BoxRec

Posted: **25 Dec 2025, 21:15**

I'm not going to pick who I think would win if they met. OK, I'm going to lean towards Usyk as long as he's undefeated.

But I just thought their career trajectories were similar so I thought I'd lay them out. Please feel free to fill in anything I've forgotten.

Holyfield - Amateur. Bronze medal at Lightheavy. Olympics 1984. Probably would have got gold if not for hitting on the break. But he did.
Usyk - Amateur. Gold Medal at London Olympics 2012 & also at World Amateur tourny the year before. Lost in the 2nd stage at the Beijing Olympics to Italian Clemente Russo who then beat Deontay Wilder in the semis before losing to Rakhim Chakhkiev n the final (who he'd beaten the year before). Usyk got his revenge in London 4 years later.

Holyfield - Turned pro at 177 pounds. Won the Cruiser belt in his 12th fight against Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Unified the belt in his 18th fight less than 4 years after turning pro.
Usyk - Turned pro at 200 1/2 pounds. Won the WBO Cruiser belt in his 10th fight (which didn't exist when Holyfield was King) & unified in his 15th bout, just under 5 years after turning pro.

Holyfield - Won the Heavyweight belt in his 7th fight at the weight exactly 2 years after moving up. Defended it 3 times before losing it, and his undefeated record, to Riddick Bowe. However, his defences were against two ageing greats in Foreman & Holmes & against Bert Cooper who gave him the 1st knockdown of his career.
Usyk - Wins the Heavyweight belt in his 3rd fight at the weight less than 2 years after moving up. Unified it 3 fights later less than 5 years after going up.

Holyfield - Regains the belt from Bowe (fanman night), smashes Tyson in a crazy night which was a brilliant night for me, had a crazier rematch & then had a spotty career after that, winning & losing fights (& regaining the belt again).
Usyk - What's next for Oleksandr? A defence against Wilder then ride off into the sunset?

What were your favourite Holyfield moments & what has been your best Usyk memories?

Posted: **25 Dec 2025, 22:42**

Oodles of great Holyfield moments.

The 1st bout with Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the Cruiserweight Title
The brawl with Michael Dokes
The slugfest with Bert Cooper
The epic battle with George Foreman
The best Heavyweight Trilogy of all time against Riddick Bowe
The 2 bouts with Mike Tyson, one famous, one infamous
The Underrated bout with Hasim Rahman

I'm about to brush up on Usyk's Cruiserweight career, and I'll do a more complete breakdown of the 2 careers when I do. They're definitely the 2 most noteworthy Cruiserweights turned Heavyweight in the Cruiserweight divisions relatively short history.

Posted: **25 Dec 2025, 23:47**

gilgamesh wrote: ↑25 Dec 2025, 22:42 Oodles of great Holyfield moments.

The 1st bout with Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the Cruiserweight Title
The brawl with Michael Dokes
The slugfest with Bert Cooper
The epic battle with George Foreman
The best Heavyweight Trilogy of all time against Riddick Bowe
The 2 bouts with Mike Tyson, one famous, one infamous
The Underrated bout with Hasim Rahman

I'm about to brush up on Usyk's Cruiserweight career, and I'll do a more complete breakdown of the 2 careers when I do. They're definitely the 2 most noteworthy Cruiserweights turned Heavyweight in the Cruiserweight divisions relatively short history.

I look forward to it.

Funny that I/we think of them as moving UP in weight but Usyk's lightest weight was 198 pounds which is heavier than most of the all Time greats up until the 1960s.

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 00:28**

From a historical perspective that's kinda how we all should see the Cruiserweight division. Every fighter that's ever been called a Cruiserweight was just a Heavyweight prior to 1980.

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 01:05**

One weird thing that I like to do is find a direct link between two fighters in as least as many fights as possible.

With Evander to Oleksandr it's.....

Holyfield lost to Valuev who lost to Haye who lost to Bellew who lost to Usyk.

