The Great Evander Holyfield Finally Retires

Nah, back at you.

Look at how much he weighed against his mainstay opponents.

EH 215, Lennox Lewis 245
EH 208, George Foreman 258
EH 208, Buster Douglas 246
EH 205, Riddick Bowe 235
EH 217, Riddick Bowe 246

Holyfield had a smaller frame than these guys and yet he fought like Superman. The guy was a ****ing stud. Sure, there were other pseudo-HW's who were in his weight range but, like EH, they were undersized by today's standards. My point was and is, if Evander had been given a larger frame, like Big Daddy, he would have ruled the HW division, maybe would have been the best EVER. The guy had a heart the size of Secretariat's and formidable power. He was a true phenom. And THE GUY COULD TAKE A PUNCH. Iron chin. The Bowe battles were epic.

When he stepped in with guys his size, he poleaxed them. Look what he did to Qawi (Braxton), De Leon and Tillman. And Qawi was a tough SOB.

 

:nono

I've stated my case in both the link provided and recapped in this very thread. All that can be said about it has been.

Agree to disagree. :good


(except on the point of Holyfield being a first-ballot Canastota lock in 2017 and CW & HW ATG, probably the GOAT in the former...)

 

Has any great fighter been in more great fights than Holy?

 

Too bad Holyfield pissed on his legacy by being forced to fight way past his due date thanks to financial problems. How he managed to lose his $100m fortune is beyond me.

 

Nobody will remember the last few years of his career.

 

Couldn't care less. The grandpa has been irrelevant since years.

 

The problem with your case, however, is that Holyfield turned pro at 177. He bulked up over his career to earn bigger paydays. True HW's today don't come in at weights that low. Your argument is that he is an average sized HW by historical standards. That is only once he bulked himself up. Naturally, he was not a true HW, but he sure the hell fought like one, is my point.

 

Or, one could argue, he was a boiled-down 177 and never really a natural cruiser. :hey He "bulked up" to where he belonged in the first place, after beating up on smaller men for a time, big old bully.

 

Holyfield has a great resume. He's beaten Tyson, Foreman, Bowe, Dokes, Qawi, Cooper, and Mercer.

 

After James Toney I thought Evander was just hanging on for the sake of not knowing what else to do.

 

For the sake of child support. Lots and lots of child support.

 

And the real estate holdings. I saw his mansion and estate in Atlanta on line. I couldn't get over how little they were asking for it. A real steal but I wasn't about to move to Atlanta, not to mention the fact that the maintenance, over time, would cost you more than the price of the house. I think it had something like 40,000 sq. ft. And you wonder why these guys get into financial problems...

 

He already has severe brain damage going by his speech

 

That's the problem with guys that are that tough, have that good a chin. In the end, it catches up to them. Hate to see this has happened to Evander but it was inevitable.