Prime Evander Holyfield vs Holmes Title Opponents

Holyfield most likely struggles with the lot and loses to a few of them.

 

Without a doubt. The 1980s has a lot of talented guys that were not that easy to beat. Faded Holmes and faded Dokes gave Holyfield everything he could handle. Everything. Imagine how the prime versions of Larry and Dokes get on with Holyfield?

 

He was never going to be an ATG imo but he could have been among the best 2 or 3 or so for a decent amount of time. There was a bit of inconsistent talent around so he would have lost the odd fight. If things panned out he may have been a chance of taking Holmes at the right time? Maybe post Witherspoon.

 

Holyfield could struggle with a corpse on a bad night and give a Grizzly bear would struggle with him on a good night.

Again sure he would struggle with some of these guys, but who would i actually put my money on to actually pull it off against ~88-91 holyfield? No one. Remember it would be prime holyfield against all of them, not some chronologic conparison where holyfield is almost 40 by the time he fights spinks.

He was too strong(even at 205-210), could box with the best of them(when he chose to) and threw too many punches. The only real punchers on that list that could threaten him with 1 punch are guys that holyfield is just too good to lose against.

78 Norton would trouble holyfield but he would be outhustled by the younger, fresher holyfield who threw more and more varied combinations than norton

Williams is a stylistic challenge but in the end was too flawed.

Witherspoon was too green, Holyfield would elbow, maul and headbutt his way to victory if all else fails

 

When I remember back to holyfields prime, the 1988-91 Evander, I am reminded that nobody was really sold on him. Before Tyson lost to Douglas Evander just looked like somebody from the CW class who was going to a strong challenger. That was it. Evander was already overshadowed by Tyson. After that he was overshadowed by Lewis and beaten by Bowe and Moorer. That’s the prime you are talking about.

At the time I thought Evander was under appreciated. I saw him as exciting. I enjoyed his war with Dokes, cooper and Foreman. But nobody was sold on him being great. He was still classed as a built up guy. And that’s before he lost to Bowe twice and to Michael Moorer.

He beat Tyson in an upset. Remember it was an upset. That changed everything. We all thought he had health issues. It was a surprise. So much of a surprise a fair amount of reevaluating went on regarding the earlier version of Evander. An evaluation that was not required before Tyson.

I’m sorry. I always liked the guy. I rooted for him to beat Lennox, but Evander never dominated an era. He was a better champion than the belt holders like Morrison, Bentt, Hide, Bruno, McCall, but he lost to Moorer and later to Ruiz. He was a great fighter for sure but one who could lose to any good fighter. Even in his prime.

 

Did Holmes and Foreman, via their antiquated states during their comeback, more or less prove that the generations that came prior were indeed full of superior talents than the talent pool that say, Evander Holyfield himself swam in.

Man, can't write a proper post today.

 

This is 100% correct. Holyfeild was an overachiever. And that’s why I liked him. Each time he looked done he came back. He came back after Bowe. He came back after moorer. And it is exactly why he never would dominate an era.

 

I think Larry before 1983 would really deal Holyfield a bad beating. Larry really was good against Leon Spinks who probably was on his game in that fight. Leon was coming off an impressive KO over Bernardo Mercado who had just Knocked out Berbick and Shavers.

I don’t remember Evander successfully defend against a challenger with that kind of win. What impressive KO wins were Cooper, Old Larry, old George, Moorer, Bean coming off that compare with Leon beating Mercado?

Think of how Larry handled Ocasio. Eight years later the same Ossie having lost fights to John L Gardner, knocked out in one round by Michael Dokes won and lost the cruiser title Yet he still lasts 11 rounds with Evander.

In fact Occasio is a good gauge for both eras. He was 23 against Larry and already beat an elite fighter in Jimmy Young twice. Young had taken Norton to that disputed decision that gifted Ken with the WBC title. After Holmes beat him Ossie drew with Micheal Dokes. Then he got beat by a british champ and was kayoed by Dokes in a rematch.

Yet in Holyfeilds time zone, over 30 years old, Ocasio was still good enough beat Dwight Qawi, last 11 rounds with Evander, lose a split decision to Ray Mercer and lasted the distance with Lennox Lewis!