Holyfield was scheduled to fight the unbeaten former European and WBO champ Damiani but the Italian got injured and Holyfield took on Bert Cooper on short notice. Damiani was Olympic silver medallist who lost a disputd decision to Tyrell Biggs in finals How would this "unification match" (not that anybody cared about WBO back then) have gone in your opinion? Seeing how easily Damiani outboxed Ray Mercer before Ray caught him with a shot that fucked up his nose, I think he would have given Holyfield a tough battle too. I think Hoyfield with his quicker moves would have won a 116-112 type of a decision
Mercer was outboxed by a lot of guys. He was predictable and not all that skilled. Damiani lost. Holmes won and did a better job on Mercer along the way. Holmes wasn't even competetive with Holyfield. Evander via late KO or near shutout.
I don't like to talk about fluke KOs, to me for example Rahman-Lewis I was not a fluke. However if they do exist, Mercer-Damiani is very close to being one. Mercer's shot wasn't very hard and it didn't land properly, which is why it was that effective (it caught the tip of Damiani's nose in weird angle and crushed it) Damiani outboxed Mercer different from Holmes as Damiani was able to push him back and outpunch at close. Considering Holyfield's love to slug and the (then) light punching, I think he would have some touble early on
