Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield
Data
Birth Name	Evander Holyfield
Fight name	The real deal
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	October 19, 1962
place of birth	Atmore
style	Left delivery
size	1.89 m
Range	1.98 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	57
Victories	44
Knockout victories	29
Defeats	10
draw	2
No value	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962 in Atmore , Alabama ) is a former American professional boxer and both undisputed heavyweight and cruiserweight world champion . He got over his career nicknamed The Real Deal awarded, which as much as the real thing means. He is the only boxer in history to have been four times world heavyweight champion (WBA, WBC, and IBF titles in 1990, WBA and IBF titles in 1993, and WBA titles in 1996 and 2000).

He is a former WBA , WBC and IBF cruiserweight world champion, as well as a former WBC, WBF , four-time WBA and three-time IBF heavyweight world champion.

amateur

Holyfield originally wanted a career in American football before turning to boxing in high school . As an amateur, he played 174 fights, of which he won 160 and lost only fourteen. In 1983 he finished second in the light heavyweight division at the Pan American Games in Caracas after he was defeated by the Cuban Pablo Romero .

In 1984 he won the prestigious Golden Gloves tournament and qualified to take part in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles that same year . He was considered the favorite to win the light heavyweight division there, but was disqualified in the semifinals against New Zealander Kevin Barry , who later became David Tua’s manager , highly controversial for hitting the gong and had to be satisfied with the bronze medal.

Professional career

Cruiser weight

In November of the same year, he joined the professional boxing and by defeating Dwight Qawi in July 1986 against the southpaw Rickey Parkey in May 1987 and Carlos De Leon in April 1988 by all three major Boxverbänden WBA, IBF and WBC as world champion in cruiserweight recognized . The first fight against Qawi (W15) is considered one of the best in history in the cruiserweight division. Holyfield won the rematch in the 4th round.

He was the only undisputed world champion in this class for 18 years, only O'Neil Bell was able to unite the titles again in 2006.

Heavyweight

In July 1988 Holyfield appeared for the first time in the heavyweight division. With knockout victories against James Tillis , Pinklon Thomas , Alex Stewart , Adilson Rodrigues and above all with a legendary fight against Michael Dokes , he worked his way up the rankings.

On October 25, 1990, he finally won the world championship titles of all three then important associations in the heavyweight division with a clear knockout victory in the third round against his untrained rival James "Buster" Douglas . This had previously sensationally knocked out Mike Tyson .

In the following years Holyfield successfully defended the title three times, against the then 42-year-old ex-world champions George Foreman and Larry Holmes on points and against substitute opponent Bert Cooper by knockout in the 7th round.

On November 13, 1992, Holyfield lost his world title in a high-profile bout against the undefeated professional silver medalist of the 1988 Olympic Games, Riddick Bowe . After this point defeat, he announced his resignation.

First comeback

A short time later, he revoked this decision and took Emanuel Steward instead of George Benton as the new coach. He hit Alex Stewart again , but seemed weak to journalists.

Then it came on November 6, 1993 to the rematch against Bowe, the Holyfield with a completely different strategy than in the first fight, namely "In and Out" instead of "Pressure Fighting" could win just on points. Here it was only about two of the three titles, as Bowe had previously refused to defend the WBC against Lennox Lewis and then resigned. The fight was also remembered because during the 7th round a man tried to land in the ring with a paraglider and thus caused a longer interruption.

After the recent, again controversial loss of the two remaining world titles on April 22, 1994 against the undefeated and well-respected southpaw Michael Moorer , who went into battle as an outsider , Holyfield was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect that seemed to seal the end of his career. Holyfield, however, denied the diagnosis, attributing it to wrong medication intake. Nevertheless, he did not fight in the immediate aftermath.

Second comeback

Thirteen months later he made another comeback and defeated the former WBO world champion Ray Mercer , who had previously disappointed in a few fights but was again in top form, in a tough fight on points and had him on the ground for the first time in his career, Mercer only went down again in 2002 at the age of 41 in a knockout loss to Wladimir Klitschko .

