Holyfield at Cruiserweight.

[Rocky Balboa]

Evander was an absolute monster at Cruiserweight. What bout at this weight do you regard as his best performance, and why?

Evander was definately the MAN at Cruiserweight!

[Seamus]

Definitely his 4 round blow out of iron jawed Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Just for the reason that Qawi had looked indestructable to that point, and had given a good account of himself in there first bout.

[overhand_right]

What about his pro debut?? How many fighters making their debuts would not have been knocked out & scared off from professional boxing forever by Lionel Byarm that night? Now thats a journeyman who came to FIGHT!!

[HomicideHenry]

Evander Holyfield, undoubtedly, was the greatest Cruiserweight champion thus far in pugilisic history. But myself, his greatest test in his early career was against the likes of Micheal Dokes when Holyfield made the transition to Heavyweight. It could have went either way, and was unfortunately, Dokes last great ring performance.

[el tigre del sur]

Evander Holyfield, undoubtedly, was the greatest Cruiserweight champion thus far in pugilisic history. But myself, his greatest test in his early career was against the likes of Micheal Dokes when Holyfield made the transition to Heavyweight. It could have went either way, and was unfortunately, Dokes last great ring performance.

By coincidence, I watched this fight yesterday for the first time and Evander definitely earned his HW stripes that night. I'm not too surprised it was Dokes' last great performance as a fight like that tends to take a lot out of a fighter towards the end of his career. You know I think Evander took it easier in Rd 9 to come out big in Rd 10 and he really exploded into Dokes with a left uppercut-hook which set the ball rolling for him. Then made ABSOLUTELY sure of the finish.
As for the original cruiserweight question I just can't go past his 15 round war with Qawi. This was a classic bout and I have a lot of respect for Qawi but Evander showed the makings of a great champion in that one given how relatively green he was - it was only his 12th pro fight. IMO that was also Qawi's last great performance.
His debut against Byarm was also highly entertaining and must have signalled, even at that early stage, that he was indeed - The Real Deal.

[Crease]

Bump.

Evander Holyfield, undoubtedly, was the greatest Cruiserweight champion thus far in pugilisic history.

And that's a helluva stataement to make.

[Seamus]

Is this Evander Holyfield Week ?