Should Evander Holyfield Have Beaten Larry Holmes And George Foreman More Emphatically?

Holyfield has better footwork, actually throws combinations, is a better counterpuncher, and is faster than Frazier.

 

The amazing thing is that Holmes was able to have as much success as he did against Holyfield while countering with his back against the ropes for the majority of the fight. He was never really able to box him from distance except for short stints. Early in the fight, Holyfield was having more success when he would take a few steps back and fight him in the midrange for a bit rather than smothering him where he was getting teed off on. I thought Holyfield rightly won but only by a single round. To his credit, Holyfield did a pretty good job nullifying Larry's jab with his right glove in the crossguard defense. But, yeah, it would be hard to imagine Holyfield beating a prime or even somewhat past his prime Holmes.

Foreman on the other hand is a little more difficult to gauge. I could foresee a path where Holyfield could potentially win due to his chin, will, and punching volume. But I don't think that's the likely outcome. Holyfield could box when he wanted to as seen in the second Bowe fight. But he always had a terrible habit of getting dragged into wars when it wasn't to his benefit. And he was quite hittable, let's be real. I think 8 or 9 out of 10 times, a prime Foreman would force Holyfield into a firefight which Holyfield would gladly accept and that would lead to the Real Deal getting knocked out.

 

Closer to Quarry, whom Foreman never fought.

 

The bigger, possibly tougher, and more experienced Holyfield from the Tyson fights might be a better pick against Young George.

That said, despite his enthusiasms, Holyfield fought a lot of punchers throughout his years at/near the top, and only Bowe stopped him once in three tries.

 

Hard to say. Holy seemed even in his prime to have more trouble than he should with most guys, but then rise to the occassion.

 

You're kind of asking what did Ali do that Holy couldn't, except for the things that won him the fight. Ali's feel for when to engage and when not to was crucial for the outcome of that fight.

 

Both were still dangerous, vastly experienced, and sizeable to boot. Tough fights.

I'd take both to beat Holyfield but i wouldn't be surprised if Holyfield nabbed a decision in a series with Holmes. I don't see Evander surviving George. As soon as he finds Foreman cutting him off all the time he's going to exchange, and exchange some more. It's Foreman by stoppage.

 

Not to mention a better chin.

 

I actually think the Holyfield of the Tyson fights would be a better match-up vs prime Foreman.

 

That's actually an interesting discussion. You should make a thread on it, with a poll. Frazier came back from a heap of enormous punches in quite short succession. There's certainly not a gulf between them. Both take a good punch and are teak tough on the whole.

 

Frazier seemed to be very good at taking punches from decent heavyweight punchers like Ali and Quarry, but seemed to run into a brick wall against ATG punchers. Holyfield could take shots from ATG punchers like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and even George Foreman.

 

Holyfield beat Foreman like a drum he landed 60 percent of his punches and doubled Foreman’s landed punches.

Its only because Foreman has a granite chin that he was able to last 12 rounds taking that amount of punishment.

Yes Foreman did have some moments like the memorable 7th round but for the most part he was well beaten.

Holmes fought a tricky defensive fight and was more competitive but was still losing quite clearly until Holmes accidentally elbowed Holyfield opening up a terrible cut. Which allowed Holmes back in the fight in the last few rounds to make it closer.

So all in all Foreman was well beaten and took alot of punishment.

Holmes I believe would've lost more widely on the scorecards had it not been for the elbow that allowed Holmes back in the fight.

 

Foreman's the only ATG puncher he faced, it's a pretty small sample. He faced a pretty terrifying version of Foreman, too. Also, Holyfield didn't take remotely what Frazier did off Foreman and he didn't take a whole lot of flush right hands off Lewis, as well. He's certainly robust, tho, Holyfield. We needed a bit more exposure to be sure about Joe but he certainly got up from some shocking bombs against Foreman.

 

Great learning experience fight for Evander. And the other huge factor often overlooked is Larry knew how to get a tko stoppage in there. If you were busted up or swollen, Larry is one of the best ever at getting the stoppage.

But Evander took his foot of the gas and won the bout with smarts against a guy that knew how to get the stoppages. Not too many other heavies are or were ever going to get that result against Larry Holmes.