Evander Holyfield has revealed who hit him the hardest during his entire professional career.
Best known as ‘The Real Deal’, Holyfield stormed onto the heavyweight scene shortly after he became the undisputed world cruiserweight champion when he beat Carlos De Leon in April 1988.
It took Holyfield just two years to repeat this feat at heavyweight, dethroning James ‘Buster’ Douglas of his WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles to become the first man in boxing history to achieve undisputed status at both cruiserweight as well as heavyweight.
‘The Real Deal’ made several defences of his crown before he was eventually beaten by Riddick ‘Big Daddy’ Bowe in the first of their three showdowns at the back end of 1992. He would avenge this defeat just one year later, before being stopped in the 8th round of their trilogy fight in 1995 – a rematch Holyfield later regretted.
In an interview with ESNEWS, Holyfield named ‘Big’ George Foreman as the hardest puncher he ever faced, admitting that he thought his heavyweight rival had ‘knocked his teeth out’ when they locked horns back in 1991.
“The guy that hit me the hardest was George Foreman. He hit me one time in the eleventh round, and I came back to the corner and I said, ‘did he knock all my teeth out?’”
Foreman, just like Holyfield, had an exceptional professional career where he captured world honours on two separate occasions. He defied the odds when he defeated Michael Moorer in 1994 to become the unified WBA and IBF world heavyweight champion, as well as the oldest champion in the history of the division, an outstanding record which remains unbroken to this very day.
