BoxRec

What do these guys have in common?

Brian Nielsen
Lou Savarese
Fres Oquendo
Vaugn Bean
Mike Tyson
Michael Moorer
Bobby Czyz
Ray Mercer
Larry Holmes
George Foreman
Buster Douglas
Seamus McDonough
Adilson Rodrigues
Michael Dokes
Pinklon Thomas

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑04 Apr 2026, 14:23 What do these guys have in common?

Brian Nielsen
Lou Savarese
Fres Oquendo
Vaugn Bean
Mike Tyson
Michael Moorer
Bobby Czyz
Ray Mercer
Larry Holmes
George Foreman
Buster Douglas
Seamus McDonough
Adilson Rodrigues
Michael Dokes
Pinklon Thomas

It seems to me that they all fought the great Evander Holyfield?

elmersalsa wrote: ↑04 Apr 2026, 14:31

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑04 Apr 2026, 14:23 What do these guys have in common?

Brian Nielsen
Lou Savarese
Fres Oquendo
Vaugn Bean
Mike Tyson
Michael Moorer
Bobby Czyz
Ray Mercer
Larry Holmes
George Foreman
Buster Douglas
Seamus McDonough
Adilson Rodrigues
Michael Dokes
Pinklon Thomas

It seems to me that they all fought the great Evander Holyfield?

And lost to him.

Moorer is the only man among them to have also won against Holyfield once, and Holyfield's victory in the rematch was a hell of a lot more conclusive than Moorer's victory in their 1st bout.

Riddick Bowe is missing on that great list of victims. Evander Holyfield was a warrior!

They all lost to Holyfield.
More interestingly, they all have better win/loss records than Holyfield.

That is an unusual anomaly there.

As soon as I saw Seamus McDonough's name I knew that the connection was Holyfield. I wonder what happened to that guy? I never heard anything from him after the Holyfield fight.
He might be the only mismatch on Holyfield's resume.

witherspoon wrote: ↑07 Apr 2026, 10:47 As soon as I saw Seamus McDonough's name I knew that the connection was Holyfield. I wonder what happened to that guy? I never heard anything from him after the Holyfield fight.
He might be the only mismatch on Holyfield's resume.

He ended up going into acting

gilgamesh wrote: ↑07 Apr 2026, 00:05 That is an unusual anomaly there.

Shows how deceiving win/loss records often are in boxing.

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑08 Apr 2026, 20:12

gilgamesh wrote: ↑07 Apr 2026, 00:05 That is an unusual anomaly there.

Shows how deceiving win/loss records often are in boxing.

Depends on who you're winning and losing to. I don't think there's anybody else with the numbers Holyfield has that can match his quality of competition. Certainly not in the modern era, maybe if you go on back you'd find somebody with a similar record.

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑08 Apr 2026, 20:12

gilgamesh wrote: ↑07 Apr 2026, 00:05 That is an unusual anomaly there.

Shows how deceiving win/loss records often are in boxing.

Especially when the boxer doesn't push away from the table early enough. Holyfield losing to Sultan Ibragimov ain't the same as losing to Bowe.

Definitely not. The 1st Bowe loss was the 1992 Fight of the Year, and even in a losing effort his rally in the 10th round of that fight was always on Holyfield highlight reels as an example of his tremendous fighting heart and ability, and for good reason. He fought as good as he could've.

The 3rd fight with Bowe isn't quite on the level of the 1st one, but it's still a pretty f*cking amazing Heavyweight slugfest in it's own right.

I personally didn't think he really lost to Michael Moorer either. Although it's close enough that you just gotta accept it, I personally don't think Moorer did quite enough. Holyfield straightened it out with him later though of course.

Holyfield also beat Hasim Rahman. I guess Rahman maybe doesn't have a numerically better record than Holyfield, but he's another Former World Champion that Holyfield beat, and he was supposed to be more on the upswing than Evander at the time they fought.

keithmoonhangover wrote: ↑09 Apr 2026, 05:50

Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑08 Apr 2026, 20:12

gilgamesh wrote: ↑07 Apr 2026, 00:05 That is an unusual anomaly there.

Shows how deceiving win/loss records often are in boxing.

Especially when the boxer doesn't push away from the table early enough. Holyfield losing to Sultan Ibragimov ain't the same as losing to Bowe.

That's a big part of it too. We always need to take a hard look at the stages of fighter's careers when these fights happen.

witherspoon wrote: ↑07 Apr 2026, 10:47 As soon as I saw Seamus McDonough's name I knew that the connection was Holyfield. I wonder what happened to that guy? I never heard anything from him after the Holyfield fight.
He might be the only mismatch on Holyfield's resume.

Here's an interview from a number of years ago:

Kind of interesting.
He was one of the few virtual unknowns that Holyfield fought. If you look through all of the guys mentioned earlier, you see some great fighters and some guys who weren't that good at all, but they have similar records.

The way boxing is set up, if a guy wants to, he can always find an easy win. An opponent that he isn't going to lose to some guys do that for most of their careers. Others try to fight the best available opponents. Statistics in boxing are mcuh less reliable than other sports.