Was Holyfield hitting harder than Tyson in 96?

That's right Stevie.
He definitely had the greater power, hed just lost a fair bit of what made him so good years back.
That power never really left him for me.

 

Prime Tysons shots were freakish. The speed and power were not seen in an heavyweight like that.
And Tysons build, I mean crazy, a guy like that knocking over fellas like tenpins.

 

I think we should disabuse the notion that a fighter somehow can increase his punching power during his boxing career.
I see it all the time with Muhammad Ali who apparently was a harder puncher in the second half of his career!

 

You think a Flyweight Pacquiao would stop Cotto?

 

I guess the main factor is that Tyson walked right into the punches, because Evander had the superior timing. Holyfield absorbed much more energy due to his footwork and also managed to use Tysons forward moementum in his favor. His distance control, his in and out style was just perfect.

On the other hand Tyson lost something during jail time. Lost his rhythem, his ballance, routine, speed and explosiveness as well. I heard he lost some amount of his muscles and needed to reshape his body. Maybe this muscles weren't really functional but just for the look... just for the posters. Even post Rooney Tyson had the ability of closing the distance, avoiding the shots and unleash some bombs in just one sequence. He lost that asset almost completely.

 

I’ll just say that I recall that Holy dropped Bowe with a titanic left hook in their rubber match - that was a surprise to me since in all the previous rounds they fought it seemed Holy wasn’t capable of pulling that off

Bowes take on the punch was interesting. He said Evander’s lead up shots didn’t have a lot on them - but then Holy put everything into the left hook - the power of which took Riddick by surprise and dumped him on his a** as we all saw.

 

I highly doubt it.

 

Good post, and I agree.

 

I completely disagree that Holyfield hit harder than Tyson at this stage.

I remember watching the fight years after and being struck by how much more explosive Tyson's punches were. To the extent I recall thinking "how does Holyfield win this when Tyson is clearly throwing harder, faster punches".

It wasnt Tyson's 1 punch power that had slipped. He was no longer throwing fluid combinations, whilst constantly moving his feet and head to slip counters, change the angle of attack and open his opponent up.

The erosion of these qualities, allied to the advantages in stamina and durability that Holyfield had always had, was enough to offset Tysons power advantage.

 

Like said, Tyson slipping n Holyfield placing his punches better cause this deception. I dont think any Holyfield hits harder but Holyfield definitely had more in the tank for another two years. Overall just more disciplined in his ring IQ n outside life than Tyson at the time.

 

Holyfield would have had more KO's if this was the case. I just can't see John Ruiz or Christ Byrd going the distance with Hoylfield taking flush shots if he hit even harder than Tyson.

 

Yes but guys like Mathis, Botha, etc wern't scared of Tyson and he flattened them with one punch. Tyson clearly hit harder than Holyfield with one punch even in the late 90s, Holyfield never had any early stoppages against any known Heavyweight, apart from a grossly out of shape Buster Douglas.

What Holyfield did have was impeccable timing, and that was evident with the counter right hand in the 10th round. Where he sent Tyson staggering across the ring.