On November 4, 1995, he then boxed in a non-title fight a third time against Riddick Bowe. This time, however, he was knocked out in the eighth round, after he himself had Bowe in the sixth round, for the first time in his professional career, on the ground. Holyfield later blamed hepatitis for this defeat .

Fight against Tyson and Lewis

On November 9, 1996 it finally came to the long-planned fight against Mike Tyson for the WBA title. Tyson had initially regained the WBA and WBC world championship titles in 1996, but surrendered the WBC title because Lennox Lewis was a mandatory challenger (comparable to Bowes' retirement from the WBC title in 1993) and Holyfield after his knockout defeat against Bowe was considered a clear outsider. Tyson was not aiming for an obvious fight against Riddick Bowe, who had just knocked out Holyfield. Holyfield, who had been in Main Events his entire career , had to sign with Tyson's promoter Don King to get the fight. Given the knockout loss to Bowe and his alleged heart problems, Holyfield was considered a blatant outsider. The Ring Magazine predicted laconically: "Holyfield has no shot. Tyson KO1 ". The betting odds accordingly opened at 25 to 1, then went down a little to 16 to 1 in Tyson's favor. In a poll by the Las Vegas Review Journal, 47 out of 48 journalists counted on Mike Tyson.

Holyfield, however, was well prepared for this fight: Among other things, he spared David Tua , who was advancing to the top of the world and whose stature and fighting style were very similar to Tyson. This opponent-centered training should pay off especially at close range: Holyfield presented himself in excellent shape throughout the fight, boxed with perfect tactics and sensationally defeated Tyson with a technical knockout in the eleventh round. After the legendary Muhammad Ali, he was only the second boxer to win three recognized world heavyweight titles. In contrast to this, however, he was by no means a linear world champion every time.

The rematch on June 28, 1997 ended with a scandal: The fight was stopped after the third round after Tyson, who had lost the first two rounds, bit his opponent a piece from the right ear. Because of this gross unsportsmanlike conduct, the challenger was disqualified and suspended for one year.

On November 8, 1997 Holyfield defeated his former conqueror, the IBF title holder Michael Moorer , who went down five times in this rematch, sovereign by technical knockout in the eighth round and thus reunited the world titles of two of the four most important boxing associations.

With a fight against Lewis, however, he was not in such a hurry, he initially defended the title against the rather weak Vaughn Bean , who had also caused problems for Moorer in 1997, and only achieved one point win. He also intended to box against Henry Akinwande , who failed with hepatitis .

The unification fight against the WBC world champion Lennox Lewis on March 13, 1999 in New York brought a controversial result: Although Lewis was clearly superior in the opinion of all experts, the fight was counted as a draw.

In the rematch, which took place in November 1999 in Las Vegas , Holyfield was then unanimously defeated on points against Lewis, who thus united the three most important world titles. The result was again controversial: for example, the New York Post with the headline "They Blew It Again" summed up the widely held opinion that this time Holyfield had been discriminated against by the judges. Also, HBO and some experts had just seen the front Holyfield. Boxing Monthly did a poll that showed that a large majority of journalists had Lewis ahead. The CompuBox statistics showed more hits for Lewis. The " Ring Magazine " was a draw and left Lewis in first place in their ranking.

In the following years Holyfield could no longer build on previous services. On August 12, 2000 he won again the title of the WBA, which had previously been laid down by Lewis, by a narrow point win against the not particularly respected John Ruiz , until then only known for his 19-second defeat against David Tua, which is why he was recognized by some US Americans were glorified as the "first four-time world champion", although it was obvious that he was no longer the "real" world champion. The rematch against Ruiz in March 2001 ended for Holyfield with a point defeat and the loss of the WBA title, he even went down. A third fight in December of the same year resulted in a draw.

