How much credit should we give Michael Moorer?

Evander was fighting with a bum shoulder and later was reported to have a heart issue. In the rematch Holyfield took care of business. So yeah there may have been an element of luck. But nevertheless, we can’t deny Moorer the claim that he was indeed linear heavyweight champion of the world. And after losing it to George Foreman, Moorer regained the IBF portion from Frans Botha.

 

No. I can't agree.

Moorer fought a great fight. I think Moorer in 97 had declined a lot. He never psychologically recovered from losing to Foreman IMO. I don't think peak 94 Moorer would have been destroyed by 97 Holyfield.

Moorer reportedly did not like boxing much so after losing to George in front of the entire world, he was never going to be 100% again psychologically.

Moorer deserves plenty of credit. If peak Moorer were to fight peak Holyfield 10 times, i see Moorer winning at least 4 of those 10 encounters. So i don't see him as lucky.

 

Had Holyfield been more active I believe Moorer steps it up as well. After the Bert Cooper fight he knew his limits and it was dangerous to unload like he did but he had flashes of his old self whenever he got in trouble.

He does deserve credit for beating Holyfield. And he was blanking Foreman through 9 rounds. Wins over Holyfield and Foreman in the same year would've gotten his popularity to a new level and he gains confidence and momentum going into his next fight. Not sure who he fights next but he was lined up to face Tyson shortly after.

Anyone know who Moorer fights after Foreman?

 

Moorer was originally scheduled to defend his belt against Joe Hipp (southpaw vs southpaw for the world HW title). However, this fight went off - probably because Hipp wasn't nearly as popular as Big George.

I think Moorer would have dominated Hipp and stopped him in the 2nd half of the fight. Then was Tony Tucker on the line, a WBA mandatory challenger. Tucker was clearly past his best days, and he was never a hard hitter, so I comfortably pick Moorer to beat Tucker as well, points or late stoppage. After that, Moorer would have definitely faced Tyson, a bad match-up for him. Tyson by KO

 

Moorer's record after Holy is pitiful, with his best being life and death against Bert Cooper, Leslie Stewart, Jirov, Schultz, and Botha.

He gets some credit for beating Holy....any fighter who steps int he ring with another gets some credit, But Evander was suffering from mysterious heart attack and organ failure, and he still needed some dodgy judging.

I don't mean to **** all over the guy, but he's one that people overrate considerably. Not at all in that first tier of nineties guys, but a good second-tier one.

 

Much more. I'm in the minority that ranks him 3rd in the 90s after Lennox and Bowe. Moorer is the most successful HW to come from LHW since Archie Moore and one of the most talented. Moorers WBO LHW opponents weren't world title quality but coming up to HW he was the first LHW claimant with an 100% KO rate since Wild Bill Hanrahan. Hanrahan had a losing record, Moorer was undefeated. When Moorer retired for the first time at 29 he was 39-2 with his only unavenged loss being to Foreman in a fight he was winning 7-2. Thats a legendary career.

People are so busy slapping an asterisk on Moorers win they aren't looking at Holyfields win which was the best fight of Holyfields career. It was the only time at HW Holyfield really demonstrated formidable power. Moorer won the first 2 rounds and fought very well it was just everything was clicking for Holyfield in a way it just usually didn't. Moorer came back from a KD in the first fight and he bounced back strong this time but Holy was just automatic. Moorer was never outpointed at HW until 2004 during his 2nd career the only time he was outpointed. Moorer was much more consistant as a fighter during his first HW career then Holyfield he was more consistant at LHW then Holyfield was at CW.

When you look at Holyfields poor condition in the first fight. WHY was Holyfield sick? Many act like he randomly had a disease and it was not directly correlated with something he was doing. Something that in other sports get you banned. Its one thing to not whine about PED use its another thing to flip the asterisk on the guy who beat him when he had health issues because of it. Wheres the speculation that Holyfields rematch win was a fluke because he was on PEDs? Why does Moorer get the blame for Holyfields cheating? Holyfield almost won and contested the whole fight. When you want to put an asterisk on a fighter for having an off night they've actually got to have an off night that doesn't match what you'd expect of them.

People forget that during Foremans reign Moorer was the only other guy who was holding on to his belt and that was a big reason Foreman had no one to fight. After Holy lost to Moorer and Bowe he got a title shot at Tyson. Tyson was ranked above Moorer right out of prison and after beating Tyson so was Holyfield. Tyson and Holyfields cultural relevance boosted them above Moorer before Holyfield v Moorer II. People like to impose a Lennox/Holyfield/Tyson hierarchy on the mid 90s when that wasn't the reality. Moorer was in Rings HW top 4 7 years in a row. Except 98 when he was retired he was ranked as low as could have been justified.

I think Moorer was your Ezzard Charles, Jimmy Young, RJJ who'd have declined in his early 30s. But he still could have had gotten a few nice wins in those 3 crucial years.

 

Schulz was coming off almost beating Foreman when Moorer fought him. Botha had just won the IBF title when Moorer fought him and almost everyone ended up fighting a worse version of Botha. Bean was undefeated and Holyfield also fought him. Even for the WBO belt he fought Cooper who Holy fought for the lineal title. The rest of Moorers HW fights except Foreman and Holy weren't title fights. Part of how Holys competition was so great is he got showered with title shots. When Moorer had a title he fought deserving competition of that oppurtunity when he didn't he fought lesser tier competition. Melvin Foster was a good rebound.

It wasn't a worthy LHW world title run but Moorer fought 5 guys who fought for major LHW belts another 2 North American champs. Thats a meaningful run once you get past whether it should have been labeled for a world title.

HWs don't split their careers often but added together Moorer had at least 9 or 10 wins over contenders at the time he retired at 29. He had as many as 12. He did not add another such win during his comeback. But at 29 for the modern era thats fine.