Which Holyfield win impressed you the most: Qawi or Tyson

Tyson by miles. I am still hugely impressed by it every time.

 

Concur.

 

Qawi. Beating future HOFer in you 12th fight in 15 rounds when you never went more than 8 rounds before is beyond impressive.

 

Qawi.

But then again, I didn't buy the Tyson mystique the way lots of folks did.

 

Tyson, probably because everyone in the boxing press was saying Holyfield was physically a wreck and had that potential heart issue, etc. Qawi win was impressive, but I also knew he was older and fighting above his best weight. He looked like a little bowling ball in there, though still very tough. Holyfield only had 12 fights, but looked ready. That wasn't a huge shock.

 

Both.

In hindsight its Qawi for obvious reasons. The duvas threw in several fighters into the deep end of the pool far too early and/or watched them take a terrible beating and didn't throw in the towel or did so way too late(Vargas vs Trinidad, Biggs vs tyson, littles vs toney, Taylor vs Chavez) and dumped fighters like a 20 dollar ***** when they lost. They even went as far as to call evander lazy and dump him after his first loss to Bowe.
So in hindsight the Qawi fight on paper looks like far too much far too early, a recipe for disaster but evander being a ****ing warrior somehow pulled it off. Especially his performance in the later round was amazing since he had never been in that territory with an experienced warrior like Qawi before



If i was around at the time I guess it would have been Tyson because Holyfield was supposed to be shot, when it turned out that alot of his "heart issues" were only temporary.
In the end his reflexes, chin and techniquetwere still there and once he got his problems worked out it was only his workrate that was a little diminished from his peak which he made up for with increased strength and power from his extra muscle mass.

 

I'll never forget the look of confidence on Holyfield's face during the ring announcements prior to the first Tyson fight. I thought it was misplaced but I've never been happier to be proved wrong.

 

Tyson.

People forget that Holyfield was like a 22-1 Underdog when that fight opened.

When Evander stood at the Tyson-Seldon postfight press conference and King announced that Tyson-Holyfield would be next, everyone I was with groaned.

Holyfield had looked like garbage against Michael Moorer in losing his title. He supposedly had a bad heart. He came back against Ray Mercer a year later and looked pretty good. Then he fought Riddick Bowe and got knocked out. And George Foreman was screaming from ringside to stop it. Everyone thought he was going to die in the ring. Then he came back and looked like garbage again versus Bobby Czyz before Czyz quit.

ONE writer picked Holyfield to win the first Tyson fight. ONE.

The Qawi performance was great, and it was a huge obstacle to overcome. One of the best of his career.

But the Tyson win was TOTALLY unexpected.

Put it this way, Buster Douglas (at I believe 42-1) beating Mike Tyson was the biggest upset in boxing history.

The second biggest upset EVER, was Holyfield over Tyson in fight one.

That was it.

Tyson was a heavy favorite to beat Holyfield BEFORE Tyson went to prison. He was a MONSTER favorite to beat a Holyfield who everyone expected to die of a heart attack in the ring.

 

Qawi.

Tyson of the Holyfield fight was a quicker on foot Tua, without the offensive sharpness and combination punching of his better years. Did more easily run out of gas too. Tyson one, or one two, counter punch by Holyfield, rince and repeat.
Tyson was not that good anymore.

 

Mike Tyson was certainly better than Dwight Qawi. A few months after losing to Holyfield, Qawi lost to freaking Ossie Ocasio.

A cruiserweight Qawi would've lasted about as long as Bruno did with Tyson in their return.

 

I see him as more like a Bert Cooper 2.0 but yeah, Tyson had definitely diminished as a fighter. Qawi was a much better opponent in the pound-for-pound sense.

But I still think the Tyson win was more impressive overall. Holyfield was considerably past-prime himself, physically ailing, and did not have the obvious physical advantages vs. Tyson that he had enjoyed against Qawi. He was a massive underdog for a reason, and he still went out there and dominated Tyson.

 

Qawi was in no way a better opponent.

Here's Dwight Qawi winning the title against Piet Crous. Bert Cooper was quicker and better than the cruiserweight Dwight Qawi. Mike Tyson upon his return to the ring was a 100 times better than the cruiserweight Dwight Qawi.

Qawi looks like he's moving in slow motion compared to Tyson in 1996.

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I was comparing post-prime Tyson to Bert Cooper.

Fair enough--my Qawi bias got the best of me there.

 

Are you telling both the Cruiser, and the big SHW had the same durability fighting Holyfield and Tyson?
Tyson still got a punch, which doesn´t tell the whole story. If its not delivered quickly, you might end with the Bonecrusher syndrome.
That was Frank Bruno in his last fight at nearly 250lb.

In fact, also for the commentators Tyson didn´t look good before Bruno as well:

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And I think they´re right.