witherspoon wrote:dempseyfire wrote:witherspoon wrote:Lennox Lewis v Evander Holyfield.
Take the first fight as best case scenario for Lewis, disciplined approach, good use of the jab and plenty of movement. Did anyone seriously see Holyfield winning more than 3 rounds (and those debatable too).
Second fight Lewis much more stationary and willing to stand and trade, wins the fight clearly, in my eyes.
If these are the best and worst case scenarios for Lewis I think he takes everything in between.
Bullshit!!
Odd choice to make, considering myself and the majority of ringside reporters scored the rematch for Holyfield. Lewis was at his peak and Evander well past his and he struggled with Holyfield both times (yes, Lewis had some big moments in their first fight but it had lots of close rounds where Lennox didn't do much of anything)
The only criticism I can make of Lewis in the first fight (being extremely harsh) is that he was not aggressive enough when he had Holyfield in trouble. Even Harold Lederman could not give Evander more than three rounds!
To my eye, Holyfield looked very strong in both fights and nowhere near washed up. He fought hard all the way in both fights. When Lewis used alot of movement and long, hard jabs Holyfield could do nothing to get near him.
The second fight was closer because Lewis was much more stationary, Holyfield closed the gap on Lewis in the mid rounds before Lewis pulled away in the last 3-4 rounds.
Dempseyfire, it would be interesting to see your scoring of the second fight, if you post yours I will do the same. I did watch these fights very recently, after many years, and have to say that I was surprised how widely I gave the rematch to Lewis, having heard for years how Evander was robbed.
Holyfield fought hard all the way? That's the first I've heard of that. Every TV commentary and report noted that Evander had become a 'flurry' fighter who would have a burst of activity and then needed 60 seconds to rest after that. He was not nearly as active as he'd been at his peak (which had been 7+ years prior) nor were his reflexes what they had been either. And this wasn't just vs Lewis . . he'd been like that vs Bean and in the Moorer rematch. And looked like that in his next fight when he needed a gift decision vs John frikkin' Ruiz. Holyfield was not even near his prime in that fight at 37 years old.
As for my scorecard, gladly. I've posted this here before:
1) Holyfield (close round, E controlled the ring and landed the crisper shots)
2) Lewis
3) Even
4) Lewis
5) Holyfield
6) Holyfield
7) Holyfield
8) Lewis
9) Holyfield
10) Lewis
11) Lewis
12) Holyfield
A razor-thin 6-5-1 card for Evander. Certainly a close W for Lewis is not a bad scorecard, but if Holyfield could have this much success past his peak, a prime Evander who constantly gave angles and fired off 4-5 multi-punch combinations per round would've beaten Lewis definitively peak for peak.
