Unpopular Opinion: 91 Tyson KO's 91 Holyfield

I think those that are going with Evander are banking on him taking the bout into deep water. It's Holyfield's mentality that might be Tyson's kryponite.
He could hurt him, knock him down but he'll keep coming back.
In other words Evander Holyfield will always take Mike Tyson to a place in the fight that has nothing to do with boxing.

I don't know which way it would go in the 80s. I'm pretty sure Mike wanted no parts of Evander by 1990-91. He backed out of a fight with him. It's possible that for a specific period of time Tyson may have been too strong for Holyfield as he was just settling into heavyweight..maybe 88 at the latest.

 

Yep it's a funny thing.
When Holyfield had just stepped up from the cruisers, despite him being the most talked about challenge for Tyson, after Spinks, there weren't many saying he stood a chance.
Tyson was too fast, too strong, EH just wasn't big enough etc etc.
Funny how life turned out!

 

It's not a unpopular opinion, on the contrary it's pretty much in line with conventional wisdom.

In November of 1991 Tyson had a 6-1 (1 TKO) record in fights that went 10 rounds or more. From those 6 wins, two of them were title fights and one of them was against the #2 contender in the world. I should add that the Tillis fight was one where Tyson was taken into deep waters for the first time against a game journeyman/former contender who forced the 19 year old prodigy to dig deep to pull off the win. So if the Holyfield strategy was to take him in the later rounds, it may not have made a difference. It's important to note that even against Douglas, the momentum was in favor of Buster almost from the outset and it wasn't until late in the 8th round that we saw a shift in momentum in favor of Tyson.

Stamina wasn't the issue, it was focus and complacency. Tyson vs Holyfield in '91 was expected to be a huge fight. I don't think the Tyson camp would have approached it the same way they approached Douglas. Add to the fact that early 90's Holyfield had a tendency to fight up and down to his level of competition, was trigger happy and noticeably smaller than he was in '96, I'm can't envision anything other than a Tyson stoppage of a game Holyfield.

Evander grew into a bonafide heavyweight as time went on; his 3 fights with Bowe, his war with Ray Mercer and his unexpected struggle with Foreman, Holmes and Moorer turned him the great heavyweight that he became. I tend to think that if Holyfield fought Lewis in 96-97 he would have, legitimately split fights with Lennox if not beaten him outright.

 

I'm mostly not sure about this because of Mike's loss to Douglas. I think it showed psychologically in how difficult he found Ruddock (who was wiped out ridiculously early by an immature Lennox Lewis).

That said, Holy hadn't had the fights against Foreman and Holmes that matured him into his prime (vs. Bowe I). I think Holy loses, but scores a kd due to punch volume and placement and does pretty damn well overall. A sight better than Ruddock for sure. Mike gets a majority or split decision win.

 

How the dynamic has changed of late in here. Or maybe posters are no longer bothered on this one. One who would have went at this with glee is not here anymore.

A couple of old threads -

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/holyfield-tyson-1991-who-wins-and-why.9626/

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/mike-tyson-vs-evander-holyfield-in-1991.257971/

 

That's arguable. There's opinion both ways and I'd not say it's overly in favor of Tyson personally.

Those other fights are mostly irrelevant because those guys and their ratings aren't a patch on Holyfield. Most of them were fighting for survival and very negative. Rudduck was one dimensional and outclassed. Holyfield always fought to win, just as he did in their two bouts.

Saying that we saw a shift in momentum for Tyson late in the 8th round against Douglas is a gross over dramatization. Tyson landed one single punch and dropped him. That was it. From there on Douglas went back to completely dominating him as he had been all fight prior.

Now i'm warmer than most to giving Tyson some leeway against Douglas as i agree it was a woefully prepared version. Even so it was eye opening how dominating Douglas was. I'm also partial to what Douglas brought to the table if interested and in shape and he sure brought it that night. Excellent hand speed for a big man, brilliant jab, pinpoint footwork, hard straight right hand and great fundamentals. Such a shame he didn't possess the determination and intestinal fortitude of guys like Larry Holmes.

I agree Tyson would have been in top shape. He'd had his wake up call. Holyfield wasn't overly smaller and i wouldn't be hedging my bets on a handful of pounds. He was big enough to one punch Douglas and beat a 257 pound determined George Foreman.

The Holyfield he would have faced would have been the guy that whooped Douglas. Tho in bad shape Douglas was comprehensively outboxed and Holyfield looked as sharp as we ever saw him at heavyweight.

He looked mightily like a bonafide heavyweight when he pole axed Douglas.

He did man handle Tyson in their actual fights but Tyson wasn't exactly hard to clinch, tie up, or keep quiet in clinches at any rate so a few pounds won't change the entire dynamic for mine.

I'm not convinced he needed all those extra fights to win in 91. He was so strong mentally and the thing that makes him such a problem for Tyson is that he won't let himself get dominated. You go at him it ain't gonna be free and if you let Tyson have free flurries he's going to eat you up. There was none of that with Holyfield. Stop some of that forward momentum or even back Tyson up and things opened right up for you and it was a changed game.

I'm more open to a Tyson victory in 91 than i used to be but i'd still favor Holyfield personally.

 

Absolutely no chance, 91 Tyson was dog**** and wouldn't be anywhere near good enough to beat a quality fighter like Holyfield.

 

He beat one of the top guys in the division twice in 91.

 

His 12 round performance against Ruddock showed alot of new weaknesses.

Head movement? Non existent. Combination punches? Gone. Defence? Very leaky.

 

Well it's not like Holyfield in the early 90s was void of weaknesses either, he was almost knocked out by Bert Cooper. Alex Stewart hurt him badly in their fight, and a shot Michael Dokes was giving him all he could handle for 10 rounds.

Holyfield tended to go to war too much in early 90s, see Riddick Bowe fight and the fights I mentioned above. And that could be his downfall vs Tyson who's one of the best finishers.

The Holyfield who fought Tyson in 1996, was a smarter version of Holyfield. The Holyfield in 1991, was getting hurt and wobbled, and going to war frequently against lesser fighters. I remember even commentator saying, if that was Tyson in the Cooper fight what would of happened.

 

Holyfield anytime between 1990 (Douglas right) and 1999 Lewis fights) would beat any version of Tyson

 

He wasn't in peak form, but Ruddock had more dangerous power than Holyfield, and Tyson took it, and Holyfield was vulnerable at that time as shown by guys like Cooper and Dokes. And that's an overstatement of Tyson's decline. It was mostly head movement in later rounds that he neglected.

 

It is difficult to consider Holyfield as not standing a chance against Tyson - the timing of their meeting, notwithstanding.

He definitely stood a chance in '91 and for the same reasons he stood a chance against Tyson, several years later.

 

I don't think before Tyson went inside he was fighting back to his best.

91 Tyson I think beats Holyfield and Bowe. I also think if he defended against Mercer and Lewis in 92/93 I'd say he beats those versions of them as well.

It goes without saying he beats the version of Douglas that existed after the rematch.

But i do believe Tyson was a phenomenon and when he was fully at his best, he was a force to be reckoned with.

There's no way he could have kept it together for that long had he avoided prison, but also there's no way anyone beats him at his best had he avoided prison.

Once Lewis got with Steward that's a different story, I don't see Tyson beating him. But the rest of the early 90s crew shouldn't hold a candle to him imo.