Holyfield; beat 7 (seven) lineal HW champions

friend, Holyfield has a certain place in the top 10 HW but that's because he beat 4, 5 or 7 linear champions. Don't go that route. This is a very conventional matter. Winning against Rahman is not his legacy, but Holyfield's resume is incredible and what he did in the ring, the style in which he fought and won, is exceptional. Holy has a certain place for extremely valuable victories over Dokes, Douglas, Bowe II, Moorer II, Tyson I, Mercer. Nobody can take that away from him. H2H Bowe was a better boxer, but he doesn't have a resume like that. Evander has the most valuable wins outside of Ali in HW history, perhaps Joe Louis could still compete with him. I think there were a few better ones. Liston, who has a rather weak resume, Foreman, Ali, Louis, Holmes, Tyson, probably Bowe. But only Ali has a better CV. Facts say that this is one of the best HW in history.

 

Yeah, of course. He has the most classic, watchable fights against competitive top tier heavyweights ever. And he was a beast at CW and has some classics there. In terms of watchability, he is my #1, and resume/h2h he has to be up there too. Holyfield can fight from the position of the underdog and the favorite. He digs it out of the mud and fights with determination and heart always. Only the greatest fighters can hold a candle to his strength of opponents, wins and fidelity of performances. (He is my favorite heavyweight though)

 

Thats only because of his lifetime subscription to title shots plus.

 

We could easily make the case that Evander Holyfield belongs in the top 3, legacy wise.

 

Some context is needed here though.

Foreman and Holmes both in their 40s.

Douglas was fat and grossly out of shape vs Holyfield he didn't even turn up.

Rahman was a one hit wonder.

Bowe, Tyson, Moorer, are impressive wins but he still lost trilogy to Bowe and went 1-1 with Moorer.

 

Holyfield is the most overrated fighter in the history of this sport.

 

Absolutely.

 

Holy's legacy will always be controversial due to age and condition of opponents, losses, dirty fighting, and "Evan Fields."

I used to have him at #3, but after the HGH situation, dropped to back of top ten.

It's like Dempsey not fighting Wills, or Liston's humblings by Ali...it is a thing that I just can't ignore.

Did he beat them, or did Evan Fields? How do we know?

 

Only thing I would add to this - & this is why I consider Holyfield historically exempt from classification - is we know he was also a shameless PED abuser.

It sounds great to say you beat seven such men. But digging into it, while it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at, there are asterisks all over the record. He was clearly juicing for all but three of these wins - & those were against 40+ versions of Foreman & Holmes, plus a pre-defeated Douglas (not Holyfield’s fault at all, but it does limit the credit you can give him).

He won & lost variously against Bowe, Moorer & Tyson, all while on PED’s. Holyfield was well past it when he beat Rahman (controversially), but Rahman was a fringe contender on quality who got lucky, once.

Overall Holyfield has a strong career, but past about 1992, it gets mighty questionable.

 

To be fair to Holyfield, he was having heart issues in the first fight, and though he still struggled to knock Moorer out in the following match and got in trouble during the course of it, Moorer was closer to his peak than Evan Fields was.
You could just consider this the consequences of steroid abuse, but it's up to you.