This was followed by a victory by "technical decision" against ex-world champion Hasim Rahman on June 1, 2002. Due to an enormous swelling on Rahman's forehead, which Holyfield had caused by an accidental headbutt according to the referee, the fight was in the eighth round canceled and Holyfield declared the winner because at that point in the opinion of two of the three judges he was 6-1 rounds ahead. In fact, the swelling was caused by the impact of Holyfield's right hook 50 seconds before the end of the 7th round, which is why the fight with TKO should have been counted in favor of Holyfield.

In the fight for the vacant IBF World Championship title on December 14, 2002 against Chris Byrd , Holyfield then clearly lost on points. In October 2003 he lost to James Toney even by TKO - his corner threw in the towel in the 9th round - and he also lost to Larry Donald in November 2004. Despite this third defeat in a row, he refused to resign and was then in the USA locked to "protect him from himself".

Third comeback

Evander Holyfield versus Lou Savarese in June 2007

Holyfield refused to accept this and announced in 2005 that it would return to the ring regardless of the suspension. Among other things, a fight against Andreas Sidon in Germany was planned, but it did not materialize.

In June 2006 he announced his comeback. For example, at the age of 43, he competed on August 18, 2006 in Texas against opponent Jeremy Bates (21-11) and won by technical knockout in the second round.

He then announced further fights and even a renewed unification of all world titles, which was viewed by experts with extremely critical eyes. His next opponent was then on November 10, 2006 initially Fres Oquendo in San Antonio. Holyfield was able to knock his slightly favored opponent to the ground in the first round; then the fight was relatively even. In the end, Holyfield was unanimously, but not undisputed, declared the points winner and USBA champion. He then defeated Vinny Maddalone by technical knockout in the third round and Lou Savarese on points.

In the meantime, he played a show "boxing match" at the WWE against wrestler Matt Hardy , which was broadcast on August 18, 2007.

On October 13, 2007, Holyfield went to Moscow against the undefeated WBO heavyweight champion, Sultan Ibragimow . Originally, Ibragimow had planned a unification of titles against the reigning WBA world champion, Ruslan Chagayev , but this was canceled because of his hepatitis, so that he had the short-term chance to fight as a substitute opponent for the WBO world championship. Holyfield lost the fight clearly on points.

On December 20, 2008 Evander Holyfield went against the WBA World Champion Nikolai Valujew . He controversially lost the fight on points. Two judges scored the fight for Valujew, one judge scored the fight 114: 114 draw. After the verdict was announced, there were massive protests against the rating. The audience and Holyfield's coach Tommy Brooks saw Holyfield in the lead and vented their displeasure. Valujew acted passively for long stretches of the fight and could not bring his own hits. American media spoke of a "scandalous verdict" after the fight and accused the judges of having robbed Holyfield of the title it deserved. In Germany, too, a survey by Bild showed that 88 percent of the participating readers saw Holyfield as the clear winner. Sauerland Event promised a rematch for Holyfield on the evening of the fight in Zurich , which should take place in 2009. Holyfield had lodged a protest against the judgment at the WBA. The WBA had then set up a commission of inquiry, which analyzed the fight again.

More than a year after his controversial defeat to the Russian Nikolai Valujew, the now 47-year-old was again in the ring. On April 10, 2010 he won against Francois Botha in Las Vegas in the 8th round by TKO and won the title as world heavyweight champion according to the version of the WBF again. Also by TKO in round 10, Holyfield defeated Brian Nielsen on May 7, 2011 in Denmark and defended his title. It was his last fight as a professional boxer.

Data

• Professional debut:
  November 15, 1984

• World title:
  July 12, 1986: WBA cruiserweight world champion (5 defenses)
  May 15, 1987: IBF cruiserweight world champion (3 defenses)
  0April 9, 1988: WBC cruiserweight world champion
  October 25, 1990: WBC heavyweight champion (2 defenses)
  October 25, 1990: WBA heavyweight world champion (3 defenses)
  October 25, 1990: IBF heavyweight world champion (3 defenses)
  0November 6, 1993: WBA heavyweight world champion
  0November 6, 1993: IBF world champion Heavyweight
  0November 9, 1996: WBA heavyweight world champion (4 defenses)
  0November 8, 1997: IBF heavyweight world champion (2 defenses)
  August 12, 2000: WBA heavyweight world champion
  April 10, 2010: WBF heavyweight world champion (2 title defenses)

