And Holyfield himself was seriously damaged goods from 1994 onwards.
Riddick Bowe was good for a couple of fights, somewhere between struggling with 80s coke-head relic Tony Tubbs and getting battered by Golota. His reputation is built mostly on Holyfield.
Lennox Lewis was the most consistent, but look at some of the opposition.
Tyson was a hype job after 1991, when he was jailed.
Buster Douglas was a bust.

Guys like Akinwande I would have expected more from. Ibeabuchi went to jail. Tua was a decent KO artist but didn't become a world beater.


There was a lot of hype in the 1990s.
Perhaps that's what makes a great era though, I dunno.

 

Knockout Kings was awesome! I used to ALWAYS be Floyd Patterson in the '99 version.

A fight between two legends, this is. In their primes, had they met, it would have been something else!

 

Holmes never carried his weight that well. He should have incorporated more strength training into his workout regime.

 

I assume a prime Holmes wouldn't position his fat,dumpy arse on the ropes for a full twelve rounds.

 

No, he was plenty strong enough.
At 210 to 215 pounds he was in perfect shape and build for his particular style. He just didn't train as much when he got older.

 

What you have to remember is that the 1990's were politically some of the worst years the heavyweight division had ever seen. Don King was running the show and keeping the belts hostage, passing them around his stable of bums while he waited for Tyson to get out of jail and bowl them all over.

I mean, Frans Botha? That guy was never jack **** and never beat anyone. He was only "in the mix" because King got him a couple of good fights, which he lost.

Bruce Seldon? ****ing sucked and never beat anyone good, but Don King got him some fights and let him have a paper title for a little while.

Joe Hipp, Axel Schulz, plus some guys not on your list like Vaughn Bean, old men Tubbs and Tucker, **** like that. Bums, has-beens, and one-hit-wonders that each scored a few bogus title fights here and there because Don King wasn't going to let anyone good near the belts he was saving for Tyson.

But that horse**** doesn't make Tyson, Bowe, Lewis, Holyfield, etcetera any worse, and the cream did eventually rise to the top.

 

I think if Holmes hadn't puked right after round 12 he would have won a decision