Where Do You Rank Evander Holyfield As A Heavyweight?

I guess somewhere among the top 20.
Close to Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, maybe a hair in front of them.

 

No way should he rank above Lewis. No matter what criteria, Lewis has him beat everywhere. I also rank Tyson well ahead of Holyfield but I weigh head to head highly so if you don't weigh head to head I can see Holy being a little ahead.

I rank Evander out of the top ten, around the 12 spot. He lost his trilogy when at his best against Bowe who isn't a top 10-12 fighter. He was a little to inconsistent for me to rank him in the top ten and even at his best had his hands full with Holmes, Foreman, Cooper etc. One of my favorites to watch though, he always brought it.

 

Who has Lewis beat thats better than a prime Bowe? Lewis beat a lot of contenders, but not a lot of former champions or real savvy fighters. Guys like Grant, Golota, Mavrovic, Briggs, Tua, Akinwande, Botha, Morrison, were top tenners, but Holy has a whole score of those as well. Lewis best wins are probably Mercer, Bruno, Ruddock and Holyfield, and he had his hands full with Mercer and Bruno. His lackluster wins over Holyfield werent anything spectacular either.
Not sure thats better than
Bowe, Tyson, Moorer, Mercer, Foreman, Holmes, Douglas.
Lewis had the more consistent winning career, but I think Holyfield beat a better caliber of fighter overall.

 

Holyfield beat the **** out of Tyson twice. If you include head-to-head, then certainly Holyfield would come out better compared to Tyson, but i assume you're talking head-to-head against the field?

I rank Holyfield at the lower end of the top10. He was somewhat inconsistent, but also at the top of a talent loaded division for a very long time and never avoided anyone. He should've gotten decision against Valuev, which is on par with Holmes beating Mercer....... and needless to say, a tremendous accomplishment. Especially if you consider that 19 or 20 (!!) years earlier he was beating ranked heavyweights. Very few can claim such longetivity.

 

Do you rank Lewis ahead of Holyfield?

 

I think he makes the top 10, but probably on the lower tier of it...

He made the move to ascend to a higher weight class during a time when being a heavyweight meant being a very large man. He always showed up in picture perfect shape, unless he had some sort of uncontrolable health issue such as his torn shoulder in the Moorer fight, or hepatitis in the third Bowe match.

Both his heavyweight and cruiserweight records consist of virtually no padding, except for the occasional tune-up bout here and there. He fought the very best of a competitive division for well over a decade and ducked virtually no one. Most of his losses came at an advanced age, or under unfavorable circumstances. He is also the division's only 4 time champion - at least 3 of which are lineal claims.

Lastly, he has a rather good list of wins against top tier heavyweights who were either in their primes, or at least doing some very good work at the time he fought them, despite being past their best.

That list includes - Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe, Michael Moorer, James Douglas, Michael Dokes, George Foreman, Hasim Rahman, and John Ruiz... He also gave one of the best comeback efforts at the age of 46 against the largest heavyweight champion of all time and arguably won it. Had he recieved the decision, he would have been the oldest man to ever win the heavyweight title.....

 

Do you think he has better wins over better fighters and more accomplishments than Holyfield at heavyweight? Why do you rank him higher?

 

That doesnt really answer the question. He beat Holyfield twice, but did he beat a prime Holyfield? To me its not a super impressive feat to avenge your losses against mid level contenders in Mcall and Rahman either. Avenging against another top level fighter like Bowe or Tyson would definitely be much bigger if it was on that level. Beating the best of the next generation and the generation he was involved in, was not that great in my opinion, and certainly doesnt have the quality of opposition that Holyfield faced.

 

I don't put wins over Bowe (lost the series anyway) a post prison Tyson, Moorer (he lost the first fight to him) Mercer (Lennox also beat him) an old Foreman, ancient Holmes, and a Buster Douglas that disgraced the title by showing up resembling a whale over Vitali Klitschko, 2 over Holyfield himself, Tua, Ruddock, Bruno, Rahman, Morrison, Akinwande, Briggs, Golota, Grant, McCall, Tucker and Tyson. The depth of Lennox's resume is really 3rd only to Louis and Ali, and if you want to compare best wins, I wouldn't pick the out of shape Bowe that Holy beat or post Prison Tyson over the Vitali that Lennox beat.

 

Of course. Plus Tyson was farther from his best than Holyfield was when they fought, Holyfield put in two great performances where it was obvious Tyson was miles away from what he was. But it's still a great win for Evander, don't get me wrong.