Where Do You Rate Holyfield?

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Holmes
4. Holyfield
5. Foreman
6. Lewis (Foreman and Lewis trade places a lot on my list, I go back and forth)
7. Marciano
8. Frazier
9. Tyson
10. Wlad
11. Liston
12. Dempsey
13. Johnson
14. Vitali
15. Bowe
16. Charles
17. Tunney
18. Fury
19. Patterson
20. Norton
21) Wilder
22) Walcott
23) Witherspoon
24) Fitzsimmons
25) Sullivan
26) Jeffries
28) Weaver
29) Joshua

Holy was one of the greatest Warriors of the sport, right up with Ali as far as championship Heart and determination.

 

If I had a top ten list I’d have him in there but not sure where

 

I don't get how people are rating him in the top 10 as he was nowhere near that good. Nowhere. He went life and death with a lot of medicore guys and when it came to the top tiers (Bowe, Tyson and Lewis), he only won 2 out of 7 matches. Thats nowhere near top 10 heavyweight material. If anything its more like top 20-30.

The most notable fight he won cleanly (well, not that clean given the steroid accusations) was against a past-his-prime Tyson. While some people count the rematch in Holyfields favor, I don't because the fight ended early and just before it ended, Tyson had the upper hand. Therefore we don't know how that fight would've turned out had it kept going.

The other victory is of course against Bowe, but arguably that had to due with the fan man. Bowe was losing the fight at first, then started to gain the upper hand just before the fan man came in. Had the fan man not shown up Bowe might've been the one to win the fight, or still go on to lose. Either way Holyfield narrowly eeked out a win here. There was no clean dominant victory not here or against Tyson quite frankly.

IMO, to be considered top 10 you need to have some clean wins and a record of doing pretty good against other high ranking guys of the era. Thats not Holyfied.

 

Have him in that 14-18 area