• Trainers:
  Don Turner , Tommy Brooks , Lou Duva , Charles Benton , Emanuel Steward

List of professional fights

44 wins (29 knockout wins), 10 defeats , 2 draws
year	Day	place	opponent	Result for Holyfield
1984	15th of November	Madison Square Garden , New York, New York, USA	Lionel Byarm	Points victory (unanimous) / 6 rounds
1985	January 20th	Harrah's Marina Hotel Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Eric Winbush	Points victory (unanimous) / 6 rounds
	March 13th	Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia, USA	Fred Brown	Victory / TKO 1st round
	20th of April	Memorial Coliseum, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA	Mark Rivera	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	20th of July	The Scope, Norfolk, Virginia, USA	Tyrone Booze	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
	29th August	The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia, USA	Rick myers	Victory / TKO 1st round
	30th of October	Harrah's Marina Hotel Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Jeff Meachem	Victory / TKO 5th round
	21st December	Pavilion, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA	Anthony Davis	Victory / TKO 4th round
1986	1st March	Americana Host Farm Resort, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA	Chisanda mom	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	April 6th	Corpus Christi, Texas, USA	Jesse Shelby	Victory / KO 3rd round
	28th of May	Metairie, Louisiana, USA	Terry Mims	Victory / KO 5th round
	July 12	The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia, USA	Dwight Qawi WBA World Cruiserweight Championship	Points win (split decision) / 15 rounds
	December 8th	Paris, France	Mike Brothers	Victory / TKO 3rd round
1987	14th of February	Bally's Hotel & Casino, Reno, Nevada, USA	Henry Tillman WBA cruiserweight title defense	Victory / TKO 7th round
	May 15	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Rickey Parkey IBF / WBA Cruiserweight Title Association	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	15th of August	Saint-Tropez, Var, France	Ossie Ocasio IBF / WBA cruiserweight title defense	Victory / TKO 11th round
	0December 5th	Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Dwight Qawi IBF / WBA cruiserweight title defense	Victory / KO 4th round
1988	09th April	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Carlos De León IBF / WBA / WBC Cruiserweight Title Association	Victory / TKO 8th round
	16th of July	Caesars Tahoe, Stateline, Nevada, USA	James Tillis	Victory / abandonment 5th round
	09th of December	Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Pinklon Thomas	Victory / abandonment 7th round
1989	March 11	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Michael Dokes	Victory / TKO 10th round
	15th of July	Caesars Tahoe, Stateline, Nevada, USA	Adilson Rodrigues	Victory / KO 2nd round
	0November 4th	Trump Plaza Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Alex Stewart	Victory / TKO 8th round
1990	0June 1st	Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Seamus McDonagh	Victory / TKO 4th round
	October 25	Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	James Douglas IBF / WBA / WBC World Heavyweight Championship	Victory / KO 3rd round
1991	April 19th	Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	George Foreman IBF / WBA / WBC heavyweight title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	November 23	The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia, USA	Bert Cooper IBF / WBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / TKO 7th round
1992	June 19th	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Larry Holmes IBF / WBA / WBC Heavyweight Title Defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	November 13th	Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Riddick Bowe IBF / WBA / WBC Heavyweight Title Defense	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
1993	June 26th	Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Alex Stewart	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	0November 6th	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Riddick Bowe IBF / WBA World Heavyweight Championship	Point victory (majority decision) / 12 rounds
1994	April 22	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Michael Moorer IBF / WBA heavyweight title defense	Point loss (majority decision) / 12 rounds
1995	May 20th	Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Ray Mercer	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	0November 4th	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Riddick Bowe	Loss / TKO 8th round
1996	10th of May	Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA	Bobby Czyz	Victory / abandonment 5th round
	0November 9th	MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Mike Tyson WBA World Heavyweight Championship	Victory / TKO 11th round
1997	June 28th	MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Mike Tyson WBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / disqualification 3rd round
	0November 8th	Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Michael Moorer IBF / WBA Heavyweight Title Association	Victory / abandonment 8th round
1998	September 19th	Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, USA	Vaughn Bean IBF / WBA heavyweight title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
1999	March 13th	Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA	Lennox Lewis IBF / WBA / WBC Heavyweight Title Association	Tie (split decision) / 12 rounds
	November 13th	Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Lennox Lewis IBF / WBA / WBC Heavyweight Title Association vacant IBO World Heavyweight Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2000	12. August	Paris Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	John Ruiz vacant WBA world heavyweight championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2001	03 March	Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	John Ruiz WBA heavyweight title defense	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
	15th December	Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA	John Ruiz WBA World Heavyweight Championship	Tie (split decision) / 12 rounds
2002	0June 1st	Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Hasim Rahman	Points victory (technical decision) / 8th round
	December 14th	Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA	Chris Byrd vacant IBF World Heavyweight Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2003	04th of October	Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	James Toney	Loss / TKO 9th round
2004	November 13th	Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA	Larry Donald	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2006	18th of August	American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas, USA	Jeremy Bates	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	November 10th	Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas, USA	Fres Oquendo	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2007	17. March	American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA	Vinny Maddalone	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	June 30th	Don Haskins Convention Center, El Paso, Texas, USA	Lou Savarese	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	October 13th	Khodynka Ice Palace, Moscow, Russia	Sultan Ibragimov WBO World Heavyweight Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2008	20th of December	Hallenstadion , Zurich, Switzerland	Nikolai Valujew WBA World Heavyweight Championship	Point loss (majority decision) / 12 rounds
2010	10th of April	Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Francois Botha WBF World Heavyweight Championship	Victory / TKO 8th round
2011	22nd of January	The Greenbrier, White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, USA	Sherman Williams WBF Heavyweight Title Defense	Invalid / canceled in round 3
	0May 7th	Koncerthuset, Copenhagen, Denmark	Brian Nielsen	Victory / TKO 10th round
(Source: Evander Holyfield in the BoxRec database)

