More or less as I see it. Holyfield at some point gets dragged into a brawl and could be rocked several times but he gets the decision.
Ike barely scraped by Tua who fighters such as Izon, Rahman and Maskaev all did well against albeit coming up short at the end. Then he kayoed the small Byrd, a good performance to be sure, but that doesn't elevate him to the status of a Holyfield. Ike's legacy has been helped by the big 'what if?' that lingers over his unfinished career. For me, his achievements don't mirror the almost mythical status that is sometimes bestowed on him. How would Ike have coped with Evander's 1990 workrate and mental toughness? The pressure of a really big fight? Ike has it all to prove. Evander rumbled with almost all of the predominant heavies of his era; Ike fought two and one of those was a former middleweight. It's quite possible he could have done it but I think any fighter who went life and death with Tua comes unstuck against a fighter with the depth of talent that Evander Holyfield has. Mind you. The drug testers would have earned their corn with this one.
