Why do people deny Holyfield's head butts when fighters complain about them?

Evander Headfield
I like Holyfield as a boxer and HW champion, but I don't deny that he used his head (less in the sense of ring IQ and more in the sense of headbutt).

 

Lennox Lewis said once Tyson's ear biting was no different to Holyfield's headbutting both are breaking rules and I agree.

Lewis also once said he see Holyfield training in a gym with a tyre on a heavy bag practicing headbutts not sure how true that is.

 

I haven't seen anyone here deny them. People just really like Holyfield, so they mostly just give him a slap on the wrist for it, or just don't care. Some may even like it, it was a thing of beauty at times, an art in itself. Is it biased and hypocritical given harsh criticism we give other less likeable fighters ? Yeah, but it's also just how people are.

 

He could put on some entertaining fights haha, but it doesn't excuse the fact that he cheated with headbutting and blatant roid abuse. Some guys though aren't afraid to return fire when headbutted, like Tyson, who retaliated by nibbling on those ears.

My favorite quote of the fight was "he did it again! He did it again!".

 

I don't like any kind of headbutt, low blows, biting, elbows, breaking the arm in the clinch (Tyson), leaving the ring between rounds (Golota), robery, falling from a punch that missed the boxer, punching after the bell, and everything I didn't list. I am against any kind of unsportsmanlike and ungentlemanly behavior. But that's boxing, or rather:

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People have always really wanted to prop him up as this feel-good story all-around great guy he was hyped as, but that just isn't the reality. Sort of like Hulk Hogan.

Holyfield had lots of myth building behind him, wasn't the squeaky clean Christian family man he portrated himself as nor was he this plucky pint-sized underdog at HW.

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/evander-holyfield-small-heavyweight.241945/

 

Tyson's last touch on Williams was with his head and he played ping pong with Ruddock's balls, to name some of several infractions. Lewis had KO's where he controlled the opponent's head with one arm while punching with the other. Not to mention that he hiked his trunks up to his nipples and then complained about low punches.

They, like most, used their own dirty tricks, so I think their whining is downright pathetic to be honest. And I think it's annoying that so many fall for it.

Pot, kettle and so on:

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So Holy certainly had his dirty tricks, but he's far from alone with that. He just happened to depant a popular fighter, just like Ward did, and that's where all the commotion is from.

 

I don't think Lewis ever was penalized for all his ****. With strict refereeing he might actually have been DQd. And any decent ref certainly should have told him off for that silly stunt with his trunks. It doesn't come more obvious than that, but still he got away with it.

I have no problems believing that some of Holy's use of the head was intentional, but I think he masked it quite well. More subtle than Lewis's holding and hitting, not to mention his holding and leaning and of course his pathetically high trunks.

I really respected Lewis as a fighter, and still do, but him trying to claim the moral high ground here is just plain annoying.

As is of course Tyson's whining after his tough guy act. "Only I get to be the bully, otherwise unfair".

 

Holyfield fought Tyson like a filthy mule.

Prime Iron Mike destroys him.

 

It's obvious as Holyfield gained muscle mass and weight, he became much more physical.
His head did become part of his arsenal.
For anyone to deny this fact is living in denial or didn't follow his career in its entirety.
But, like the also tactical fouler Eusebio Pedroza, he knew exactly when to use the tactics, by knowing exactly where the referee was standing, and what he could and could not see.
That in itself was a skill.
For Tyson or Lewis to complain is the pot calling the kettle black.
Tyson in general finished his left hooks with his elbow, and used arm locks even in his prime.
So did Lewis who leaned, pushed opponents head down early in his career.
Most great fighters in history had borderline tactics...
Even Ray Robinson.

 

In a way, I don't fault Tyson for ear biting. If one fighter starts breaking the rules, then it's game on and you don't get to tell the other fighter how to retaliate once you tossed the rules out of the window