They never managed to land combinations on Holyfield like Mike may, because they weren't combination punchers.
1. Before Holy, Tyson had 4 fights in 5 years, none of them went beyond the 3rd round, none of his rivals wanted to fight except McNelley, but they lasted a minute. Tyson was dramatically rusty. 2. Their preparations and attitudes were completely different. Holy sparred hard with David Tua, Tyson... I don't know, mainly Nate Tubbs I guess. Holy was preparing for the fight of his life, Tyson was preparing for another execution, he already had a contract for the fight in April 1997 with Michael Moorer, just as the fight with Holy was planned in 1990, after Douglas. Attitude and regular fights are extremely important. Just watch the Fury-Ngannou fight. Do I really have to convince anyone that an older, injured, 37-year-old who has been inactive for 2 years and previously only fought in MMA is as good as the best HW in recent years??? but see how Fury prepared and how he was mentally prepared for the fight, and how Francis Ngannou was. I think that the Liston-Ali, Foreman-Liston fights, which were once considered great sensations and are now considered proof, were also largely due to the right attitude. Liston, Foreman, Tyson, Fury did not intend to fight long and hard. Today no one takes this into account. If Ngannou had won against AJ, we would have said that he was as strong as Tyson Fury because he lost completely, we believe that it was not a meaningful fight and we explain the reasons why this fight had an unexpected course. In the case of big names, these reasons are forgotten, but Holyfield never fought prime Tyson.
I keep hearing about "prime" Tyson. "Prime" Tyson wasn't a smarter fighter than old Tyson. I don't see any reason to believe the fight would have been different. "Prime" Tyson might have a chance at Lennox, but only because Lennox got better as he got older. If Tyson caught him green enough, he might have a chance, but I don't think Holyfield was ever green enough to lose to Tyson.
Every single fighter in the history of their sport has a "prime". If you don't know when Tyson's prime was and think it's a ****in excuse for when he was at his best as opposed to fighting less than 8 complete rounds after 4 years away from the ring, maybe you should stick to General before posting in Classic. Just some advice for the young uns...
I read years ago that Holyfield was getting the better of Tyson at the 84 Olympic tryouts when Holyfield was a light heavyweight. So Tyson was probably always worried about Holyfield. Evander just wouldn't let Tyson be that bully, ever.
it is quite possible, at that time Tyson was also defeated by Henry Tillman in official fights. But I didn't hear that Tyson lost the sparrings, apparently they were hard and even
I've never read that Holy was getting the better of Tyson, rather their sparring was so heated that they stopped it so nobody would get hurt. Even if Holyfield had knocked him out in 10 seconds during that session I don't think Tyson would've been bothered. It's the amateurs. Henry Tillman beat Tyson twice in the box offs and look what happened in their professional fight! Same thing with Bowe and Lewis.
Prime for prime Holy wins a solid but scary UD. A very late TKO is possible, especially if Mike gets knocked down. The Holy from Bowe, Mike from Spinks… Holy was just too good imo, too many skills, warrior heart…
Now that this has been bumped and you've been with the people who know boxing better than anyone on the planet and in history (this forum) for over four years, wouldn't you say you have quite a lot of boxing knowledge, at this point? I