Many years ago I wrote an article linking Mike Tysons loss to Buster Douglas all the way back to Jimmy Wilde.

I wrote this in about 2004 or 2005 even though it's listed as 2018.

https://fightpost.co.uk/2018/07/27/the- ... ike-tyson/

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 06:07**

My perspective:

Amateur boxing:
I rate 2011 world championships higher than 2012 olympics. At 2012, he defeated only 3 guys on his way to gold, which is weird, but okay. in both tournaments, he has big troubles with Beterbiev, that fights could go either way, but Usyk gained nod both times. In terms of amateur boxing, people tend to forgot to his 7 wins in WSB, where he totaly destroyed all oponents.

Holyfield is 1984 gold medalist for me. Too bad he did not fought Tyson in amaterus, wondering if it was some type of avoiding then too, but still, his amaterur career is impressive for me.

I rate Usyk amateur career a bit higher than Holyfields.

Pro career beginings:
Both have very similar begining of pro career. Not a fights against total bums, but decent level of B fighters.
Usyk fought Glowacki in 10th fight, Holyfield fought Quawi in 12th fight. Quawi was probably a bit better than Glowacki,, but Usyk outclassed Glowacki and Holyfield fought close fight with Quawi.

Cruiserweight reign:
Both dominated the division.
Holyfield best wins are Quawi rematch, Tillman and De Leon.
Usyk wins are Gassiev, Briedis, Hunter, Bellew

I rate Usyk cruiserweight reign more impressive, because of those wins. plus division were more depth than in Holyfields era.

Heavyweight beginnings:
Before title shot, Holyfield went through 6 decent guys knocking them out before title shot. But, considering he was a big star, i believe there was definitely avoiding between him and Tyson in that era.

Usyk has only two fight in heavyweight before title shot, and despite his clean wins, Chisora fight was somewhat close.

Road to the title was definitely more impressive in Holyfield career.

Heavyweight title:
Holyfield beat Buster Douglas in 3 rounds. Impressive, but he was big favourite.
Usyk beat Joshua by decision, but clear one, while almost stopping him in the end. he was underdog and was fighting in Joshua home.

Usyk gaining the title was more impressive by far.

Prime heavyweight career:
I definitely think Holyfield wins over 42 year old Holmes and 43 year old Foreman are somewhat overrated. Yeah, they were legends and one of best ever, but still well past prime and Holyfield fought close fights with them.
Then, trilogy with Bowe, very impressive showing of heart, strength, skill and will by Holyfield. Despite taking a Ls here, Bowe was prime, undefeated champ, so hat off to Holyfield here.
He took a close loss from Moorer, but he later avenged that with stoppage so im perfectly ok with that.
I am giving Holyfield big respect for beating Tyson, really.

Usyk heavyweight reign consist only 3 names, which he fought twice. But he was very impressive in every single of them. In 48 rounds against Joshua and Fury - prime big guys, he lost maybe 15, was never in trouble and hurt both of them multiple times. KTFO of Dubois is underrated i think.

Hard to judge or compare their prime careers.
Holyfield has better names on his resume and went through some wars. On the other hand, he took some hard losses here too.
Usyk fought a bit lower quality guys, but beat all of them impressively, and in front of their crowd at their homes. Never lost more than few rounds.
I rank their prime heavyweight careers even - still Usyk can earn some more career defining wins, or can take Ls which can tarnish that.

Past the prime career:
For me Holyfield was past prime hen he fought Lewis. Clean losses, but he held his own against one of greatest at prime. Respect. Ruiz trilogy was boring, but still can hold his own and got wins against prime, A class boxer. TKO loss and total schooling from Toney is biggest lowlight of his career IMO.
I am thinking if past prime career tarnished Holyfield legacy and if he should retire after Ruiz fights.

