As a kid in Atmore, Alabama, family called Holyfield “Chubby,” and he was the youngest of nine children. When a series of family tragedies and hardships directed the deeply-religious family to Atlanta, Holyfield quickly displayed the athletic gifts in American football that would see him to multiple world championships in boxing.

Holyfield wasn’t allowed to box at the Warren Memorial Boys Club in Atlanta. Not at first, anyway. He was there for football, and maybe another sport or two, but not boxing. His mother and grandmother forbade him from even setting foot in the boxing area of the club, so naturally that’s what Holyfield desired.

According to his autobiography “The Humble Warrior,” Holyfield bruised his knuckle punching a heavy bag for the first time. Undeterred, the young Holyfield eventually made the club’s exclusive boxing team and morphed into one of the world's top amateur light heavyweights, ultimately winning an Olympic medal about a dozen years after he first disobeyed his family.

Even as a top shelf amateur fighter, Holyfield was often rated behind Ricky Womack, a star who fought out of Detroit and had already defeated him. It was two straight victories over Womack that put Holyfield in line for his Olympic medal, which could have been more than bronze had Holyfield not been controversially disqualified in the semi-final. Nevertheless, the loss meant teammates like Mark Breland and Pernell Whitaker received more attention and more favorable odds to become world champions.

Time and again, Holyfield showed them all: his family, his doubters and his opponents. He conquered two divisions and stuck around longer than anyone expected.

Over more than 25 years of fighting as a professional, Holyfield put together one of the greatest ledgers in modern boxing history. Here are his 10 greatest victories.

Fresh off his move from cruiserweight to heavyweight, Holyfield sought to legitimize the decision by taking out some ex-champions, like Pinklon Thomas and then Dokes. Unfortunately for Dokes, most remember him for his later career woes than for being a talented and promising fighter who simply went astray. Dokes also fought Holyfield like hell before “The Real Deal” took over and got the stoppage.

Holyfield retired citing heart problems in 1994, and a loss to Michael Moorer had experts understandably declaring the ex-champion all but done. Mercer won Olympic gold in 1988 and his two professional losses were against Larry Holmes and Jesse Ferguson in a now-infamous bout that resulted in Mercer being investigated for mid-fight bribery. “Merciless” Ray was a heavy puncher with a nearly-undentable chin, however, and a few others who underestimated him ended up in a heap on the canvas. Holyfield fended Mercer off despite a bad cut near his eye and even put Mercer down for the first time in his career en route to proving he could return from a heart ailment and long layoff to defeat a top heavyweight.

While Ruiz’s style wasn’t pleasant to watch and clashed awfully with Holyfield’s, “The Quiet Man” still went on to hold the WBA title and endure through a heavyweight division that tried to expel him more than once. By all means, this win could have been the end of Holyfield’s dealings with Ruiz. Alas, it wasn’t.

This fight was all about revenge for Holyfield, who was narrowly defeated by Moorer for the title a few years earlier. In the time since, Holyfield once more experienced defeat and again rebounded to claim a portion of the heavyweight title. Moorer lost the title to George Foreman by embarrassing KO and struggled with mid-level heavyweights, making Holyfield a solid favorite. “The Real Deal” knocked Moorer down several times before the latter was forced to stay in his corner.

A full seven years after Holmes lost the title to Michael Spinks and had his chances at matching Rocky Marciano’s undefeated record snatched away from him, “The Easton Assassin” truly had no reason to still be around. He proved his mettle and then some, having only lost to Spinks twice and Mike Tyson once, and he was rich. This comeback was a joke, and likely inspired by Foreman’s recent attempt, until Holmes shocked boxing by handing unbeaten Ray Mercer his first loss in early 1992. It ended up being Holmes’ last great outing as he tried to outfox Holyfield and position the champion for a fight-ending counter that never came. Even so, Holmes made Holyfield work for the win and even connected on enough punches to get the crowd going for the all-time great.

Qawi was a great fighter himself, though the context for this victory is also key. Holyfield bulked up from light heavyweight, where the titles were split and there were no clear stars, to cruiserweight, where he could ostensibly make a much easier transition upward. Holyfield was also still fighting in the shadow of his talented teammates Whitaker and Breland, in a sense, thus fighting for a world title before those bigger names might give him a boost. And right on cue, Holyfield didn’t shy away from a war with Qawi over 15 rounds and out-lasted the battle-tested veteran to become the first fighter on the 1984 U.S. Olympic boxing team to win a title.

After his move to heavyweight, Holyfield was supposed to get in with heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who Holyfield knew from the amateurs. Tyson then lost to Douglas in an epic upset, thwarting plans for a big clash. Douglas then squandered the title by gaining far too much weight, and he chose to defend against Holyfield rather than rematch Tyson. Holyfield delivered a counter-punching master class and put Douglas down for the count to seize the title, making him a two-division champion.

Just like Tyson’s loss to Douglas, this fight is often dinged by revisionist history as obvious and foreseeable. There were signs, certainly, and Tyson’s mid-90s run was puffery distilled, but Holyfield struggled in recent fights, including a rough loss to Riddick Bowe in their third bout, which proved to be a brutal end to their trilogy. There always seemed to be something nagging at Holyfield around this time, and finally a Tyson fight would be his undoing. Instead, Holyfield outworked Tyson and pushed him around on the inside before finally hurting him and getting a late stoppage.

It’s difficult to know whether Holyfield was simply pulled into Bowe’s strange world or if Holyfield pulled “Big Daddy” into his. They were both magnets for in-fight oddities and calamity. Thankfully their styles also meshed well and made for some of the heavyweight division’s greatest ever action at the championship level. In this rematch, Holyfield fended off the earlier-rounds assault of Bowe and even insanely avoided a paraglider crashing into the ring during round 7 to rally in the last portion of the bout and take a close decision and win back the heavyweight title.

Going by TV commercials, ads and Foreman’s own misdirection, the old 1970s heavyweight champion who was taken out by Muhammad Ali in the “Rumble in the Jungle” was fat, creaky and had no business near the heavyweight title again. Sometimes Foreman’s magic was the kind that separated opponents from consciousness and maybe contendership, but this time the sorcery was fooling the public into thinking he would just be food for Holyfield. Of course, anyone actually using their eyes to look at Foreman knew he was heavily-muscled and incredibly dangerous despite his age, and perhaps that brought long odds against Foreman down toward even by fight time. During the fight, Foreman landed enough to keep Holyfield honest and likely a little afraid, forcing the younger champion to fight his ass off for a closer-than-expected win.

It goes without saying that 10 fights aren’t enough to accurately assess the entirety of an all-time great heavyweight’s career. The Ring has ranked Holyfield among the best at cruiserweight and heavyweight multiple times over the last three decades, and that will continue, barring some unexpected celestial jolt to the sport.

Happy Birthday to “The Real Deal.” From Atmore to Atlanta and beyond, you made boxing worthwhile.