By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
Four-time heavyweight champion Evander ”The Real Deal” Holyfield says he would agree to an exhibition charity bout with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. ”Wouldn’t bother me to do three rounds. My manager has been talking to his people,” Holyfield told TMZSports. “I wouldn’t ask personally. The only person I would ask is Riddick Bowe because we’re buddies. Life is about trusting each other and doing something that works. Some people didn’t get a chance to see Mike and I.
“We could fight and he could show what he can do and I can show what I can do. I felt I was the best of my era. This is not a life and death situation. I won’t have anyone cheap-shotting me though.”
When asked about the second fight with Tyson when part of his ear was chomped off.
“The ear represents the $35 million I received for nine minutes in the ring. That’s amazing.”
Holyfield out psyched, outboxed, outworked Tyson. Holyfield actually made it a very physical fight. The same way the other Tyson did to Wilder in their second fight.
Let’s not forget a blown-up middleweight in the heavyweight division outclassed Holyfield and even ridiculed him in the ring the same time. His name was James Toney.
Scooby doo, I don’t see what one has to do with the other.
Every time I hear something about Holyfield, the Toney fight crosses my mind. Where Holyfield exceled against Tyson, he was vulnerable against Toney. Simply a shout out to compare contrasting styles Holyfield faced where he won a fight and was defeated in another. Nothing major, just trivia.
A washed up Tyson. Let’s not forget. Pre-Prison time Tyson would have smoked Holyfields.
Cruz, you should really go back and watch Tyson vs Holyfield I and remember Evander was a big underdog. People thought he had a heart problem (in the literal sense) and he owned Tyson that night.
The only reason Mike might have managed to defeat Evander in his preprison era is that Holyfield was still growing into the Division. And I still think he had the keys to the car. Back Mike up and his power is nullified. Evander was a rough inside fighter and always knew how to tie a guy up and release his own hands. The same mental issues that took Mike down later in his career were always present. When held effectively, he’d get frustrated and sloppy.
Evander was a juice monkey his entire heavyweight career. No way he beats mike without
Even if he took steroids, it was only to bulk up so he could fight the giants. He was still only 14st 10 when he fought Bowe. I guess it was OK for Tyson to use a false penis for his urine samples though huh? Yeah, because you love Mike, so he can hit and rape women, foul, cheat, and be an absolute thug.
Andrew, did you take your SSRI drugs today for your mood? Wow! Such extreme comments, LOL
Toney was a phenomenal fighter and Holyfield was on the decline
Massively on the decline. Ring magazine wrote off Evander after the Czyz fight, and said he wouldn’t last one round with Tyson. Toney was an natural heavy, who slimmed right down to middle. Google it if you doubt me, he was 205lbs when he decided to box
Based off Toney’s height, being 5’9″-5’10 in height with a weight of 205 lbs is not a natural heavyweight as per BMI specs. That’s obese! Toney should have been much lighter as a human being based on that weight.
Yeah man…that was bad man hehe Holy-man got his lights off that night hehe
He quit from exhaustion. He had major health issues too.
Holyfield whooped Tyson’s A$$ when Mike was in his prime! He was like 41 yrs old and washed up when he fought James Toney. This is not valid comparison at all. Holy had been on the downslide since 99 and was over the hill when he lost to john ruiz for gods sakes and that was before toney. But he beat Tyson so bad that first fight that mike looked like the Crusher in the bugs bunny cartoon “duh which way did he go?!” and Tyson was in the best shape i had ever seen him in the rematch but he knew he was gonna get ko’d in worse fashion so he found a way out by biting! I get it though, “Can’t beat ‘em bite em!!”
Steve, you say Holyfield was on his downside when he lost to Toney. Did you look at Toney in the fight? Toney was a blown up middleweight, overweight, and lacked that one-punch KO heavyweight power. Toney was not perfect in any way when they fought. My point? Toney’s style and experience as a fighter basically was a style Holyfield could not quite figure out. Holyfield was frustrated in the fight to a point he was relying on haymakers to hopefully catch Toney. Holyfield must have thought in his heart and mind he could have beaten Toney since he signed a fight contract to meet him in the ring and was not “on the down slide” in his eyes. Any way you slice it, Toney had Holyfield’s number in styles and both had their moments in boxing.