For me Usyk rank higher in HW history. Not by much, but higher

For now, lets see how he handle rest of his career

Sorry for my english guys and wish all of you merry Christmas

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 09:54**

I’ll have to watch it again but I thought Holyfield beat Valuev.

Had he got that win it would have been very big for his legacy. I’m pretty sure Valuev at the time was the only WBA champ thus it would have been a legitimate World title win.

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 10:00**

Holyfield is a horrible style matchup for Usyk.

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 11:14**

Taansend wrote: ↑25 Dec 2025, 21:15 I'm not going to pick who I think would win if they met. OK, I'm going to lean towards Usyk as long as he's undefeated.

But I just thought their career trajectories were similar so I thought I'd lay them out. Please feel free to fill in anything I've forgotten.

Holyfield - Amateur. Bronze medal at Lightheavy. Olympics 1984. Probably would have got gold if not for hitting on the break. But he did.
Usyk - Amateur. Gold Medal at London Olympics 2012 & also at World Amateur tourny the year before. Lost in the 2nd stage at the Beijing Olympics to Italian Clemente Russo who then beat Deontay Wilder in the semis before losing to Rakhim Chakhkiev n the final (who he'd beaten the year before). Usyk got his revenge in London 4 years later.

Holyfield - Turned pro at 177 pounds. Won the Cruiser belt in his 12th fight against Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Unified the belt in his 18th fight less than 4 years after turning pro.
Usyk - Turned pro at 200 1/2 pounds. Won the WBO Cruiser belt in his 10th fight (which didn't exist when Holyfield was King) & unified in his 15th bout, just under 5 years after turning pro.

Holyfield - Won the Heavyweight belt in his 7th fight at the weight exactly 2 years after moving up. Defended it 3 times before losing it, and his undefeated record, to Riddick Bowe. However, his defences were against two ageing greats in Foreman & Holmes & against Bert Cooper who gave him the 1st knockdown of his career.
Usyk - Wins the Heavyweight belt in his 3rd fight at the weight less than 2 years after moving up. Unified it 3 fights later less than 5 years after going up.

Holyfield - Regains the belt from Bowe (fanman night), smashes Tyson in a crazy night which was a brilliant night for me, had a crazier rematch & then had a spotty career after that, winning & losing fights (& regaining the belt again).
Usyk - What's next for Oleksandr? A defence against Wilder then ride off into the sunset?

What were your favourite Holyfield moments & what has been your best Usyk memories?

The first holyfield tyson fight was one of my best nights of boxing ever.

I remember jumping up and down on my mates sofa as the stoppage unfolded.

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 12:54**

Cent0089 wrote: ↑26 Dec 2025, 06:07 My perspective:

Amateur boxing:
I rate 2011 world championships higher than 2012 olympics. At 2012, he defeated only 3 guys on his way to gold, which is weird, but okay. in both tournaments, he has big troubles with Beterbiev, that fights could go either way, but Usyk gained nod both times. In terms of amateur boxing, people tend to forgot to his 7 wins in WSB, where he totaly destroyed all oponents.

Holyfield is 1984 gold medalist for me. Too bad he did not fought Tyson in amaterus, wondering if it was some type of avoiding then too, but still, his amaterur career is impressive for me.

I rate Usyk amateur career a bit higher than Holyfields.

Pro career beginings:
Both have very similar begining of pro career. Not a fights against total bums, but decent level of B fighters.
Usyk fought Glowacki in 10th fight, Holyfield fought Quawi in 12th fight. Quawi was probably a bit better than Glowacki,, but Usyk outclassed Glowacki and Holyfield fought close fight with Quawi.

Cruiserweight reign:
Both dominated the division.
Holyfield best wins are Quawi rematch, Tillman and De Leon.
Usyk wins are Gassiev, Briedis, Hunter, Bellew

I rate Usyk cruiserweight reign more impressive, because of those wins. plus division were more depth than in Holyfields era.

