'I fought Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson twice – this is who hit hardest'

Evander Holyfield took connected the champion heavyweight fighters of his procreation but a punch from a seasoned George Foreman near him feeling similar each of his teeth were knocked out

Evander Holyfield faced dense hitters Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson during his legendary vocation – but the boxing icon insists nary of them deed harder than George Foreman.

Holyfield, 62, is considered 1 of the top boxers of each time, reigning arsenic undisputed cruiserweight champion successful the precocious 1980s and astatine heavyweight successful the aboriginal 1990s. He remains the lone four-time satellite heavyweight champion to date, retiring with a grounds of 44-10-2.

The large Alabamian had to spell done immoderate of the toughest boxers successful history, beating Holmes by unanimous determination successful 1992 and reclaiming the WBA rubric with a TKO triumph implicit the fearsome Tyson successful 1996. He would aboriginal endure decision astatine the hands of Lewis successful their 1999 undisputed rematch.

Yet Holyfield, who fought each the mode up until 2011, has revealed Foreman punched him harder than each of the aforementioned icons. Holyfield came up against the seasoned astatine the highest of his powers successful 1991 - during the 2nd portion of Big George’s career.

Holyfield admitted successful an interrogation with ESNEWS: "The feline that deed maine the hardest was George Foreman. He deed maine 1 clip successful the eleventh round, and I came backmost to the country and I said ‘did helium sound each my teeth out?'”

Foreman had returned from his archetypal status successful 1977 10 years aboriginal successful the anticipation of becoming the oldest champion of each time. The younger Holyfield emerged the victor done unanimous decision, though Foreman managed to execute his singular feat 3 years later.

Despite Foreman’s devastating punch power, Holyfield came done the combat with his unbeaten grounds intact, but was knocked retired a twelvemonth aboriginal by Riddick Bowe. He avenged the decision successful 1993 but endured mixed results arsenic helium went connected to look the toughest fighters of his procreation successful the pursuing years.

Holyfield came retired of status for a one-off accumulation bout successful 2021 but was unceremoniously knocked retired successful the opening circular by Vitor Belfort. And the fable present whitethorn person been tempted to travel successful his erstwhile rival Tyson’s footsteps by stepping retired of status erstwhile again.

Tyson, 58, is acceptable to look YouTube prima Jake Paul successful his archetypal nonrecreational combat since 2005. The arguable bout against 10-1 Paul is scheduled for November 15 and volition aerial unrecorded connected Netflix, with up to 90,000 fans astatine the AT&T Stadium.

Holyfield, who notoriously had portion of his receptor bitten disconnected by Tyson successful their 1997 rematch for the WBA title, was reportedly keen to beryllium progressive successful 1 of the sport’s astir improbable rematches. In an interrogation with talkSPORT, Misfits boxing co-president Mams Taylor admitted that Holyfield had sounded retired the anticipation of facing KSI (4-1), different YouTube prima who has been a pioneer of influencer boxing.

But Taylor claimed the promotion turned down a combat with the 62-year-old. “I cognize Holyfield contacted america astir warring KSI,” helium said. “Again, we wouldn’t bash that. It needs to beryllium 2 evenly-matched fighters astatine an adjacent age. If it was Mike Tyson oregon Evander Holyfield for each the wealth successful the world we wouldn’t bash that. I deliberation it’s ironic due to the fact that the cornerstone of Misfits Boxing is connected a higher motivation crushed than immoderate parts of accepted boxing.”

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