You think you are making valid points but you are clueless. Holyfields “style” was relentless pressure, with combos, but having health problems (which forced him to retire in 94) meant he could no longer fight that way. You say Toney was a “blown up middleweight”, whereas in actual FACT, he was a slimmed down heavyweight and a naturally bigger man than Holyfield was, as Evander turned pro as the light heavy he had boxed amateur as. He fought Toney 9 year after he was forced to retire due to major health issues…and you doubt he was past his fucking best?
Andrew, Toney was bigger than Holyfield? Toney’s frame had extra weight on him and he was only 5’9″ in height. Holyfield was taller at 6’2″. LOL… Toney was bigger in width. Toney may have slimmed down from his extra weight gain. Toney’s problem was the dinner plate was too much of a necessity. You claim Holyfield had MAJOR heart problems which led to his retirement. Hmmmm… Those major heart problems went away as he was cleared to fight Tyson, correct? Could not have been major if cleared to fight at that time.
You are literally the first person I have ever heard in my life claim that Mike Tyson was in his prime when he lost to Holyfield.
Thank god, someone else sees the reality of the situation. Doubt anyone on here knew that Toney was actually a heavyweight when he decided to box, he was 205lbs. Holyfield turned pro as a light heavy. He actually was forced to retire TWO YEARS BEFORE he beat Tyson, due to health reasons, but made a comeback.
Lets not forget Toney weighed 205lb before he took up boxing and was therefore actually a naturally bigger man than Evander, and not a true middleweight. Lets not also forget that Evander had many health problems, and wasn’t able to be consistent in every performance. Lastly, he looked pretty good in his last fight, stopping durable Botha.
Toney was a high school football player before he went into boxing. Toney started actual pro fighting as a middleweight, correct? He may have walked around at 205 before turning pro, but he started as a middleweight.
Out injected steroids. Haha!!
Evander is a cheat
Please no. These two are way two intense to have an “exhibition.” All I can hear is Duke from Rocky 4 screaming, “this was supposed to be an exhibition,” as the two beat each other senseless.
Yeah I don’t think Tyson is capable of an “exhibition”. Everyone used to say he was a nutcase in sparring
One thing about a Tyson fight-You are guaranteed to see fireworks! Whether it’s in the realm of the art of boxing, extracurricular antics in the ring, i.e-ear biting, attempting to break opponents arm etc, or outside the ring chaos. The man is never boring. I can’t imagine any of this happening with todays Tyson if he were to actually lace ’em up, but with Tyson, you can only predict the unpredcitable
The things you mentioned…the attempt at arm-breaking and such….had a WWE feel to it, and there was that kind of thing going on consistently with Mike later in his career. If he had a guy in front of him who didn’t lay down immediately…Holyfield, Botha, McBride…he’d resort to those tactics. I don’t think Mike’s heart was fully in it during the last few years of his career. He tried that intentional headbutt on Holyfield in the first fight in the 7th round, then pretended to be injured, fouled out of the second fight, tried to foul out against McBride. Just a complete sideshow I thought, but some people loved the dysfunction for whatever reason. No doubt a lot of people will tune in if he does in fact go through with this, but I suspect he’ll look about as good as Ruddock did in his comeback. Ruddock was 51 when he was flopping around on the canvas against that white guy. It wasn’t pretty.
True. Was not nice seeing Ruddock at 51. Will not be nice seeing Tyson at 53. Btw. Why did Ruddock stop boxing in 2001? He was on a 10 fight winning streak.
Good question on Ruddock. My guess is wised up and realized his health is more important or maybe he had some lingering hidden injuries. Who knows.
I can only think of two Heavyweights off the top of my head who made comebacks in their 50s, and that would be Ruddock and Ernie Shavers. Neither went anywhere. Saoul Mamby actually came back at 60, and lost a 10 round decision.
