BoxRec

Posted: **04 Aug 2025, 06:32**

I've taken their versions, where both are 38 years old.

Holyfield's performance in the 2nd Lewis fight is considered by many to be Evander's last hoorah. He did well there. Some even think he won (not me, personally).

And, of course, Usyk showed that he's still not falling apart at 38, in his stoppage of Dubois.

How these respective versions of Holyfield and Usyk match up against each other?

How it goes and who wins?

Posted: **04 Aug 2025, 18:46**

It's gonna take a young Holyfield-say, 1990 or 1991, to have a chance to beat Usyk. And I think it's a good chance, but I'd bet Usyk.

Posted: **05 Aug 2025, 11:19**

goose 5 wrote: ↑04 Aug 2025, 18:46 It's gonna take a young Holyfield-say, 1990 or 1991, to have a chance to beat Usyk. And I think it's a good chance, but I'd bet Usyk.

The Holyfield from the 2nd Bowe fight would do well also.

Posted: **08 Aug 2025, 20:45**

Come on you guys. I'm glad Usyk beat Fury. It finally got people to stop thinking fury was that good and being obsessed about the stupid weight advantage.

(Sorry if I ruined this thread. I'm sure Margie will come in and do his spiel)

But there is no way in hell that he is going to beat a prime Evander Holyfield.
If Usyk was great, he would not have had four competitive fights against Joshua and Fury. They are both very limited fighters. He should have beaten those guys much easier.

A prime Holyfield was one of the best ever.

As for the original question, it would probably be a close boring fight. Holyfield had been in many tough fights by then and was well past his best.

Posted: **08 Aug 2025, 20:50**

I'd pick Holyfield to win as well, but it'd have to be the best Holyfield. The Holyfield from the Lewis fights isn't winning.

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 03:56**

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑08 Aug 2025, 20:45 Come on you guys. I'm glad Usyk beat Fury. It finally got people to stop thinking fury was that good and being obsessed about the stupid weight advantage.

(Sorry if I ruined this thread. I'm sure Margie will come in and do his spiel)

But there is no way in hell that he is going to beat a prime Evander Holyfield.
If Usyk was great, he would not have had four competitive fights against Joshua and Fury. They are both very limited fighters. He should have beaten those guys much easier.

A prime Holyfield was one of the best ever.

As for the original question, it would probably be a close boring fight. Holyfield had been in many tough fights by then and was well past his best.

Close fights with limited oponents?

Usyk handled them like a boss in all 4 fights

Meanwhile, 38 years old Holyfield had loss against Bowe, and loss against limited Moorer.
Also his wins:
Close fight with 43 years old Holmes
Close fight against 42 years old Foreman.
Those 2 guys at that point of their careers were more limited fighters than prime Fury and prime Joshua.

Usyk on points here. More Holyfield dirty tactics tolerated, closer that fight would go, but IMO Usyk can handle that

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 12:38**

Cent0089 wrote: ↑09 Aug 2025, 03:56
Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑08 Aug 2025, 20:45 Come on you guys. I'm glad Usyk beat Fury. It finally got people to stop thinking fury was that good and being obsessed about the stupid weight advantage.

(Sorry if I ruined this thread. I'm sure Margie will come in and do his spiel)

But there is no way in hell that he is going to beat a prime Evander Holyfield.
If Usyk was great, he would not have had four competitive fights against Joshua and Fury. They are both very limited fighters. He should have beaten those guys much easier.

A prime Holyfield was one of the best ever.

As for the original question, it would probably be a close boring fight. Holyfield had been in many tough fights by then and was well past his best.
Close fights with limited oponents? Usyk handled them like a boss in all 4 fights Meanwhile, 38 years old Holyfield had loss against Bowe, and loss against limited Moorer.
Also his wins:
Close fight with 43 years old Holmes
Close fight against 42 years old Foreman.
Those 2 guys at that point of their careers were more limited fighters than prime Fury and prime Joshua.

Usyk on points here. More Holyfield dirty tactics tolerated, closer that fight would go, but IMO Usyk can handle that

It's true that Holyfield really wasn't at any point any more dominant of a Champion than Usyk has been. I can't see him being able to stop Fury. He may have stopped Joshua, but I figure he would've fared about the same against those guys as Usyk did. He would've won, but he would've had to work for it.

