I think the point you're missing @
Max Power is that Holyfield wasn't simply a heavyweight. He was a dominant world champion cruiserweight who moved up to fight the best competition at HW and beat most of them. He held either the WBA, IBF or WBC titles(sometimes all three) at CW or HW from 1986-2001! With the exception of 1989(because he moved up to HW) & 1995.
Lets look at who Holyfield beat at HW:
Buster Douglas
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Riddick Bowe
Ray Mercer
Mike Tyson
Michael Moorer
John Ruiz
Now, @
Max Power please pick the fighters from this list that you believe Adamek could beat. Also please make a list of Adamek's achievements that suggest that he has done anything similar to coming close to giving a rational person even a sliver of hope of him not being used like toilet paper by THE GREAT Evander Holyfield.
Ok let's see. Your original statement I don't fully agree with. Evander was a dominant champ at CW and a great one at HW but far from dominant. A dominant champ wins almost all his fights in his reign, Lennox Lewis, only 2ce lost by punchers chance. Tyson lost only to Buster Douglas in what was considered his reign and that was Buster's best performance and one of Tyson's worst (before he was completely shot), Lewis and Tyson were the dominant champs of the era. Holyfield lost to an array of mediocre contenders, that's not dominance and was clearly bested by Bowe (you can't be dominant if there's one fighter that's clearly better.) Being a "4-time HW champ" sounds great but it basically means you had to LOSE it 3 times!
As for your list...
Adamek could easily outpoint the Buster that Holy beat.
George Foreman is too slow to catch Adamek, another UD and Adamek is not chinny enough or stupid enough to get knocked out like Moorer.
Larry Holmes gets the nod from me by decision.
Riddick Bowe would beat him up like Vitali did but I think Adamek would survive for decision loss.
Ray Mercer of the Lewis fight would have Adamek KO but most versions of Ray were too poorly skilled to beat Adamek so most times this is an Adamek DEC.
Mike Tyson would knock Adamek out, Holyfield definitely performs better than Adamek here!
I think Adamek has even chances against Moorer.
I think Adamek beats Ruiz.
So all in all I see a guy who, being a smaller HW would be challenged by the powerful guys but certainly belongs in the league.
And as to your final quip...
Chambers, Cunningham, Guinn, McBride, Grant, Arreola, Golota, Banks. These are respectable win opponents!
And although battered by Vitali, how many of your list of Evander's opponents there could survive against Klitschko? Some certainly... But not many!
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