Lewis - Holyfield 2 who really won that fight

Lewis by four.

The only success Holy had in the full 2 fights was when Lewis decided to stand and fight him. When Lewis boxed it was easy.

 

I just re watched this bout for first time in years and was amazed at how much better Holyfield did in this bout than I originally perceived. I think perhaps because I was so mad at the result of the first fight, a fight that was one of the biggest robberies I have ever seen, that I just wanted to give Lewis this fight. However, upon a repeat viewing this fight was extremely close and could of gone either way. I gave Holyfield rounds 6,7,8,12 cleanly.
I gave Lewis 2,4,9,10,11 cleanly
I think rounds 1,3,5, are very debatable swing rounds.
I admit I have a hard time giving the fight to Holyfield but I will watch the bout again because a draw is not nearly has preposterous as I originally believed. The only crazy thing was the 117-111 scorecard. To be clear I have no issue with Lewis getting the nod and truth be told because of the first fight he deserved this one as no rematch was even. Necessary. But this was a tight fight. Holyfield had better energy and aggressiveness this time around.

 

Good post :good

I just want to add few cents.

Former Holyfield and Lewis sparring partner who posts on another forum wrote his thoughts about this fight. He names both Lennox and Evander his close friends and sparred with both great fighters many times.

I didn't work with Evander for the Lennox rematch but from what others told me, Evander was losing his skills. They planned to drain Lennox's strength by jabbing him in the body. I watched the fight and the strategy worked.

Evander couldn't fight with Lennox all three minutes of each round so he had to dive in, attack and then escape. Evander turned it into a WAR! Having shared the ring with both, prime Evander would beat prime Lennox. Watch the rematch and see old Evander take it to prime Lennox. Lennox was huffing and puffing and hated those body attacks.

When I watched it live I had Evander winning but when I finally watched tape of the fight in 2006 I changed my scoring and saw that Lennox won.

 

Pretty similar to my scoring of the fight. No doubt it was close and maybe a draw was possible but to have Evander winning you would have to give him every single close round.

 

I agree. To have Evander win he would keep all the rounds I did score for him plus all three swing rounds I listed which were one, three, five. I think that is semi tough to do. However if you gave him two out of three you get a Draw. If Lewis gets the nod 2 out of 3 it's 7-5 (115-113) or all three (which I think the judges probably did to make up for the stench of the first fight you get 8-4 116-112 Lewis.
I feel had I watched the fight then as I did today with a clear mind and no baggage from the previous bout and the scorecards ended up being 114-114 I think I could of lived with it. A draw almost never leaves me satisfied so I probably would have found something to complain about but it would not have been the worst result not by a long shot. 7-5 Lewis 6-6 Even I think are probably very accurate scores for that fight.

 

Lewis won a close fight,to beat the champ you have to beat the champ, Holyfield didn't show that he clearly did...lewis looked lethargic from the opening bell and still won against an aggressive Holyfield. I gave Holyfield 5 Rounds. both played it safe,this should've been a much better fight than the few exchanges that they had here and there. Lewis almost put Holyfield out with a great uppercut later in the fight but never threw more than one punch power shots when landing.

 

Lewis definitely won the fight but it most likely ranks as one of his lesser performances. Conversely, this was probably the best we'd seen from Holyfield for two years or so and he still couldn't beat a complacent Lewis.

 

Lewis beat Holyfield clearly twice.

 

I don't think Lewis was complacent. He tried too hard to be more aggressive. Lewis was criticised after the first fight for being too passive, as if winning 9 rounds wasn't enough the first time and he didn't want to risk getting robbed again.

This led to Lewis executing a less than optimum game plan and even then he still beat Holyfield. It was pretty obvious that when Lewis used his jab Holyfield couldn't do a thing with him. I think if Lewis had executed a similar strategy as the first fight we would have seen a very similar fight to the first fight with Holyfield struggling to win any rounds.

 

Great breakdown. I had Lewis winning 6-5-1, and it was only that close because I gave 1 and 3 to Holyfield instead of calling either of them even. Anyone who claims Holyfield was robbed DKSAB.

 

Lennox won both fights clearly He was just too big & powerful for Evander