What if Holyfield retired before fighting Riddick Bowe

Around 20-25 historically .
Similar tier to Floyd Patterson,Tim Witherspoon .
No defining wins over an elite prime , dangerous heavyweight.
But cruiser weight, he's the number 1 .

 

Considerably lower.

The Bowe fights despite losing the trilogy actually added to Holyfield's legacy. Because prior to that Holyfield was thought of as a bit of a weak champion who struggled against a couple of old age pensioners.

The Bowe fights showed everyone he was a legit Heavyweight and a warrior.

Also the Tyson fights were very important to his legacy aswell.

 

Definitely not as high on the ATG ranking. Despite losing more in the later stages of his career he fought in more meaningful fights and won some of them that further enhanced his legacy. His longer run showed just how and willingness to fight just about anyone despite being a smaller HW made him the respected HW fighter that he's seen now.

 

I would have considered him the best cruiser ever and a truly powerful heavyweight, but his reign as champion was short and he lacked matches against champions in their prime. He could have avenged the only loss of his career (Moorer), but unfortunately, problems forced him to retire. In reality the victory over Bowe (a champion in his prime) is important for his legacy, and he won the rematch with Moorer. In my opinion Holyfield deserves to be in the top 15 heavyweights of all time.

 

They’d say that he was an ATG Crusierweight, but didn’t beat a live heavyweight in their prime.

 

Undefeted question

 

I currently have him at 12. He would probably be at 20 if he retired undefeated. He would have never doubled his HW title defense count (3 title defenses to 6 title defenses) nor would he have been the only 4-time HW Champ.

 

He would rank lower.
He needed to beat Mike in my opinion to get to the level he did. Mike might not have been as good as he used to, but he still was the 3rd best heavyweight and he was hungry.
His X amount of times he was champion to me means nothing.

Evander is in the top 10 I feel after he gets his ear bit off.

 

Not sure his ranking should change all that much - was he a better fighter for turning 30 and adding bulk? For all the wins he added, there was usually a loss.

But his greatness suffers. Most of the reasons that he is so revered is because of the monumental heart he showed against the skilled super heavies - Bowe onwards. He'd only had to show in glimpses before what he routinely showed against Bowe, Tyson, Lewis. Evander's legend bloomed during the first Bowe fight and carried on growing.

 

Immediately after the rematch with Moorer, he was ranked a top-three heavyweight by The Ring. It was the perfect time to retire. The following years likely saw his ranking drop after weak fights with Bean, Lewis, Ruiz, Donald, Byrd, and Toney. Tyson's ratings, which was his biggest victory, also plummeted. Today, Holy is somewhat underrated, in my opinion. He would have been in 1992, too, because his biggest fights were ahead of him.