Oleksandr Usyk is the current king of the heavyweight division but Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield have both had that honour in the past.
Usyk became undisputed heavyweight champion in 2024 after defeating Tyson Fury, becoming the only man to achieve this in the four-belt era and the first to be undisputed since Lewis last achieved it over 20 years ago.
Prior to Lewis being undisputed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Holyfield also acted as the sole ruler of the division in the early 1990s.
The two men fought twice in 1999, with the first fight ending in a controversial draw which many fought Lewis should have won, before the Brit ensured there would be no mistakes second time round as he defeated Holyfield by unanimous decision.
Usyk has now weighed in on how that match-up would have gone if both had been in their prime, telling Mail Sport who he was siding with.
“Holyfield.”
The Ukrainian also felt that Holyfield would have been able to defeat George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Anthony Joshua and Vitali Klitschko, but thought ‘The Real Deal’ would have suffered a loss to Wladimir Klitschko.
Holyfield’s prime is considered to have been in the early 1990s, when he defeated fighters such as Foreman, Larry Holmes and Riddick Bowe. He also beat Mike Tyson twice, and is the only four-time heavyweight champion in history.
As for Usyk, he looks set to take on Daniel Dubois this summer in a bid to once again become undisputed, and Lewis himself has made his prediction for that clash.
