How popular was Evander Holyfield...

He was very popular from 1989 onward, but also had a lot of detractors. There were many who had the very recent memory of Tyson dispatching Spinks in 91 seconds and felt that a pseudo heavyweight wasn't going to last in a division of ever growing men. Needless to say they were incorrect. I myself was a huge fan and always enjoyed his fights. It was refreshing when he recaptured the heavyweight title from Riddick Bowe in November of 1993.

 

It's an odd thing, but Evander Holyfield wasn't really popular among the general public until people just realized one day he was a household name.

It didn't happen overnight. He was always around.

Maybe it started with the Douglas fight. Douglas was a household name after beating Tyson. He was the favorite to beat Holyfield. Evander stopped him. But the story afterward was Douglas quitting/didn't try to get up.

Then Evander fought George. George was a household name. Everyone loved George. Evander won, but George came out a huge star and got his own sitcom and started selling grills right after that ... making more than he ever made in the ring.

Then Holyfield was supposed to fight Tyson. Tyson was the big favorite. But Tyson got accused of **** and went to prison. So the story was Tyson.

Then Bowe beat Holyfield, Holyfield beat Bowe, Holyfield lost to Moorer, Holyfield came back but lost to Bowe again ... and all the while, Evander sort of played second fiddle to everyone.

Then he fought Tyson AND WON. And, at that moment, I think people woke up and realized EVERYONE from grandmas to little kids who didn't follow the sport knew who Holyfield was.

It was "Always someone super popular" or "someone who was a bigger character" in one corner vs. Holyfield in the other ... and, over time, people got to know him and recognize him.

Then Tyson bit Evander's ear off, and people like President Clinton were commenting on the fight. Everyone in the world knew who Evander was after that, thanks to Tyson and Holyfield's sportmanship afterward.

So, it took a good 12 or 13 years ... and his career had already ended once (back when he quit with the bad heart) ... before Evander really became globally popular and a household name on his own.

It was very slow going for him. Some people become household names during the Olympics and just stay that way.

Evander took the long road.

Among popular fighters of his day (the 80s and 90s), I don't know of anyone MORE popular. If people see Holyfield today, they always get excited.

My cousin's son is a teenager and he found himself in a hotel elevator recently with Holyfield, and his mind was blown. And I don't think he's ever watched a fight. Some people might find themselves in an elevator with Tyson today and get nervous. If a bald Lennox Lewis or a bloated Bowe got on an elevator with a non-boxing fan today, I don't even know if they'd be recognized other than "wow, that's a pretty big guy there. Looks kinda familiar."

With Evander, people seem like they immediately know him and are excited.

 

Mike Tyson certainly knew who he was right from the start......

 

As early as 1989 guys in my highs school shop classes and on the wrestling team were talking about him and getting into debates about how he'd do against Tyson. By the summer of that year he was solid #1 contender all across the board and a meeting between him and Tyson was already highly anticipated. By 1990, he was champion. He was very well known and highly celebrated by both the boxing public and the casual fans.

 

Holyfield was a very popular. A big star.

But Tyson was on a level of star appeal that really only stands second to Muhammad Ali in the whole of history.
People who know nothing about boxing thought they knew all about Tyson.

 

Agreed. In England, as I have said before, if a footballer gets a black eye, commentators invariably say 'he looks like he's been 12 rounds with Mike Tyson' even today. That is some star appeal.

Because Tyson went to prison, he never lost that mystique which a loss would have stripped. So, in the eyes of the public, he remained the star from 91 through to 96, years that Holyfield could have shone. Evander quietly - some would say disingenuously given his extra-marital affairs, alleged drug use and dirty tactics - went about gaining a reputation for being a thoroughly decent and noble man and a skilled and brave boxer but one that was in exciting fights rather than being an exciting fighter. Popular, yes. Megastar, no.

Then he beat Tyson and for the first time, as far as I could tell, he was the story. Not how fat Douglas was, not Foreman's cheeseburgers and gut, not fan man nor his health. All of a sudden here was the embodiment of the noble warrior. After the crassness of Tyson's entourage had alienated people, they were finally ready to hand the mantle of hero over. That Holyfield beat the monster, seemed so decent and the fact that he had upset the odds magnified his appeal further. It was Rocky stuff for the casual fan.

After the second fight proved him the better man and that the first fight was no fluke, he started to really get big. And his dignity in the face of Tyson's attack (and John Horne's horrendous comments after the fight) was almost superhuman. I think there was a bit of an outpouring of affection as we all realised we'd been denying him his dues for years and we owed him. He'd played second fiddle to Tyson and Foreman when he had been the star all along and he suddenly enjoyed a level of popularity that was generally reserved for fighters with megawatt charisma which was just about the only quality that he lacked.

This is all speculation as I was in England and can only really guess how the American and global public went for him. But that's how I saw it from afar.

 

Tyson's popularity is among people who don't watch boxing but want to be cool and hip so they pretend to like him because they heard people talk about him. You can say the same thing about Ali. In both cases people who actually know boxing actually don't like them and know how crappy they were as people.

 

extremely popular, starting in 1984 olympics. anybody that knew boxing could see that he was the best boxer period, any weight class or country, in that olympic season. ko'ed everybody.

 

That's a big call, Slash. That Olympics also contained Pernell Whitaker and Meldrick Taylor. I'd always assumed Mark Breland was the star that afficionados were going to watch.

Poor old Evander got the public attention by handling his own extraordinary DQ loss with dignity rather than his excellent boxing ability. Bit of a career pattern there.

 

He wasnt household name until he fought Tyson. He beat Douglas and then had a classic trilogy with Bowe but Bowe came out victorious in that trilogy. Off course this was around the time Tyson was in prison. Tyson was on comeback trail and registered 4 straight victories and supposed to fight Holyfield., but then he sentenced to jail. Hence when Tyson came back in 1995, he made alot more noise than Holyfield ever did, despite Tyson basically fighting tomato can.

Also, Holyfield wasnt the hardest puncher like Mike nor he fought pretty like Ali , he went to full 12 rounds against old Foreman, losing to Moorer once, went to full 12 rounds against someone like Stewart and his knockout against Douglas was nothing spectacular if you consider how Douglas performed that day (I 've gotten my paycheck mentallity) ... so he's definetely nowhere close to Tyson popularity until they actually fought.

Since Dougllas fight till he finally met Tyson , Holyfield only registered 2 stoppage victories with the rest winning by MD & UD... plus 3 losses. In comparison, Mike solely lost at the time was against Buster.

 

Evander was popular in his day, but not Tyson popular. He was probably more respected than he was popular in his prime because he wasn't a real flashy guy in or out of the ring, just an honest workman who always came to fight. But then again, he made some huge purses for his day so he must have been doing something right

 

Wrong. He had already partaken in 4 or 5 super fights before he met Tyson. Was a two time lineal champion. Had battled through the epic Bowe trilogy ( albeit losing 2 out of 3 ) was already being considered as future hall of fame material and was viewed as being well past prime by the time he met Tyson for the first time.