Legendary heavyweight Evander Holyfield has summed up Tyson Fury’s chances of being able to compete during his era.
‘The Real Deal’ is credited with being one of the best heavyweights of his generation which culminated with him capturing the undisputed championship when he defeated James ‘Buster’ Douglas back in October 1990.
Holyfield would go on to share the ring with a number of legendary heavyweights in the years that followed, including the likes of George Foreman, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson to name just a few.
In an interview with Pro Boxing Fans, Holyfield admitted that he believes Fury would have ‘been good’ had he fought during that golden era of heavyweights, as he claims ‘The Gypsy King’ would have fought a better calibre of opponents during this generation.
“Well it’s obvious he came from a family that fight, so just think about it. In his family life they were fighters, this is what they like doing. In a lot of poor people like myself, fighting was one of the things we did well and so you know with Tyson Fury, he comes from a background of fighters.
“If he would have been in our era, he would have been one of those guys that would have been good. He is very rangy and he is proven that he can make adjustments. The thing is I have to think that if he was in our era, he would have fought better fighters, so he had to be tough too because everybody in our era was tough.
“From 1990-2000, you had about six or seven champions. I did it four times in that era, there were a lot of good fighters in that era because we had a lot of good amateur fights.”
Fury is yet to make a return to action since he suffered the second defeat of his career to Ukrainian superstar Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024, falling short in his attempt at becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion.
The 37-year-old from Morecambe has recently confirmed that he will be making a comeback to the sport in 2026 however, with reports suggesting that he could face the hard-hitting Arslanbek Makhmudov next.