Heavyweight beginnings:
Before title shot, Holyfield went through 6 decent guys knocking them out before title shot. But, considering he was a big star, i believe there was definitely avoiding between him and Tyson in that era.

Usyk has only two fight in heavyweight before title shot, and despite his clean wins, Chisora fight was somewhat close.

Road to the title was definitely more impressive in Holyfield career.

Heavyweight title:
Holyfield beat Buster Douglas in 3 rounds. Impressive, but he was big favourite.
Usyk beat Joshua by decision, but clear one, while almost stopping him in the end. he was underdog and was fighting in Joshua home.

Usyk gaining the title was more impressive by far.

Prime heavyweight career:
I definitely think Holyfield wins over 42 year old Holmes and 43 year old Foreman are somewhat overrated. Yeah, they were legends and one of best ever, but still well past prime and Holyfield fought close fights with them.
Then, trilogy with Bowe, very impressive showing of heart, strength, skill and will by Holyfield. Despite taking a Ls here, Bowe was prime, undefeated champ, so hat off to Holyfield here.
He took a close loss from Moorer, but he later avenged that with stoppage so im perfectly ok with that.
I am giving Holyfield big respect for beating Tyson, really.

Usyk heavyweight reign consist only 3 names, which he fought twice. But he was very impressive in every single of them. In 48 rounds against Joshua and Fury - prime big guys, he lost maybe 15, was never in trouble and hurt both of them multiple times. KTFO of Dubois is underrated i think.

Hard to judge or compare their prime careers.
Holyfield has better names on his resume and went through some wars. On the other hand, he took some hard losses here too.
Usyk fought a bit lower quality guys, but beat all of them impressively, and in front of their crowd at their homes. Never lost more than few rounds.
I rank their prime heavyweight careers even - still Usyk can earn some more career defining wins, or can take Ls which can tarnish that.

Past the prime career:
For me Holyfield was past prime hen he fought Lewis. Clean losses, but he held his own against one of greatest at prime. Respect. Ruiz trilogy was boring, but still can hold his own and got wins against prime, A class boxer. TKO loss and total schooling from Toney is biggest lowlight of his career IMO.
I am thinking if past prime career tarnished Holyfield legacy and if he should retire after Ruiz fights.

For me Usyk rank higher in HW history. Not by much, but higher For now, lets see how he handle rest of his career

Sorry for my english guys and wish all of you merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you too. Saying Quawi was “a bit better than Glowacki“ is a pretty dramatic understatement. Glowacki was fine European title level fighter but there is no way he would have made it the distance with the cruiserweight Holyfield. I would have loved to have seen Uysk vs the Quawi who fought Holyfield at CW. It would have been a great fight

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 12:58**

jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑26 Dec 2025, 11:14
Taansend wrote: ↑25 Dec 2025, 21:15 I'm not going to pick who I think would win if they met. OK, I'm going to lean towards Usyk as long as he's undefeated.

But I just thought their career trajectories were similar so I thought I'd lay them out. Please feel free to fill in anything I've forgotten.

Holyfield - Amateur. Bronze medal at Lightheavy. Olympics 1984. Probably would have got gold if not for hitting on the break. But he did.
Usyk - Amateur. Gold Medal at London Olympics 2012 & also at World Amateur tourny the year before. Lost in the 2nd stage at the Beijing Olympics to Italian Clemente Russo who then beat Deontay Wilder in the semis before losing to Rakhim Chakhkiev n the final (who he'd beaten the year before). Usyk got his revenge in London 4 years later.

Holyfield - Turned pro at 177 pounds. Won the Cruiser belt in his 12th fight against Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Unified the belt in his 18th fight less than 4 years after turning pro.
Usyk - Turned pro at 200 1/2 pounds. Won the WBO Cruiser belt in his 10th fight (which didn't exist when Holyfield was King) & unified in his 15th bout, just under 5 years after turning pro.

