Prime Holyfield vs Prime Lewis

probably Lewis by decision. I think Holyfield in his prime brawled too much.

 

Lewis was unfortunate to only get a draw, in their first meeting. But Holyfield was "ROBBED" of his titles in their rematch. Evander Holyfield of 1993 vs Lennox Lewis of that period is a mismatch. It would play out similar to Holyfield vs Alex Stewart.

 

Lewis has never fought an opponent anywhere near, to what Holyfield in his prime was. Holyfield fought world champions, Lewis fought exposed lower level fringe contenders.

 

I don't think it would be a mismatch even against prime Holyfield, but Evander certainly has much better chances prime vs prime.

As I have posted in another thread

An opinion of former Holyfield's and Lewis' sparring partner who posts on another forum - he wrote his thoughts about this fight. He names both Lennox and Evander his close friends and sparred with both of them many times.

He has Lewis a clear winner in the 1st fight and a very close in remach. He thinks prime Holyfield beats prime Lewis. I think he's as objective as anyone can be:

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.

 

The givens are Holyfield was more past his prime in comparison to Lewis. These two fights would have meant much more for legacies they taken place two to four years sooner.

Lewis was very talented, but he was never good at controlling the action with his jab ( or avoiding it ), which is why a smaller Holyfield who could jab back and counter. Lewis was somewhat hesitant to attack Holyfield in the first fight.

The second fight flashed a silent weakness for Lewis. He didn't like body shots and entered the ring with his cup guard ridiculously high to help mitigate the damage taken from body blows.

Judge for yourself at the below link and photo:

[url]https://cbsatlanta.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/evander-holyfield-lennox-lewis-1999.jpg?w=625&h=438[/url]

Who would have won if they faced each other in their prime? I lean toward Lewis via close decision, though I would not rule out a Holyfield TKO like comeback win.

 

Yeah I have to agree. While he was certainly more tenacious and durable in his prime he was also less crafty. And brawling with a guy who had 3 inches and 30 lbs on him wouldn't bode well for a win.

 

Holyfield would win a decision with his superior work rate.

 

I think Holyfield wins, maybe at his peak he could have stopped Lewis??

 

Well it certainly didn't work against Rid**** Bowe in their first fight but then Bowe was a better infighter than Lewis so I wouldn't rule out it entirely that it work against Lewis.

 

Lewis pretty much did face a prime heavyweight Holyfield.

 

The strategy of the first fight would probably work, with fair officiating.

 

Not even close.

 

Not even close to prime. Strange to read this from such knowlegable boxing fan as Seamus

It was Holyfield's 15th year as a pro - longer than whole Lennox career.

Holyfield debut was in 84 - 5 years earlier than Lennox.

Holyfield's 1st title fight and world class opponent were in 86.

Lennox' 1st world class opponent was in 92, first title fight in 93.

Holyfield has had already 17 title fights before Lewis fight.
Lennox has had 9 title fights.

Also Lennox was 3 years younger and his style is much better suited for a long run at HW, compared to Holyfield's.

Lewis was far, far closer to his prime than Holyfield.

From technical point, Lewis was in his absolute prime. He, however, lost some speed after gaining more muscles in his 30's.

On the other hand, Holyfield lost his speed, reflexes, stamina and workrate. Surely, he was still good enough to be top-2 HW, but his decline was rapid as was later evidenced in Ruiz fights.

 

When discussing Evan Fields, there is a difference between prime and heavyweight prime. He obviously didn't understand how to fight in the division when trying to outbrawl a sloppy, disinterested Bowe or a crackhead Cooper.

Taking Tyson's manhood, drilling Moore and testing the best heavyweight of the decade in Lewis was his peak in the division.