{"id":226803,"date":"2025-10-26T17:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T17:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/226803\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T17:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T17:04:07","slug":"evander-holyfield-called-for-judging-to-change-entirely-after-disagreeing-with-one-fight-outcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/226803\/","title":{"rendered":"Evander Holyfield Called For Judging To Change Entirely After Disagreeing With One Fight Outcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evander Holyfield<\/a> once made a drastic call for judging to be changed completely following the result of a \u2018super-fight\u2019 between two of the biggest names in the sport.<\/p>\n

Known for his all-action fighting style, Holyfield proved himself to be one of the best heavyweights of his generation at his peak<\/a>, reigning as the world heavyweight champion on four occasions during his professional career.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Real Deal\u2019 became the first fighter in boxing history to win the undisputed championship at both cruiserweight and heavyweight, a record that remained unmatched until May of 2024 when Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury to capture all the belts at heavyweight.<\/p>\n

In comparison to Holyfield\u2019s exciting style of fighting, former pound-for-pound star Floyd Mayweather had a more defensive approach, and although the Michigan-native remained unbeaten during his 50 fight career, he quite often received criticism for not engaging with his opponents.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Mayweather\u2019s 2015 victory over Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao, Holyfield shared his thoughts in an open letter<\/a> where he criticised the judges scorecards and Mayweather\u2019s defensive style, which sparked frustration amongst the boxing community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping Mayweather vs. Pacquiao would start a renaissance and help bring boxing back as a major sport in America. But with the whole world watching, instead of The Fight of the Century, we got a fight that highlighted everything that\u2019s wrong with boxing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges today are giving decisions to fighters who use defensive tactics, and he knows that. That\u2019s why he\u2019s now 48-0. He\u2019s boxing according to the way judges are scoring the fights. He plays the system and he wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, instead of boxing for the knockout, fighters are boxing for the decision. Instead of fighting to win, they\u2019re fighting not to lose and they\u2019re getting rewarded for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayweather and Pacquiao locked horns in what was dubbed as \u2018The Fight Of The Century\u2019 in May of 2015, although the fight itself failed to live up to expectations. <\/a><\/p>\n

After an underwhelming 12-rounds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Mayweather was declared the winner via unanimous decision to unify the WBC, WBA and WBO welterweight titles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evander Holyfield once made a drastic call for judging to be changed completely following the result of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-226803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}