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 13:29**

Holyfield has multiple prime losses to guys who accomplished very little outside beating Holyfield and are only remembered today for beating him. That would suggest beating him isn't such a difficult task as some claim. This despite avoiding Lewis for years and fighting infrequently which allowed him to avoid a lot of dangerous opponents

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 15:52**

Please. Look at the "multiple prime losses." Yes he should have beat Moorer. Bowe was a great fighter who easily would have beaten Usyk. and Holyfield did beat Moorer and Bowe the 2nd time around. he was well past it for the others.

Love how the Foreman fight was close but the Fury and Joushua fights were not. Come on. Those were competitive fights against guys with very limited ability. A great fighters normally completely dominates those guys. Usyk could not do that once in 4 tries.

Foreman fought a very good fight, but Holyfield beat him clearly. It was a much better fight than any of Usyk's.

Watch Holyfield's fights against Thomas, Dokes, Douglas etc. Looked much more impressive than anything Usyk ever has.
Also beat a guy named Mike Tyson.

Holyfield did not avoid Lewis. That is total BS. also love the par about Holyfield fighting infrequently.
To this day, Usyk has fought a grand total of 24 frikkin fights. Since moving up to heavyweight, he has fought just 8 times in 6 years! Scoring a whopping 3 kos.
Holyfield fought 14 fights in his first 6 years after to moving up to heavyweight. At the age that Usyk is now, Holyfield had 42 fights. Against far more difficult competition.

Holyfield is one of the top 10 heavyweights of all time. There are literally dozens of guys below him but ahead of Usyk.

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 16:50**

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑09 Aug 2025, 15:52 Please. Look at the "multiple prime losses." Yes he should have beat Moorer. Bowe was a great fighter who easily would have beaten Usyk. and Holyfield did beat Moorer and Bowe the 2nd time around. he was well past it for the others.

Love how the Foreman fight was close but the Fury and Joushua fights were not. Come on. Those were competitive fights against guys with very limited ability. A great fighters normally completely dominates those guys. Usyk could not do that once in 4 tries.

Foreman fought a very good fight, but Holyfield beat him clearly. It was a much better fight than any of Usyk's.

Watch Holyfield's fights against Thomas, Dokes, Douglas etc. Looked much more impressive than anything Usyk ever has.
Also beat a guy named Mike Tyson.

Holyfield did not avoid Lewis. That is total BS. also love the par about Holyfield fighting infrequently.
To this day, Usyk has fought a grand total of 24 frikkin fights. Since moving up to heavyweight, he has fought just 8 times in 6 years! Scoring a whopping 3 kos.
Holyfield fought 14 fights in his first 6 years after to moving up to heavyweight. At the age that Usyk is now, Holyfield had 42 fights. Against far more difficult competition.

Holyfield is one of the top 10 heavyweights of all time. There are literally dozens of guys below him but ahead of Usyk.

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 16:58**

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑09 Aug 2025, 15:52 Please. Look at the "multiple prime losses." Yes he should have beat Moorer. Bowe was a great fighter who easily would have beaten Usyk. and Holyfield did beat Moorer and Bowe the 2nd time around. he was well past it for the others.

Love how the Foreman fight was close but the Fury and Joushua fights were not. Come on. Those were competitive fights against guys with very limited ability. A great fighters normally completely dominates those guys. Usyk could not do that once in 4 tries.

Foreman fought a very good fight, but Holyfield beat him clearly. It was a much better fight than any of Usyk's.

Watch Holyfield's fights against Thomas, Dokes, Douglas etc. Looked much more impressive than anything Usyk ever has.
Also beat a guy named Mike Tyson.

Holyfield did not avoid Lewis. That is total BS. also love the par about Holyfield fighting infrequently.
To this day, Usyk has fought a grand total of 24 frikkin fights. Since moving up to heavyweight, he has fought just 8 times in 6 years! Scoring a whopping 3 kos.
Holyfield fought 14 fights in his first 6 years after to moving up to heavyweight. At the age that Usyk is now, Holyfield had 42 fights. Against far more difficult competition.

Holyfield is one of the top 10 heavyweights of all time. There are literally dozens of guys below him but ahead of Usyk.

I'd have Holyfield probably no worse than Top 6. I can't see Usyk losing to Michael Moorer, I could easily see him losing to Bowe. I could see Holyfield losing to Fury honestly, but I think he'd beat him more often than not. Skill wise I think Holyfield and Usyk have pretty comparable ability, Holyfield though as you say definitely has a deeper resume, and a deeper overall career.

If Usyk fights 3 more fights against the best possible competition, and wins all those fights. He'd certainly have proven all that he reasonably could've considering his age.