Good question on why Ruddock stopped fighting after the winning streak. He was kinda out of the limelight at the time I believe, and it went likely went unnoticed to a lot of people. That guy relied on one punch…that left hook/uppercut that he called “The Smash”…as much as Wilder relies on his right hand.
Sorry USFBULLS- My post is very similiar to yours…I swear I didn’t redad yours first!
No biggie. A lot of people would say the same of Ruddock. He was one dimensional, but had the power to get away with it, except against the top Heavyweights of that era. His fight against Bonecrusher Smith was fun to watch.
Ruddock was like 38 when he retired in 2001 and was in the midst of a very quiet comeback back then. I think his two wars with Tyson took a lot out of him and ended his camapign as a future champion. He retired after getting ko’d by Tommy Morrison in 1995 and quietly came back a few years later only to retire again in 2001. I liked Ruddock a lot back in the day, but I think he relied too heavily on trying to set guys up for the “smash”
Maybe they can raise enough charity to reimburse me for the last fight
Real Deal Holyfield vs. Iron Mike in a rematch during their retirement years – I must respectfully decline.
Holyfield was never afraid of Tyson and that gets into Tyson’s head and holyfields has very sneaky speed and can hit Tyson, but Holyfield slowed down considerably and is 58 so I give Tyson the edge. I don’t want to see Holyfield get hurt
Ok Holyfield was a great fighter had a long career and yes abused steroids Tyson was a great fighter for a short period of time not much competition for the few yrs he was great and than couldn’t handle it too immature.
Overall Holyfield much better career than Tyson. Holyfield one of the best cruisers ever
(* heavyweight steroid abuse)
Tyson one of the best (2-3 yrs ever) but fizzled out
Short boxers always have short but explosive careers. What Mike did at under 6 foot and at 20 is nothing short of a miracle it lasted as long as it did. Evander was on heavy amounts of steroids his entire HW career. Not a chance Holyfield beats him with level Playing field
There it goes the other ear chomped off………
Tyson never looked bad in training – Was anyone talking about him, beging unable to punch pads before the McBride fight?
Tyson young or old(er) didn’t like getting hurt – and that was all it was – he never had trouble letting his hands go.
That’s true, he always looked awesome in training. Even in the latter part of his career they always liked to show footage of him bombing out his sparring partners. Did you by chance ever see the clip of him blasting out Nate Tubbs (Tony Tubbs’ brother) in sparring before the Frank Bruno fight in ’96? It was one of the most brutal sparring KO’s you’d ever wanna see!
Please stop…watching replays of these 2 greats are enough! Thank you retired athletes – E for Enough!
I really hope they dont fight for real, not interested in seeing tyson get ko’d
Best get back on the Juice Evander!! Some HGH Ordered with your phone number and “Evan Fields” as an alias like a real intelligent human just like last time! Ha!
Should have his entire record expunged from the record books.
Can we also have Lennox Lewis v Riddick Bowe i’d like to see Lennox put a beating on Bowe and the winner fights the Winner of Holyfield Tyson 3. More dollars for each of them. I’d rather see this than Tyson Fury v Deontay Wilder 3 for sure.
What about foreman vs holmes
Too late now they are pensioners. I wanted to see that after Foreman beat Moorer age 45 and Holmes was a similar age. Holmes should’ve got the decision against McCall in 1995 and been 2nd oldest Heavyweight Champ in history and could’ve defended against Foreman then.
As I’ve said before, Holmes and Foreman wanted to put a show on fighting each other when they were 50 years old and no promoter was interested. They realized that the boxing public would have no interest in watching to has beens staggering round the ring for 10 rounds.
I really wanted to see Larry Homes v Foreman, should’ve happened after Foreman beat Moorer and was champ.
Great idea. The winner will fight Lennox Lewis or Riddick Bowe, who will fight it out on the same card. Also on the card: James Toney and Roy Jones Jr – The Rematch.
It will be much fun.
I wanted to see Foreman vs Tyson.