A former heavyweight champion has backed himself to defeat a prime Evander Holyfield.
Best known as ‘The Real Deal’, Holyfield had an exceptional professional career where he became the first fighter in boxing history to capture the undisputed world championship at both cruiserweight and heavyweight.
He made three successful defences of his undisputed crown, including victories over heavyweight legends Larry Holmes and George Foreman before he was eventually defeated by Riddick Bowe in the first fight of their iconic trilogy.
Despite his success within the heavyweight division during the 1990s, Holmes, who was known as ‘The Easton Assassin’, has claimed that things would have been very different if they had met when he was at his peak.
In a resurfaced interview, Holmes did not hesitate to predict an easy victory for himself if he had faced Holyfield when he was at ‘100%’.
“He would have been pretty easy for me to fight if I was 100%.
I was 42 and he was following me right into my corner because I couldn’t really see him from a distance because my eyes was blurry and what not, so he came into the corner, and he was taking punches and what not but this corner was a little smarter than I thought they were.”
Holmes was at his formidable prime during the early to mid 1980s, where he reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1978 until 1985. He would fight for the world title on a couple more occasions after this but fell short at each time of asking.
‘The Easton Assassin’ finally drew the curtain on his career in 2002, not long after he defeated Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch in his 75th and final ring appearance.
