Evander Holyfield is widely considered to be one of the best heavyweights of all time.
After becoming undisputed at cruiserweight, Holyfield moved up to the banner division where he repeated that achievement, defeating fighters such as Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Larry Holmes and Riddick Bowe along the way.
During his prime, there wouldn’t be many boxers that would have been able to defeat Holyfield, but he has now named one current fighter who he believes may have stood a chance.
Speaking to Boxing Social, ‘The Real Deal’ was asked how he would fare against current unified heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk when at his best and admitted that he would struggle against the unbeaten Ukrainian.
“He’s a boxer too and it’d probably have been difficult for me because my whole thing is that I was real good with guys that were bullies, guys that were aggressive. I handled very aggressive fighters real well, it’s just boxers.
I was a boxer, so I could beat them cause they fought my game-plan. If you ever want to know a guy that would give this guy a problem, find somebody just like him. People who weren’t aggressive were difficult.”
Usyk repeated Holyfield’s accomplishment of being undisputed at both cruiserweight and heavyweight after he defeated Tyson Fury last May. He has since beaten Fury again in their rematch, and now looks set for a summer showdown with Daniel Dubois.
That will give the Ukrainian the chance to become undisputed again, after he relinquished the IBF belt following the first bout with Fury, allowing Dubois to claim it and defend it in style against Anthony Joshua last September.
Usyk and Dubois have already met once in August 2023, with Usyk claiming a ninth round stoppage victory, but it wasn’t without its controversy, after Dubois thought he had dropped his rival with a body shot earlier in the contest, only for it to be ruled as a low blow.
