Larry Holmes vs Evander Holyfield ATG Who ranks higher

I think I have Holmes higher. I realize there’s a lot to criticize about his reign but at least he was consistent, long lasting and had that incredible record. I will admit however that Holyfield showed more balls

 

Holyfield is a tough fight for anyone. No great fighter has an easy match with him. I still think Holmes was a better fighter though and has a lot of consistency.

 

I have Holmes higher. More consistent and didn’t use steroids. As much as I admired Evander he was a cheat and anyone else who roids up which is everyone now

 

In the ring they were two all time courageous fighters .. as far as balls, assuming you're referring to opponent selection I'd say Holmes showed far greater brains which is why having made far less he's still a very rich man while Evander is broke and talks much better (lisp aside) ..

 

yeah. Holyfield losing his heavyweight title to Moorer is a stain, something that would never happened to Holmes. Also I can’t get over a 42 year old Holmes winning 4-5 rounds vs a peak version of Holyfield. I can’t imagine Holyfield beating the Holmes of the late 1970s

 

As a business man and a smart citizen in general, yes. Larry Holmes managed his career and his finance brilliantly. He didn’t make bad investments, go through multiple marriages, had multiple kids with different women or any of those things. Kudos to him. But one of the things preventing him from being in the upper echelon with Ali and Louis is that he didn’t always fight the best of his era. That said I still have him a little higher than Evander.

 

Holmes this isn’t even close! And as far as balls go I would say Larry’s balls are much bigger cause he didn’t do all those ROIDS!

 

The reason Holmes is very well off financially is because he was always financially smart. Had he never taken up boxing and instead kept working as a delivery driver his entire working life, he'd still be retired without financial issues.

As to Holmes's seeming lack of CTE, eh, that's just luck really. 75 fights and he got banged around a lot, especially while older and slower.

While all true, I also cannot imagine any version of Holyfield getting steamrolled by Tyson like Holmes did. No matter how great they are, I guess anyone is capable of a really bad performance.

 

Definitely Holmes.

 

Larry Holmes for me quite clearly, yes some people might question Larry Holmes for not fighting a few of the dangerous challengers like Thomas, Page, etc. And yes Holmes's era may of not been the best especially after the 70's era.

But i think people forget Holyfield was criticized quite heavily himself before he fought Riddick Bowe. Most people were saying he was feasting on old age pensioners like Foreman, Holmes, his short title reign vs Foreman, Holmes, Cooper, wasn't exactly the best. And to be honest outside of beating Mike Tyson which was a good win not taking that away from him, his Heavyweight resume isn't that amazing to be honest regarding actual wins. 1-1 vs Moorer, 1-2 vs Bowe, 0-1-1 vs Lewis, 1-1-1 vs Ruiz.

Now don't get me wrong i'm not hating on Holyfield he was a warrior, and i enjoy his fights immensely. But the fact is he was very up and down in his Heavyweight career, and lost alot of his big fights. For me Holmes clearly edges it because of his consistency.

As for a match up between both in there prime Holmes by UD.

 

Going with consensus. My vote is for Larry. More consistent and I strongly believe that Holmes would win a prime for prime fight. I have a lot of respect for Evander though.

 

Holyfield. I have him #3 & Holmes #4 at HW. Holmes had a much longer run as champ, but faced a lot of obscure contenders, with some even giving him more trouble than expected (Weaver, Snipes, a green Witherspoon, Williams). Holyfield's resume is also MUCH better than Holmes - who didn't fight every TOP contender available (Page, Dokes, Tubbs, Thomas). He's a 4 TIME world champion & took on everyone around. H2H, Holmes may be superior (Although I can see Holyfield eeking out an SD victory), but Holyfield is the better ATG.