Evander Holyfield Names His Favourite Fighter: “He Throws More Punches Than Anyone”

Kristan Caryl
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Evander Holyfield Names His Favourite Fighter: “He Throws More Punches Than Anyone”

Former undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion, Evander Holyfield, has kept a close eye on boxing ever since officially retiring in 2014, and has this week named his favourite fighter.

Olympic bronze medalist Holyfield himself is a legend in the sport – at the time he was still fighting, he was the only boxer in history to be been undisputed in two weight divisions and is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held belts for various spells throughout the 90s and 00s.

He had famous wins against the likes of Hasim Rahman, Mike Tyson, Ray Mercer, Riddick Bowe, Larry Holmes, George Foreman and several more.

So who impresses a boxing great? Speaking to Versus 101 on YouTube, he outlined why he thinks Filipino multi-weight champion Manny Pacquiao is his favourite fighter.

“I like Pacquiao, he’s my favourite. You know, he’s humble., He do what he believes is right.”

Holyfield then shared his amazement at Pacquiao’s famous punch output, particularly in one fight against a Hall of Famer.

“It’s amazing, there’s some situation I’ve to think about – when he fought [Floyd] Mayweather, you ever seen someone throw more punches than Pacquiao?

If anyone was counting punches, them numbers don’t add up, right. The point of the matter if [Mayweather] got good defence, good, but don’t say he throws more punches. Because Pacquiao is the most busy figure in the world, he like that [Duracell bunny], he always throwing punches.”

The CompuBox numbers for the fight between the pair recorded 435 thrown by winner Mayweather, and 429 by Pacquiao.

Pacquiao has long since said he wanted one last fight, and last week it emerged he even fancied competing at the next Olympics, though qualification would be a long process.

Kristan has been writing about music and sport for 20 years. He’s done cover features for the most influential music magazines on the planet, written books about the world’s top DJs and most celebrated clubs, interviewed footballing heroes and profiled Tour de France legends. He joined Boxing Social in the summer of 2023 as a news and feature writer.

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