Thinking on Holyfield's career, the man could be held in such a higher regard if he hadn't fought and made such stupid decisions. He just missed out on a number of things by the slimmest of margins. If he hadn't screwed around with HGH, steroids... Who's to say he couldn't have two wins over Moorer as opposed to one? When he chose to box Riddick Bowe it seemed blatantly obvious he could win that way. He could, in my opinion, have two wins against Bowe, if not three. Two wins over Moorer, multiple wins over Bowe, two over Tyson... No Ruiz/Toney/Lewis garbage, from hanging around so long. Blah. He could of been a top ten heavyweight, potentially.
I don't know, I factor in everything on a fighters resume. Everything. Being stopped by a blown up middleweight and a loss to Larry Donald. And Ruiz...
I think the last fight(s) Holyfield should have had were the Lennox Lewis bouts, or at the very latest, his first fight with John Ruiz immediately following Lennox. Recapturing the WBC title by beating Ruiz would have been a nice way to end his career. He didn't need to fight a 3 bout trilogy, which by the way sucked anyway. It was also unnecessary for him to take fights with Donald, Byrd, Toney, and everyone else. For nearly a decade now, Holyfield has been taking terrible past prime beatings, and adding needless losses to his record.
Ok, but personally i can't be too worried about what a fighter does when a decade or more past his best. If we took that into consideration the ATG lists would differ dramatically. Holyfield would have flogged Toney at his best, not to mention the other two. Each to their own tho i guess, if you factor it in you factor it in - but you'd be in a very small minority.
Agreed, and if we're going to count Holyfield's losses to Toney and Donald against him, then we might as well hold Ali to the same standard with his losses to Berbick and Spinks, then rate him accordingly. Kind of silly actually.
Not really. Holyfield has far more left in the tank than Ali did at that stage in his career. I think it's more reasonable to hold Holyfield responsible to a degree (Not a massive one, regardless) for his late career losses than Ali.
I rate Holyfield in the top 10 heavyweights of all-time. Arguably top 5. And, no, his late career losses dont matter, IMO.
I dont count Holyfield's late career losses against him because it really shouldn't detract from what he achieved in his career. I mean, those are fights that happened when he's 40 years old and more, 10-15 years past his prime. It's no surprise he looked a bit crap. It's not like he was highly rated going in to all those fights, he was known to be over-the-hill.