Were Holyfield's headbutts inentional?

He knew exactly what he was doing.

This content is protected

 

Watch the entire fight. That was retaliation for Dokes throwing about 20 low blows.

 

Really? It only took little over a decade from his retirement for the revisionist whitewashing campaign to begin?

Evander Holyfield is the veritable poster child for my username. Among those watching his career in real-time it was essentially agreed by acclamation: he butted intentionally, a lot. Maybe some of his many clashes were incidental, but that just becomes a boy who cried wolf scenario. Enough weren't.

 

It’s interesting to me that there’s so much vitriol about Holyfield being a ‘dirty fighter,’ but you don’t see much of the same about guys like:

Mike Tyson, who repeatedly tried to break opponents’ arms and bit off a man’s ear — go watch the second Ruddock fight and it’s a clinic in breaking one rule after another, and hardly an isolated case

Roberto Duran, who used his thumb like a bayonet (the Moore fight being a perfect example, yet it’s held up as a masterclass performance) and won his lightweight title with a low blow

Larry Holmes, another guy who thumbed a lot of fighters

Holmes and Duran are two of my all-time favorite fighters, but they’ve been mostly spared while Holyfield seems to be outright hated by some for being ‘dirty.’

Yeah, sometimes Holy was dirty. Tyson was dirtier. So was Duran. Holmes, probably on par. It’s part of boxing — people break rules in pretty much every sport and sometimes they get away with it. I don’t see the big deal.

 

I've always found it strange that Tyson,,the so called. Baddest man on the planet , was whining like a 4 year old when Evander was roughing him up like he was taking his lunch money before school. Did Evander use his head to his advantage? Sure did, but as coach John Madden of the notorious Oakland Raiders of the 70's said," we're accused of being dirty , you guys play dirty football, well yeah we play rough , , what'a ya gonna do about" In boxing you can fight or whine, as another notorious fighter Fritzie Zivic once said, " I ain't in there to win no lollipops."

 

Headbutt nut-shot combo. That would impress even Golota.

 

As the kids say: You wanna play, you gotta get in the sandbox.

 

I do think most of it with Holyfield was that he knew he had a hard head, kept his head down when moving in, and made zero effort to move it out of the way of the opponent. If they didn't get out of the way, their fault.

 

Yes. Most fighters had their little illegal tricks.

Tyson liked hitting after the bell and had a tendency to use his elbows and hit low and hit guys on the canvas. Mayweather and Spinks had the elbows & forearms. Pedroza had the elbows and an uppercut to the testicles. Norris always hit guys on the canvas. Lennox liked to hold and hit with the uppercut.

Holyfield’s speciality was the “intentional accidental headbutt”

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v8y-dRy5NOM/maxresdefault.jpg

 

Yes, Holyfield was an obvious cheater. He also 'somehow' gained 20 pounds in 2 weeks.