{"id":282211,"date":"2025-11-13T17:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/282211\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T17:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:42:08","slug":"evander-holyfield-says-one-heavyweight-hit-harder-than-all-the-other-men-he-faced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/282211\/","title":{"rendered":"Evander Holyfield says one heavyweight hit harder than all the other men he faced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evander Holyfield<\/a> was famed for his heart, will to win, and granite chin. But one man tested the latter to its limit.<\/p>\n

Holyfield captured world titles at both cruiserweight and heavyweight, but it was in the marquee division where \u201cThe Real Deal\u201d faced his greatest challenges. None bigger than Riddick Bowe across their legendary trilogy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bowe managed to floor Holyfield, yet the fighter who made him wonder if he\u2019d need a dentist did so a year before their first meeting.<\/p>\n

When George Foreman<\/a> came to Atlantic City to challenge Holyfield for the undisputed heavyweight championship, it was 18 years after he had first won the crown by demolishing Joe Frazier in two rounds.<\/p>\n

At 42, Foreman gave a far more credible performance in defeat than many expected and left a lasting impression on the then 28-year-old Holyfield, as he told Dontaes Boxing Nation.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy that hit me the hardest was George Foreman. He hit me one time in that 11th round and I came back to the corner and said, \u2018Did he knock all my teeth out?\u2019 They said, \u2018You all right.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew in boxing they\u2019ll tell you anything to keep you going. In the 12th round I held him a lot, and at the press conference they said, \u2018You had to hold the old man.\u2019 I said, \u2018But I beat him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Holyfield refused to let pride or stubbornness cost him the titles he\u2019d won against \u201cBuster\u201d Douglas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t gonna let him knock me out \u2019cause I\u2019m too self-centred to hold him. I\u2019ll do whatever I can. He came out in the 12th trying to get me. I grabbed him for 15, 20 seconds. I wasn\u2019t gonna get knocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing the difference in power between himself and Foreman, he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was throwing rocks, he was throwing boulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holyfield has also recently named who he deems to be the greatest heavyweight of all time \u2013 himself.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evander Holyfield was famed for his heart, will to win, and granite chin. But one man tested the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-282211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}