Holyfield Bowe 1 shouldnt even have been close

I honestly don't think the second fight was narrow at all Bokaj. Just like I don't think the first fight was particularly close at all. I think both were decisive wins imo. I just think this question is framed all wrong. As if, holyfield giving any HW that ever lived is weird or odd. I would expect just that.

 

You said he had no skill and was successful only because of his size, which is why you are being met with so much opposition. The dude clearly had the skill and potential to be an atg himself. Holyfield was not a glass chinned Floyd Patterson or a scared out of his depth Michael spinks. He's a bonafide atg hw with an excellent resume who simply was outgunned by bowe. Size was a huge factor of course nobody would ever put bowe over Holyfield p4p but bowe still showed tremendous ability. He could have been better than Lennox Lewis but just didn't have the intangibles

 

It was the best heavyweight title bout since Holmes-Norton fourteen years earlier.

 

Bowe-Holyfield 1 was a great fight. It was competitive but not close. Bowe won 8-9 rounds plus scored a KD. The judge who gave Holyfield 5 rounds was being very generous to him.

Bowe had terrific in-fighting skills, he was well taught by Eddie Futch. He had okay skills from the outside. He wasn't that great at "fighting tall" like other super HWs like Lewis and Wlad would become.

Bowe was a pretty poor defensive fighter, particuarly from the outside. He could slipped some shots on the inside, I remember Gil Clancy talking about it, but from the outside his defense ranged from mediocre to just plain terrible.

 

Holyfield seemed to be convinced from the start that he could wear down Bowe and stop him in the first fight.
Bowe proved better than that.

 

The name of the thread should have been "prime lennox lewis vs shot holyfield shouldn't even have been close"