His Cruiserweight accomplishments are on par with Holyfield's, but he still has a ways to go to top his achievements as a Heavyweight.

Usyk as of now only has 5 title defenses, but they're all really good ones, and he's already leapt ahead of a fair amount of Heavyweight Champions achievements. I don't think it would be unreasonable to have him the lower half of the all time Top 10 right now, but I'd probably still have him more like 12 or so.

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 16:58**

gilgamesh wrote: ↑09 Aug 2025, 12:38
Cent0089 wrote: ↑09 Aug 2025, 03:56
Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑08 Aug 2025, 20:45 Come on you guys. I'm glad Usyk beat Fury. It finally got people to stop thinking fury was that good and being obsessed about the stupid weight advantage.

(Sorry if I ruined this thread. I'm sure Margie will come in and do his spiel)

But there is no way in hell that he is going to beat a prime Evander Holyfield.
If Usyk was great, he would not have had four competitive fights against Joshua and Fury. They are both very limited fighters. He should have beaten those guys much easier.

A prime Holyfield was one of the best ever.

As for the original question, it would probably be a close boring fight. Holyfield had been in many tough fights by then and was well past his best.
Close fights with limited oponents? Usyk handled them like a boss in all 4 fights Meanwhile, 38 years old Holyfield had loss against Bowe, and loss against limited Moorer.
Also his wins:
Close fight with 43 years old Holmes
Close fight against 42 years old Foreman.
Those 2 guys at that point of their careers were more limited fighters than prime Fury and prime Joshua.

Usyk on points here. More Holyfield dirty tactics tolerated, closer that fight would go, but IMO Usyk can handle that
It's true that Holyfield really wasn't at any point any more dominant of a Champion than Usyk has been. I can't see him being able to stop Fury. He may have stopped Joshua, but I figure he would've fared about the same against those guys as Usyk did. He would've won, but he would've had to work for it.

Yeah, look at Holyfield 8 losses. I think Usyk could handle all of them with exception of Lewis, which would have been 50:50 fight. On the other side, styles makes fights and i think Usyk could not handle Tyson like Holyfield did.

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 21:02**

Bowe showed little if any evidence of greatness outside the Holyfield trilogy. His career outside Holyfield was so mediocre that I doubt he would even be remembered today by people who didn't live through the era.
There would be countless younger boxing fans wondering about this Riddick character that Ambling Alp keeps bringing up and searching for his record on boxrec because they have no clue who he is.

Clarence Henry had a better wins at heavyweight than Bowe outside the Holyfield trilogy and he's seems largely forgotten by younger fans despite boomers living through his era. Logically if someone is great it shouldn't rest on success against a single opponent if it did Iran Barkley and Rubin Carter would be great but that's not the majority opinion.

Fury 1 was a pretty close fight but most people had Usyk winning the other fights comfortably. All three judges had Usyk beating Fury 8-4 in the second fight and two of the three judges had him comfortably ahead in the first Joshua fight

Posted: **09 Aug 2025, 22:49**

I think Riddick Bowe was clearly a great fighter. It is unfortunate that he didn't have more high profile fights than Holyfield, but the way he dispatched of other good fighters definitely indicates greatness. He just didn't have the discipline to stay on top for as long as he should've.

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 01:49**

Cojimar 1946 wrote: ↑09 Aug 2025, 21:02 Bowe showed little if any evidence of greatness outside the Holyfield trilogy. His career outside Holyfield was so mediocre that I doubt he would even be remembered today by people who didn't live through the era.
There would be countless younger boxing fans wondering about this Riddick character that Ambling Alp keeps bringing up and searching for his record on boxrec because they have no clue who he is.

Clarence Henry had a better wins at heavyweight than Bowe outside the Holyfield trilogy and he's seems largely forgotten by younger fans despite boomers living through his era. Logically if someone is great it shouldn't rest on success against a single opponent if it did Iran Barkley and Rubin Carter would be great but that's not the majority opinion.

Fury 1 was a pretty close fight but most people had Usyk winning the other fights comfortably. All three judges had Usyk beating Fury 8-4 in the second fight and two of the three judges had him comfortably ahead in the first Joshua fight

IMO, Fury did better in second fight than in first. He won more rounds in first, but rounds he lost, he lost badly. He held his own in second fight, despite being outboxed. Joshua won maybe 2 rounds in first fight and was getting savage beating at the 12th. But also did better in second fight. To me, Usyk lost at most 15 out of 48 rounds from that 4 fights. Never in any real trouble, and had both Fury and Joshua badly hurt. Winning championship rounds in all bouts. That is not close at all for me

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 11:19**

Fury and Joshua aren't very good. Usyk has beaten anyone. Not his fault, there is no one to beat. A great fighter would have completely outclassed these guys. He didn't.

