Holyfield - It would have been a difficult fight for me if I faced Usyk

Tyson is too scared to face Usyk, hence the retirement.

 

Cruiserweights were 190 lbs or less in those days with same day weigh ins so no big weight cutting + rehydration and Americans have never taken cruiser seriously; it was an extremely shallow division back then composed of 2nd/3rd rate small HW's and LHW Americans, regarded as something similar to bridgerweight today. And even then, only 9 of Holyfield's 18 cruiser opponents were within 5 lbs of 190, Holyfield stopped 14/18. Usyk stopped 12/16 in a much bigger and tougher cruiserweight field, so it's very questionable how much harder a 190 lbs Holyfield punched compared to a 208 lbs rehydrated cruiser Usyk, if at all.

Holyfield was older against Sultan but the Byrd schooling was bad considering he still had something left, coming off a win against Rahman and his best performance against John Ruiz in their trilogy. Chinny ex-175 pounder Moorer was the first southpaw to beat Holyfield.

From the sounds of it even Holyfield knows that Usyk would be favoured to beat him. He wanted guys to come to him and master boxer Usyk wouldn't do that, along with Usyk's southpaw advantage. Holyfield has stated that old fighters were inferior to the likes of himself and that he would "tear up" the "slow" Joe Louis. So consciously or subconsciously he probably understands that Usyk would be all wrong for him.

 

how did he fix it

 

Good question, I have seen it before, Dave Allen, recently comes to mind.

 

Either Evander Holyfield by KO within 6 rounds or Usyk takes it via UD.

 

I don't know who wins, coin flip for me, but it's kind of funny all the people talking about Holyfield losing to a small HW like Moorer when Usyk is sporting a loss to Shawn Porter and several LHWs fighting in the amateur HW division.

Holyfield fought on long past his expiration date. He fought more ATGs than Usyk has fought HWs of any caliber. There are definitely some bad nights caught on film.

They just had such different approaches to their pro careers, it does make comparison difficult.

 

Lol come on….. Holyfield was 40 vs Byrd and 140 vs Ibragimov

 

If Holyfield didn't want losses to count against him then he should have retired. He was in decent form against Ruiz 3 and Rahman and then got completely schooled by Byrd. He would go on boxing for another 11 fights and 8.5 years post-Byrd. The loss further exposed a stylistic vulnerability he had to skilled southpaw boxers, which he effectively acknowledged in this recent interview.

 

Lol If you want to go ahead and judge him off being a long in the tooth old man then so be it..... but its rather stupid

 

From memory, Tyson Fury was the one who failed for PEDs?

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If Holyfield had been "shot" Rahman would have destroyed him, as would John Ruiz. He was past his prime but still had something left and got dominated by a blown-up LHW southpaw, just as he had years prior.

 

You are just looking silly now