Where does Evander Holyfield rank among all time great Heavyweights?

no, you are wrong. up to the same age, he had a comparative number of losses to ali, louis and tyson.

 

behind???

 

I completely agree. Helluva fighter, exciting as hell with that warrior spirit. But I can totally see him struggling in the 80's with all that talent, ie. Witherspoon, Tucker, Bruno, Bonecrusher, Page, Ruddock, Holmes etc. Holyfield doesn't steamroll the field like Tyson did. But he was able to win when written off. I truly believe he was lucky to face Tyson when he did.

 

Well said.

 

Schmeling? not sure hes ATG at all. Hes HoF for beating Louis and being champ briefly.

But vitali, a bit part titlist with a string of wins against no-hopers and a loss whenever he stepped up above it, in front of Holyfield is patently ridiculous.

 

UOTE="Ra's Al-Ghul, post: 18220981, member: 108619"]Yes 1 - 2 places, also Corbett is in front of him and Schmeling too, in my view. Although Holyfield might have been the best payed boxer shortly in the late ninteen-ninties, until de la Hoya became it (or who was possibly when already the most overpayed boxer, as he is it ever).[/QUOTE]

Yes Corbett has all those great wins doesn't he ? A 34 years old alcoholic Sullivan who hadn't fought in over 4 and a half years,a 165lbs Mitchell having his next to last fight,a 3 fight novice Choynski ,and bareknuckler Kilrain.
Holyfield was only ranked in the top ten for 15 years.

 

You need to check their records once again.

1) Holmes beat top-5 HW Ray Mercer right before Holyfield fight. Mercer was WBO champion who just KO'd 27-0 Damiani and 28-0 Morrison. So Holmes more than earned title shot.

2) Cooper was late replacement, had recently good TKO win over future WBA challenger Joe Hipp (25-1). Anyway, Holy was scheduled to face Tyson, not Cooper, and it wasn't his fault.

3) Mormeck never almost beat Haye, but anyway the fight was years ago, Mormeck moved up in weight and was 40+ years

4) Briggs had winning streak... of 3 fights in a row before Vitali fight, beating the greats like Rafael Pedro, Rob Calloway, Dominik Alexander. Holmes had 5-fight winning streak before Holy fight, including schooling of prime Ray Mercer.

5) Rahman was spent after 2nd KO loss to Maskaev and since then he was just punching bag (his best win came vs Zuri Lawrence in a hard fight).

So to say Klitschko's 'weaker' defenses are somehow better than Holyfield's is somewhat ridiculous.

 

whats well said about it? exactly please.

 

holyfield could easily have fought lots obums too. I dnot see why its an argument. Anyone semi decent with good longevity can beat lots of bums n semi-bums.

wlad gets nailed more for his losses not fro having wins.

 

umm no, he lost the title because he wasn't fighting bums.

u in the circular reasoning brigade, chum.

 

Sullivan was 34 years old, washed up and had not fought in over 4 and a half years.Choynsky was a 3 fight novice he was not a contender by any stretch of the imagination. Name Mitchell's best win?Mitchell never fought Jackson." Corbett was in the top 5 for 15 years?"
That's interesting because his active career spanned less than 11 years!
Corbett started as a pro boxer in July 1886,he had 8 fights up to Feb 1890 when he fought his first noted opponent Kilrain, so he would not have been considered a serious threat to the title until Feb1890!
After beating the alcoholic Sullivan he defended his title against middle weight Mitchell in Jan 1894 , then he retired for 2 years and 5 months,he came back to draw with Sharkey in 4 rounder in Jun1896, and defended his title against Fitzsimmons in March 1897 being ko'd, he then fought Sharkey again in Nov 1898 and was dsq'd when his second climbed into the ring to save him from being knocked out.

He promptly retired again for a year and a half coming back to challenge Jeffries who kod him

.He then had a dubious win over Kid McCoy, which many thought was a fake, and retired again for 3 years!

Coming out of retirement for a challenge to Jeffries in which he was soundly beaten.
This added up gives him an active career of less than 11 years!
Please show how Corbett was ranked in the top 5 for
15 years when his career was less then 11 years and for great parts of which he was retired? even if you included the 7 years between different fights when he was retired Corbett still would still not be a contender for a title for more than 9 years! BTW the ratings did not come into use until the 1920's!

 

You downgrade Holyfield for not being an active champion? Yet rate Corbett above him,yes I can see the logic in that!

 

I disagree about the controversial decision vs. Mercer. Holmes was hurt in round 2, and I thought he would get a beating, but from 3 or 4 onward (if I recall, has been some time) he actually made Mercer look very 2nd rate, and it was almost funny, he was talking to him etc.
As far as the rest of the post, I think you are pretty much exactly right though.

 

I can't see any logical argument which harbors Jim Corbett OR Max Schmeling ranking above Evander Holyfield. There are even some here who have placed Holyfield OUTSIDE the top 10..Is this comedy hour?