Tyson in 86

[SaadOffTheDeck]

This was from another one, what a bad ass Holyfield was.

Holyfield has his own views on how to fight the 21-year-old undefeated champion. "The first thing you got to do is go out and grab his respect," he said a few days before pummeling DeLeon. "And the only way you can do that is to show you're not afraid of him. I've got to show him that I am going to hurt him as much as he is going to hurt me. He's a tough guy, but tough guys aren't so tough against other tough guys."

[bollox]

I remember as this fight was about to happen, I was hoping DeLeon would give Holyfield a tough fight. Didn't really turn out that way

[bollox]

It's incredibly easy to beat steroid testing in sports. You act like they even bother to tests for most fights. Boxing is probably the worst of any of them. It's extremely naive to think that even the tiniest fraction of users get caught. I don't really care, it's so wide spread in athletes over the last couple decades that I couldn't begin to guess on which athletes have done PED's and which ones haven't.

Evander is my second favorite fighter in history. And this is the man whose help he enlisted to bulk up to Heavyweight.

Is Holyfield wearing a wig here or what?

[observer1]

Tyson was only 20 in 86 and was still growing.

I read he was around 180-200 lbs when he was 13 !

Wouldn't be difficult to tone someone at that weight in his twenties. He was hardly "ripped" anyway.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Did you read the title and like one word from each post?

[Bricks]

Wrong on Haney orchestrating everything.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm


A year ago, when Holyfield began his run for Tyson's title, he could bench-press 190 pounds. "Today he's 33 percent stronger than he was last year," says Tim Hallmark, Holyfield's physical-fitness guru. "He does 10 repetitions with 360 pounds after his pulse rate has risen to 180 or 190 beats per minute. A football player can do 360 pounds, but that is with his normal heart rate. If you get his heart rate up to 180 or 190 and tell him to do 360, he'll look at you like you're crazy. There is a tremendous strength decrease [as the heart rate increases]. He won't be able to do it."

Hallmark, a former triathlete who also swam for the University of Houston, believes that Holyfield is the finest endurance athlete in the world. Holyfield's celebrated workouts are a carefully monitored combination of cardiovascular exercise and resistance weight training—an unusual regimen for a boxer. Every phase of the workout is done with Hallmark constantly checking Holyfield's pulse.

"He is a beautiful blend of strength, endurance and flexibility," says Hallmark. "Strength without flexibility is debilitating for a fighter. There is a cost in hand speed and punching accuracy. Holyfield trains the same as a triathlete or a 10-kilometer runner, but he also trains the same as a football player to get endurance and strength."

In one exercise, Holyfield spends 12 minutes jumping with his feet together on and off a 2�-foot-high block. Over those 12 minutes, says Hallmark, he will jump more than a basketball player does in an entire game. Holyfield's heart rate will hit 220, the same point it reaches at the end of three minutes of fighting. During the one-minute rest period between rounds, Holyfield's heart rate will fall as low as 130.

"Going back to the corner, Evander's heart rate and his opponent's are probably the same," says Hallmark. "But if you put them on a graph, the opponent's drop between rounds will be a gentle slope. Evander's is like falling from a cliff. His recovery is amazing."

The body fat of a lean heavyweight is usually around 10%. Holyfield carries between 207 and 210 pounds with a 31-inch waist, and his body fat is 7.8%. The more fat a fighter lugs around, the quicker fatigue sets in. "Strength is not bulk," says Hallmark. "This guy is so strong yet so lean, he has a tremendous advantage."

Thanks for posting that. The article was quite remarkable.
I bought Mackie Shilstone's book on holiday in the Far East some years ago, I wonder if Hallmark has written a book?