Holyfield v Douglas. Gary Mason Called it

[mikeeod]

Fast, mobile, and slick guys frustrated Evander. He had a warrior's mentality, so he lost interest when the other guy focused on defense and refused to engage. Evander also had a tendency to be overconfident. Another factor is this is that Evander was a natural counterpuncher and preferred that to leading. Some observations from his career:

Larry Donald: Evander was well past his best, but this would've been a bad match up for him during his prime.
Chris Byrd: Another fighter who would've caused Evander issues at any point due to his movement and focus on defense.
James Toney: This was one of Evander's worst cases of hubris/overconfidence. He told Toney before the fight that no one, even Bowe and Lewis, had the balls to stand in front of him and fight. He then proceeded to load up with every shot and punch himself out (he was past his best) while Toney slipped and countered him silly.
Lennox Lewis: Past his best, the first fight is tied with the Toney fight for most overconfident. He had a dream/vision that Lewis would go out in the 3rd, and trained accordingly. He received a gift draw, but performed much better in the rematch (I thought he won but I'm biased).
Michael Moorer: Overconfidence and a heart issue cost him the first fight, which he avenged savagely in the rematch. Moorer had that great jab, tricky style to bother Evander, but he just went full on beast mode in the rematch for the stoppage win.
Riddick Bowe: Second greatest trilogy at heavyweight, second only to Ali-Frazier, and not by much. The Bowe-Holyfield trilogy had more two way/sustained action throughout as Ali-Frazier 2 was a dud (1 & 3 were ridiculous though).
Tyson, Tua, Rahman, Marciano, Foreman, Frazier, Mercer: Put these guys in front of any version of Evander and he looks great. Aggressive fighters with big punches were his specialty.

[Master]

Holyfield was too inconsistent to be ranked a great heavyweight for me and I love Evander at Cruiserweight. The man was a machine and just beautiful to watch. Do not think anyone could beat him and the only person that may have given him trouble would have been Rocky Marciano because of his tendency to brawl as he did with Quawi.

[El Kabong]

Fast, mobile, and slick guys frustrated Evander. He had a warrior's mentality, so he lost interest when the other guy focused on defense and refused to engage. Evander also had a tendency to be overconfident. Another factor is this is that Evander was a natural counterpuncher and preferred that to leading. Some observations from his career:

Larry Donald: Evander was well past his best, but this would've been a bad match up for him during his prime.
Chris Byrd: Another fighter who would've caused Evander issues at any point due to his movement and focus on defense.
James Toney: This was one of Evander's worst cases of hubris/overconfidence. He told Toney before the fight that no one, even Bowe and Lewis, had the balls to stand in front of him and fight. He then proceeded to load up with every shot and punch himself out (he was past his best) while Toney slipped and countered him silly.
Lennox Lewis: Past his best, the first fight is tied with the Toney fight for most overconfident. He had a dream/vision that Lewis would go out in the 3rd, and trained accordingly. He received a gift draw, but performed much better in the rematch (I thought he won but I'm biased).
Michael Moorer: Overconfidence and a heart issue cost him the first fight, which he avenged savagely in the rematch. Moorer had that great jab, tricky style to bother Evander, but he just went full on beast mode in the rematch for the stoppage win.
Riddick Bowe: Second greatest trilogy at heavyweight, second only to Ali-Frazier, and not by much. The Bowe-Holyfield trilogy had more two way/sustained action throughout as Ali-Frazier 2 was a dud (1 & 3 were ridiculous though).
Tyson, Tua, Rahman, Marciano, Foreman, Frazier, Mercer: Put these guys in front of any version of Evander and he looks great. Aggressive fighters with big punches were his specialty.

I knew Larry Donald was going to give Evander hell....Larry was alright when he wasn't fighting a power puncher. Byrd, Toney, those guys are slick, but they fought an old Evander.

Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, those guys had trouble with Evander they beat him but neither walked through those fights easily....Evander IMO beat Lennox in the rematch and lost in the first fight but the judges gifted Lewis the rematch because they shafted him on the first fight either way 1-1 vs Lennox Lewis and 1-2 vs Riddick Bowe when Evander was suffering from hepatitis or some such nonsense in one of those bouts ain't all that bad.


I think Foreman even Old George was tough for Evander, but still, Evander took some hellacious punches from Big George