Holyfield in Tyson's place 1986-1989

Well he's obviously done the research on you and has found the evidence. I'm not arsed personally, if I'm talking to 10 of you I'm cool with that.

 

Here's my take

Evander Holyfield TKO 9 Trevor Berbick
Evander Holyfield W12 James Smith
Evander Holyfield KO 4 Tony Tubbs
Evander Holyfield TKO 11 Larry Holmes
Evander Holyfield KO 8 Tyrell Biggs
Evander Holyfield W12 Tony Tucker
Evander Holyfield TKO 7 Michael Spinks
Evander Holyfield KO 4 Carl Williams
Evander Holyfield TKO 9 Frank Bruno
Evander Holyfield W12 James Douglas

 

Only research he does, is which garden has the nicest panties to steal off the washing lines!.
Only 10 Wass?! There's only you that's not me on here, I'm everyone mate.

 

Holyfield was regarded as great as Tyson by people who knew boxing back in 1987.
It's just he wasn't a fully fledged heavyweight.

He was being talked about as a heavyweight contender ages before he even left cruiserweight ! So he must have been rated.

He was RING magazine fighter of the year in 1987. That was the year Mike Tyson unified the heavyweight belts. Holyfield was acknowledged as having had a slightly more impressive year.

No one in boxing doubted Holyfield as a fighter. He just wasn't a heavyweight to begin with.

 

I'm not saying Tyson was more impressive overall but his prime looked more impressive than anything Holyfield did. Looked. So my point is Tyson caputured the imagination more during the 80s than Evander could have because of his style of blasting out heavyweights. I'm not just talking boxing fans, Tyson crossed over to the mainstream, similar fame to Ali because of the manner he cleaned the division out. Holy might beat them all but wouldn't have the same effect, certainly on the mainstream public. Thus mt point, if holy had that run in the 80s it wouldn't have been as emphatic.

 

I agree with a lot of this. I have always felt that Tyson of 91 could be a problem for Holy despite the obvious point he beat him in 96. Tyson was still physical prime, he was a lot more ferocious and less easy to discourage, by 96 you hit the guy and he is surprised. Ruddock pounded tyson but couldnt discourage him at all. I always felt holy might have a problem hurting 91 Tyson although i never totally rule evander out, is own tenacity was something to be reckoned with.

 

As mentioned that's not really my point, i guess i could be going off subject a bit. I am just talking about the comparison of Holyfield in tysons place in the 80s. I don't believe holy would have done it as emphatically as tyson, even if he beat all the competition. Tyson looked more impressive than evander ever could have imo, maybe unfair as tyson was a proper heavyweight by that point. I don't think its a foregone conclusion evander would walk through them all either, i see a possible points loss, maybe unlikely but possible.

 

It's impossible to say. Boxing was looking for a heavyweight.
It comes down to marketing really.
Tyson was built up on a series of spectacular KOs over bums and captured the public imagination that way, long before he'd actually won the world titles.
Holyfield was marketed as The Real Deal and thrown in real fights early on.
If he'd been heavyweight before Tyson, his impact would've certainly been greater in mainstream.
Most people didn't even know what a cruiserweight was.

It's hard to say.
Tyson definitely had an aura but so did Holyfield really.
Critics were harsh on HEAVYWEIGHT Holyfield largely because they'd already tied they hopes on the younger Tyson.

Capturing the public's imagination is often about timing, and marketing. This is true whatever the talent and greatness and substance behind the image.

Tyson got a lot of passes from the critics during his prime because he really did seem like the FUTURE of the division.
Holyfield got less passes because he came to the heavyweights after Tyson did. Timing changes perceptions.

I guess we're pretty much saying the same thing here anyway !

 

With Holyfield coming after Tyson, it was a sort of Ali-Holmes situation. Holyfield wasn't being recognised because he came up after Tyson.

Evander Holyfield W12 Trevor Berbick
Evander Holyfield W12 James Smith
Evander Holyfield KO 7 Tony Tubbs
Evander Holyfield W12 Larry Holmes
Evander Holyfield KO 9 Tyrell Biggs
Evander Holyfield W12 Tony Tucker
Evander Holyfield TKO 10 Michael Spinks
Evander Holyfield KO 3 Carl Williams
Evander Holyfield TKO 11 Frank Bruno
Evander Holyfield W12 James Douglas

He would win all the fights, but probably not in a similar spectacular fashion. Exception being he would beat Buster Douglas because he would be prepared for him.

 

I reckon he would beat Tucker and Smith more convincingly.

 

It's possible, certainly with Smith. Smith wouldn't be hugging all night because Holyfield didn't have the same power or aura as Tyson at that time. He may just get himself TKO'd. At the same time if Holyfield started a brawl, Smith could knock him down once through the fight but he would end up best off in the exchanges. I think it's a possibility that Holyfield would batter Smith so badly the doctor or the ref would stop it.

 

Ha,ha now you gone too far. Of all the dumb numbskull posts that you've post here that one about being a Tyson fan is too much even for the mods to take. still at least during your ban you can go and rewatch that complete set of Tyson fights that you claim you have lol.

 

Holyfield winning in 87 was an extremely strange decision tbh. His only fight of real note was beating Qawi in a rematch whilst Tyson finally brought us back to one champ in the heavies and popped Thomas and Biggs into there as well. Incidentally Tyson took it out in 1086 and 1988 with Holyfield sandwiched in the middle.