Vassily Jirov vs Evander Holyfield @Heavyweight 2003

What if Jirov fought Holyfield in 2003 instead of James Toney. In 2003, Jirov was coming off of an amazing fight with Toney and went on to fight Joe Messi in another tough fight in early 2004 that he lost by a whisker. Holyfield on the other hand was clearly on the slide and looked like crap against Toney.

I'm not suggesting that Jirov is even remotely as good as Holyfield historically, but I think this particular time frame, they are pretty close. I think it's one hell of a matchup. Who do you have and how?

 

Agreed. At that point, Evander was still a good puncher but he needed someone to to bang with. His management put him in with the ultra slick, counter punching Toney and movers like Byrd and Donald. Jirov would likely trade with him making it a fun fight. I would definitely favor Jirov who was unlucky to not have one more minute or even 30 seconds against Mesi.

 

It was a weird fight. Jirov clearly won the first round but it was all Mesi after that until the end of 8th, Jirov started landing some hard shots. If I recall correctly, Mesi was hurt and on the way down when Jirov caught him on the back of the head at the end of the 9th. The 10th is when Jirov really started to hurt Mesi to the body and head. At the end of the round Mesi was clinging for dear life. I think the decision was just and Mesi won more rounds. Jirov never looked great at Heavyweight and should have stayed at CW.

 

Around the 4:15 mark is the punch to the back of the head. That combo started with a body shot that folded Messi. He definitely caught him on the back of the head but to me, it's the 10th round where the damage really started. Jirov landed several flush shot with the bodywork almost always starting the damage. It makes you wonder why he waited so long and somewhat abandoned his body work in rounds two through eight. This was a very entertaining fight between two very good fighters that never reached their full potential. I would have liked to have seen more of Messi. He had really fast hands and good power.

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