There is no evidence at all that shows Usyk is a great heavyweight.
8 fights.
3 Kos.
Weak competition

when comparing that to great heavyweights, that is laughable.

If he had this career a long time ago, nobody would be considering him at all. However, because he current, he is vastly overrated. The sport began long before we became fans. The word did not start the day that we were born.

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 12:27**

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑10 Aug 2025, 11:19 Fury and Joshua aren't very good. Usyk has beaten anyone. Not his fault, there is no one to beat. A great fighter would have completely outclassed these guys. He didn't.

There is no evidence at all that shows Usyk is a great heavyweight.
8 fights.
3 Kos.
Weak competition

when comparing that to great heavyweights, that is laughable.

If he had this career a long time ago, nobody would be considering him at all. However, because he current, he is vastly overrated. The sport began long before we became fans. The word did not start the day that we were born.

Fury and Joshua are most definitely not "weak" competition. They would likely have beaten a large percentage of Champions that came before them, they just couldn't beat Usyk.

Other than Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson, Holyfield doesn't have any wins on his record that are any better than Usyk's wins over Fury and Joshua.

He also never had any 1 title reign where he managed to make 5 successful title defenses without losing his title. Usyk is currently sitting on 5, and will be the betting favorite to make a 6th regardless of who his next opponent is named to be.

You're right that fans often get too excited in building up the current names in comparison with the all time greats. However the same can apply the other way too, where older fans will insist that nobody can ever equal the great fighters from their youth, when all the evidence suggests that they certainly can.

It's hard to be objective when talking about Sports, but if you watch Holyfield at his best, and you watch Usyk at his best. There is not a significant gap in skill there. One way or the other.

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 13:12**

I agree with you on the lack of a skill gap, but I like Usyk based on speed and style.

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 14:30**

Even if you don't rate Fury and Joshua highly Holyfield has enough struggles against lesser opponents to make the claim that Usyk should have dominated them a non-argument

Holyfield lost to Moorer
lost 4 rounds to Mercer
lost 4 rounds to ancient Holmes
dropped by Bert Cooper

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 14:38**

Cojimar 1946 wrote: ↑10 Aug 2025, 14:30 Even if you don't rate Fury and Joshua highly Holyfield has enough struggles against lesser opponents to make the claim that Usyk should have dominated them a non-argument

Holyfield lost to Moorer
lost 4 rounds to Mercer
lost 4 rounds to ancient Holmes
dropped by Bert Cooper

Right. While at least as of this moment, Usyk has never really been in serious trouble in any fight he's ever had.

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 15:30**

Fury had him in some trouble in the 6th rd of their first bout, but let him off the hook.

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 17:30**

good fight! i dont think usyk would beat a prime holy, but a holy that lost a step is doable. was about this time holy was getting his head rung by ruiz.

dozens of guys below holyfield but ahead of usyk alp? like james toney right? usyk steal your boyfriend or something

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑30 Sep 2021, 10:48
margaret thatcher wrote: ↑29 Sep 2021, 17:39 simple question then

whose cruiser career ranks higher, usyk's or toney?

straight up answer bruh
I rank Toney a little higher. Don't know how much clearer I can be.

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 18:06**

Holyfield struggled against byrd and moorer. I think usyk is better than them

Usyk had close fights against quicker fighters.

Its a good matchup. Id favor holyfield

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 18:09**

If there is vada testing im taking usyk

Posted: **10 Aug 2025, 21:20**

Some of these comments...

Holyfield lost 4 rounds to Mercer - That is supposed to be a negative? Well, that was a very good fight. Better than any Usyk fight. At his best Mercer was pretty good.

The Chris Byrd fight? - Holyfield was shot by then.

Anyway, Usyk has 8 fights at heavyweight. In six years, just 8 fights. Just 3 Kos. 4 competitive decision wins in those 8 fights. His competition a joke compared to Holyfield.

People always forget about Holyfield's early heavyweights. Watch his fights against Tillis, Thomas, Dokes, Stewart. We should be talking about these fights, not when he was way, way past it against Chris Byrd.

BoxRec

Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

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Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

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Re: Evander Holyfield (Lewis 2) vs Oleksandr Usyk (Dubois 2)

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