In the eyes of many, Evander Holyfield remains one of the greatest heavyweights to have ever laced up the gloves.
‘The Real Deal’ etched his name into boxing history during the 1990s when he became the first fighter to win the undisputed world championship at cruiserweight and heavyweight respectively.
Holyfield shared the ring with many legendary heavyweights throughout the course of his 27-year professional career, including the likes of Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, George Foreman and Riddick Bowe.
His memorable trilogy with ‘Big Daddy’ Bowe is widely considered to be one of the greatest trilogies in the history of heavyweight boxing, providing fans with three entertaining clashes between the American greats.
In an interview with DJ Vlad, Holyfield shared his regret in facing Bowe for the first time back in 1992, as he claims he ignored advice from his own mother ahead of their memorable encounter.
“The big thing with [Riddick] Bowe, he’s the first person I realised that I didn’t do what my momma told me to do, so my momma told me, she said don’t become friends with nobody you’re gonna have to compete with, she said ‘son, when you’re friends with people like this, you tell them things that you shouldn’t because you all talk about everything’.
So when I lost that fight, I realised Bowe used to be my sparring partner when he was an amateur, he was an amateur and he was good. I helped him out with his little son and all this because I had money and stuff like this. Me and Bowe were just real good friends we talked about everything.”
Despite falling short in the first bout of their trilogy, Holyfield would get his revenge in their rematch just one year later to regain the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles, although ‘Big Daddy’ would settle the score in their third clash in November 1995 to put their bitter rivalry to bed.