Holyfield - Won the Heavyweight belt in his 7th fight at the weight exactly 2 years after moving up. Defended it 3 times before losing it, and his undefeated record, to Riddick Bowe. However, his defences were against two ageing greats in Foreman & Holmes & against Bert Cooper who gave him the 1st knockdown of his career.
Usyk - Wins the Heavyweight belt in his 3rd fight at the weight less than 2 years after moving up. Unified it 3 fights later less than 5 years after going up.

Holyfield - Regains the belt from Bowe (fanman night), smashes Tyson in a crazy night which was a brilliant night for me, had a crazier rematch & then had a spotty career after that, winning & losing fights (& regaining the belt again).
Usyk - What's next for Oleksandr? A defence against Wilder then ride off into the sunset?

What were your favourite Holyfield moments & what has been your best Usyk memories?
The first holyfield tyson fight was one of my best nights of boxing ever.

I remember jumping up and down on my mates sofa as the stoppage unfolded.

Same. Holyfield was a local guy (Atlanta) and I was in a bar watching it with a whole lot of local fans who went crazy as the fight progressed. I got a ride home that night because I needed it.

The first Qawi fight was also stupid good and dramatic. Forgotten by many fans but few if any other cruiserweights in history beat Qawi in that fight

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 13:50**

The night of Holyfield v Tyson 1 I was seeing this very sexy black girl from Woking. We'd been out then went to some friends of hers house to watch the fight. These blokes fell asleep so I hoovered up their coke & drank their beers, watched the fight, then back to her place for some manic sex for the next day.

A couple of months later I left the UK to work on cruise ships & watched the rematch in Alaska

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 14:13**

Taansend wrote: ↑26 Dec 2025, 13:50 The night of Holyfield v Tyson 1 I was seeing this very sexy black girl from Woking. We'd been out then went to some friends of hers house to watch the fight. These blokes fell asleep so I hoovered up their coke & drank their beers, watched the fight, then back to her place for some manic sex for the next day.

A couple of months later I left the UK to work on cruise ships & watched the rematch in Alaska

Now that’s a great fight memory

Posted: **26 Dec 2025, 19:03**

jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑26 Dec 2025, 11:14 The first holyfield tyson fight was one of my best nights of boxing ever.

I remember jumping up and down on my mates sofa as the stoppage unfolded.

Same here mate. It was an unbelievable night. I was in a different place for some days afterwards.

I’d become a massive fan of Holyfield over the years, which pretty much started the day my grandad insisted Evander was too small to ever be the heavyweight champion.

Before the Tyson fight I remember opening up Boxing Monthly with something of a silent prayer, hoping their preview would make a case for The Real Deal to at least have a say in the fight. I went straight to a photo of Holyfield where it read “For all his dedication, Holyfield appears to have gone back too far to win”. It was hard to argue otherwise, and very few people did.

The miserable loss to Moorer, the heart defect rumours, the struggle with Mercer (which on reflection wasn’t a bad win at all), the brutal loss to Bowe which seemed to compound many people’s fears around that time - Holyfield (flu’d up, as it would turn out) was fighting on fumes after 4 rounds despite looking in incredible shape, then the lacklustre win over Czyz followed, it all made an upset win over Tyson seem next to impossible - even with the post-prison questions still to be answered.

And then 09/11/96 came, and the script was well and truly ripped up. I’ve never been more on the edge of my seat for a fight, and doubt I ever will be again (I assume the Rumble in the Jungle must have been very similar if you were a big Ali fan). Even right before the first bell, Reg Gutteridge commented on Holyfield’s heart in both contexts, saying that while Evander had been assessed and was declared fit, it was “the difference between being fit, and fit to fight, probably”. Thanks Reg, really needed that one thrown in.

