Bear in mind that he was a natural Cruiserweight fighting Super-Heavyweights. Anyway, how often did he get hurt? Only against Bowe really. Other than that, he took bombs from Bowe himself, as well as Tyson, Foreman, Lewis - unequivocally some of the biggest punchers in boxing history, and was never seriously hurt in any of those fights. Basically every fight of Holyfield's career was, at some point or another, a slugging contest, even his pro debut. (That doesn't say much for his "finesse", admittedly.) But if he didn't have a cast-iron chin, he would never have come through all those unscathed. So that settles it then, he must have had a glass jaw. What a ****ing disgrace. Seriously though, that doesn't hold for me. Duran was laid out cold by Hearns. Hearns was a big puncher and Duran was above his best weight and not in great condition. It's forgivable. Same story here? He happened to get hit with a piledriver right hand which he never saw, as he was moving to punch himself. And he still made it up. And he wasn't exactly in the best of shape to begin with. How many other HWs could have done better?
You're the one trying to reverse the outcomes of two fights in which Tyson was purely and simply outclassed by a guy who was even more washed-up than Tyson himself.
If you can't see a clear difference between the Tyson who fought Holyfield twice and prime '86-'88 Tyson than you, sir, are the casual fan...not I. Prime Tyson would be a heavy favorite against any HW in history except '66-'67 Ali, '77-'80 Holmes and '73-'75 Foreman. You may need to watch a little more film on Kid Dynamite to understand what I'm saying though...
Summarised what I was thinking. There seem to be a lot of heavyweights who are very good at everything but maybe have no great offensive tools, and for me Holyfield is the best of this bunch and through heart, chin and sheer determination happened to become an ATG
He's not in my top ten. More like top 12-15. Holy was very good, but seem to lack consistency in his prime, and had too many excuses. Holyfield's body transformaiton was tremedous. Does anyone want to mention the Blue elephant in the room?
Vitali was not in the Olympics, and has always tested clean as a professional. However there was some ahem, stuff on Holyfield and a body tranformation that makes me wonder.