Just how good was it? Without hepatitis, years past his best vs. Toney, or the other myriad problems the guys had... Just how tough was he? The most durable Cruiserweight ever? Up there, but not quite?
I doubt he was the most durable CW ever, but he's probably the most durable ATG cruiserweight ever, if you get my point.
Holyfield has an ATG chin at Heavyweight IMO. The shots that he took with next to no drama at all vs Tyson was just brilliant viewing. I have to admit, i was spellbound. If memory serves me correct he took a titanic right uppercut vs Lewis too.
Corrected. Holyfield's chin really is incredible. His stoppage loss against Bowe seemed to be more from disease/steroids/weight training rather than being stunned or anything. He took way more punishement in their first fight but went the distance. So realistically, he has not been stopped before he was 42 years old. Absolutely amazing, considering he fought Tyson twice, Lewis twice, Bowe three times as well as some other big punches like Mercer, Moorer and Cooper. If he had less than an iron chin, he probably would not have seen the end of Bowe I, Lewis I and Tyson I.
Tyson's punch is going to get anyone's attention but do you agree Holyfield took them as well or better than pretty much anyone? Tyson landed some huge shots.
Sure...although I remember Holyfield (around '98) relating how he was 100% sure Tyson was going to throw a left instead of a right, so there was a certain amount of surprise for Holyfield there I think I remember the whole story Holyfield related about him training for Tyson's left hook, if anyone wants me to type it up... I'd say it's not so much Holy's chin as his durability and recuperative powers. He got shook up and staggered in quite a few fights but kept on swinging away. In those terms, he was truly great. And the Bowe knockdown in their first fight was absolute bull**** by the way...
Behind the head?! Never heard anyone bring that up before. True, but stuff like that happens in a fight.
holyfield had one of the best chin + heart + recuperative powers combinations out there. fighters like those are hard to stop. my opinion is that the chin & recuperatvive powers were a 4 and the heart was a 5 (rough estimates - don't expect 3.45 from me lol) i'm not surprised at all that holy didn't make much drama out of the monster punches from tyson he absorbed (as hard to believe as it is) because holy is one of "those fighters". just like muhammad ali. to stop fighters like those - a few monster punches in single shots won't do the trick. you have to work in combinations, land those monster shots repeatedly one after another for the course of 4-6 rounds (like the way Frazier did with Ali in fight 3 rounds 6-11 if I remember correctly) and then they'll slow down and then MAYBE you can stop them but even that is hard. that's what he saw in round 10 of holy-bowe 1.