One thing that occasionally pops into my head - I remember Holyfield’s interview in the ring after beating Czyz, and some random fan appears and momentarily gates-crashes, reaching out saying “Evander I love you!” which Holyfield respectfully acknowledged, as the guy was being quickly ushered away. I do often wonder what state that fella must have been in 6 months later, right after Holyfield just pulled off the unthinkable.

Posted: **27 Dec 2025, 08:06**

Crikey, I thought that had been announced for a second there!

Posted: **27 Dec 2025, 08:58**

revporl wrote: ↑27 Dec 2025, 08:06 Crikey, I thought that had been announced for a second there!

I wouldn't put it past Usyk these days!

Posted: **28 Dec 2025, 02:16**

Still a tough matchup. Usyk's cruiser competition was tougher than Holy's, while Holy has bigger scalps in HWs. Briedis and Qawi are quite evenly matched. Bowe was better than Fury and Joshua. Tyson was too, but when he was in prime. Head-to-head Holyfield could be outboxed by a methodical and crafty fighter, Lewis did that, but there Holy also wasn't at his best.

Posted: **28 Dec 2025, 20:40**

Ok so first, a thorough breakdown of their Cruiserweight accomplishments, and a few minor footnotes about their respective weights as Cruiserweights before we start.

In Holyfield's first 5 bouts he and his team were still kinda deciding whether or not he was going to pursue a ranking in the Light Heavyweight or Cruiserweight division so he was kinda straddling the line between the 2 weights, once weighing as light as 176, but always over the Light Heavyweight limit. So I would personally consider all of these bouts to be Cruiserweight bouts even though sometimes you'd see them listed on Television as Light Heavyweight bouts.

Usyk on the other hand began his career weighing slightly over 200 pounds for his debut, and never weighed less than 198 pounds in his Title bouts. Weight wise, Holyfield in his early Heavyweight bouts was essentially the same size as Usyk the Cruiserweight Champion, but that's just kind of a footnote due to the fact that the Cruiserweight divisions weight limit changed between their 2 eras.

I consider all of Holyfield's pre-Heavyweight bouts to be Cruiserweight bouts for the purposes of this argument.

Posted: **28 Dec 2025, 20:53**

So now with all that being said, according to my Refined Rankings System which I've recently came up with to try to properly rank fighters historically, this is the results I've come up with.

Oleksandr Usyk with 16 bouts as a Cruiserweight. Winning all 16 and getting the KO in 12 (he honestly should've gotten the stoppage in the Michael Hunter bout too. He was hammering that dude). He won the WBO Championship in his 10th bout against Krzysztof Glowacki, defended it twice, and eventually unified to become Undisputed Champion in the World Boxing Super Series Tournament. He then defended his Undisputed Championship once against Tony Bellew.

Altogether Usyk's Championship record at Cruiserweight is 7-0 with 3 KO's. Among his Championship bouts he has what I would consider to be 2 Gold star wins over Marco Huck and Mairis Breidis respectively. He has 6 quality opponents at the weight class with them being Glowacki, Michael Hunter, Huck, Breidis, Gassiev, and Bellew

Oleksandr Usyk's total score for the Cruiserweight portion of his career comes out to 196 points

Evander Holyfield with 18 bouts as a Cruiserweight, Winning all 18 and getting the KO in 14. He won the WBA Championship in his 11th bout against Dwight Muhammad Qawi. His next bout was a Non-Title win over Mike Brothers, and then he defended against his Olympic teammate Henry Tillman. After that he unified the WBA and IBF Championships in a bout with Rickey Parkey, and defended those 2 belts twice before becoming Undisputed Cruisrweight Champion with a victory over Carlos De Leon.

Altogether Holyfield's Championship record at Cruiserweight is 6-0 with 5 KO's. Among his Championship bouts he has what I would consider to be 3 Gold star wins over Dwight Muhammad Qawi 2x, and Carlos De Leon, who are also his 3 highest Quality opponents at Cruiserweight

Evander Holyfield's total score for the Cruiserweight portion of his career comes out to 233 points.

