.............This one. This is just a highlight clip, but it went on like this the full 15. Jaw-dropping fight, without question the best I've seen. [YT]9fHl3FLPrUE[/YT]
Tyson vs. Holyfield I is badly underrated by current fans. Anyone who hasn't seen that one recently have another look - that was EPIC. Holyfield was what? 25-1 underdog? Nobody gave Holyfield a chance to win that fight (except Ron Borges). **** that, almost nobody thought Holyfield would make it past the first round. 20-20 hindsight really ****s this one up. This is one of the most epic fights in the history of boxing. By far. It was like watching a movie. Even laymen couldn't believe what they were seeing. Has any crowd ever been louder?
No doubt about that fight. I just can't get into the "feeling" and the "beat" of american fans prior to and during this fight, cause I didn't have the chance to watch live fights at the time and didn't know that much about the sport anyway. Maybe you can you explain it to me, why almost all boxing EXPERTS at the time didn't give Holyfield a chance? I mean how can writers and analysts of the sport be so wrong about a fight? I'm really interested to know.
Sure, Carles, yeah primarily there was a belief and understanding that whatever Tyson hit at that point in his career - he destroyed. It was going to be physically impossible for Holyfield to avoid getting hit by Tyson - and it certainly wasn't going to be possible for Evander to withstand the force of impact itself. So there was no chance in hell Holyfield could win - let alone see the final bell. NONE. People understood that Holyfield was a tough guy, very durable.. There was a better chance he would die, literally, than win this fight. People genuinely thought there was a very good chance Holyfield was going to be killed. They considered that first before him winning.
To add... People could not believe it when Holyfield was standing up to Tyson's shots. It was like watching somebody in a movie get sprayed with machine gun fire and keep coming forward. Same effect.
I see. Yes, I know that perception about Tyson, especially prior to the Douglas loss. BUT, couldn't experts see that Tyson after '95 wasn't as good as Tyson before '91 (1991-1995 was the jail time). In addition, there was already the Douglas loss, so people (and especially boxing experts) had solid proof that a guy CAN withstand Tyson's attack, and also hurt Mike?
That really is how it was. Tyson in the 90's looked every bit as badass as the 80's, and if anything, looked faster and stronger. Technique was slipping though. But Holyfield was considered used goods at that point.
Ahh... did you feel that way too watching it??? It must have been something... See, that's why I couldn't feel what american fans where feeling when they were watching this fight, when I watched it the perceptions that Tyson was untouchable and that Holyfield had no chance were not in my mind... it was just a fight between two great heavyweights.
Why did people think that? Evander had destroyed the man that had destroyed Tyson... isn't that true?
The people in the community who knew the backstory and details behind the Douglas incident felt they had enough to call that a lapse. Not just any lapse either - something akin to the Titanic hitting an iceberg. Granted, when you look at the tapes of that fight who could Buster Douglas have not beaten that day? Tyson was particularly ****, to go along with it, and he still almost took Buster's head off with one uppercut. This also had alot to do with where Holyfield was at this point in his career as well. Just a year before that he was having "heart attacks" in the ring, and losing to the likes of Michael Moorer, and Riddick Bowe in the rubber match. Alot of people thought Holyfield was DONE, and should have already been retired. Evander had also been rocked badly and dropped by fighters considered far less dangerous than Tyson in the past.