Posted: **29 Dec 2025, 12:55**

Taansend wrote: ↑25 Dec 2025, 21:15 I'm not going to pick who I think would win if they met. OK, I'm going to lean towards Usyk as long as he's undefeated.

But I just thought their career trajectories were similar so I thought I'd lay them out. Please feel free to fill in anything I've forgotten.

Holyfield - Amateur. Bronze medal at Lightheavy. Olympics 1984. Probably would have got gold if not for hitting on the break. But he did.
Usyk - Amateur. Gold Medal at London Olympics 2012 & also at World Amateur tourny the year before. Lost in the 2nd stage at the Beijing Olympics to Italian Clemente Russo who then beat Deontay Wilder in the semis before losing to Rakhim Chakhkiev n the final (who he'd beaten the year before). Usyk got his revenge in London 4 years later.

Holyfield - Turned pro at 177 pounds. Won the Cruiser belt in his 12th fight against Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Unified the belt in his 18th fight less than 4 years after turning pro.
Usyk - Turned pro at 200 1/2 pounds. Won the WBO Cruiser belt in his 10th fight (which didn't exist when Holyfield was King) & unified in his 15th bout, just under 5 years after turning pro.

Holyfield - Won the Heavyweight belt in his 7th fight at the weight exactly 2 years after moving up. Defended it 3 times before losing it, and his undefeated record, to Riddick Bowe. However, his defences were against two ageing greats in Foreman & Holmes & against Bert Cooper who gave him the 1st knockdown of his career.
Usyk - Wins the Heavyweight belt in his 3rd fight at the weight less than 2 years after moving up. Unified it 3 fights later less than 5 years after going up.

Holyfield - Regains the belt from Bowe (fanman night), smashes Tyson in a crazy night which was a brilliant night for me, had a crazier rematch & then had a spotty career after that, winning & losing fights (& regaining the belt again).
Usyk - What's next for Oleksandr? A defence against Wilder then ride off into the sunset?

What were your favourite Holyfield moments & what has been your best Usyk memories?

- Field is as close to Usyk as a fly is to an elephant, but as me auld Buddy Billy Shakes always advised n'er speak ill of the dead or dying or Deyonce or the fallen warriors...

Posted: **29 Dec 2025, 21:44**

Now for a breakdown of the Heavyweight portions of their careers.

Oleksandr Usyk with 8 bouts as a Heavyweight, winning all 8 with 3 coming by KO. 6 Championship wins, and 2 Gold Star victories (Fury 1 and Joshua 1) has netted 167 points as a Heavyweight to this point.

Evander Holyfield with 36 bouts as a Heavyweight, winning 26. He has 10 Championship wins as a Heavyweight. He has 4 Gold Star wins (Foreman, Tyson 1 and 2, and Moorer 2) , and 1 All Time Platinum Win (Bowe 2).

His Heavyweight career adds up to 326 points

Due to his valiant effort in the losses to Bowe, and the fact that I felt he was robbed against Nikolai Valuev. He is deducted less for the Bowe losses, and none at all for the Valuev robbery.

Posted: **29 Dec 2025, 21:45**

So essentially. According to my calculations. Usyk would need to win several more bouts against Championship level competition to approach equaling Holyfield.

Their total career scores are

559 points for Evander Holyfield
357 points for Oleksandr Usyk

Posted: **31 Dec 2025, 02:33**

Good breakdown on the thread.
Shows how highly both are thought of

Continue

Posted: **31 Dec 2025, 12:23**

I think Usyk would beat all of Holyfield's opposition. And Holy would beat all of Usyk's opposition.

Posted: **01 Jan 2026, 05:10**

Ezzard wrote: ↑31 Dec 2025, 12:23 I think Usyk would beat all of Holyfield's opposition. And Holy would beat all of Usyk's opposition.

Lewis vs Usyk is quite intriguing.

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