Trivia

Holyfield in 2010

Holyfield also appears in the episodes Oh, Plastic Tree (season 1, episode 15) of the television series The Prince of Bel-Air and in "Teamgeist" (season 3, episode 18) of the series Listen, who's hammering on, in which he himself himself plays. He and Mike Tyson can be seen in a scene during the credits in the film Two of the Old School , in which a promoter tries to convince him to fight for rematch. He also played himself in the 2011 film Arthur .

Web links

• Evander Holyfield in the BoxRec database
• Evander Holyfield in the BoxRec Encyclopaedia
• Evander Holyfield in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Evander Holyfield's personal website
• Evander Holyfield in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holyfield vs Tua sparring on YouTube , July 19, 2008
2. ↑ James Toney vs. Evander Holyfield on BoxRec Wiki
3. ↑ Evander Holyfield in the BoxRec database
4. ↑ Tim Röhn: Boxing champ Valujew beats Holyfield: The scandal judgment of Zurich. (No longer available online.) In: RP Online . December 21, 2008, archived from the original on March 3, 2009 ; accessed on February 12, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ ^{a b} Oliver Völkl: Valujew fight: Holyfield feels betrayed. In: Focus Online . December 21, 2008, accessed February 12, 2014 . 
6. ^ Cliff Rold: Evander Holyfield robbed blind in Switzerland disgrace. In: Boxingscene. December 20, 2008, accessed February 12, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Thousands of boxing fans agree: Evander Holyfield cheated out of victory against Russian giant. In: image. December 30, 2008, accessed February 12, 2014 . 
8. ↑ Holyfield fights giant injustice ( Memento from December 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
9. ^ Boxing Association responds to Holyfield protest. In: Tages-Anzeiger . December 30, 2008, accessed February 12, 2014 . 
10. ↑ "Prince of Bel Air", Season 1 Episode 15: "Deck the halls" on TV.com
11. ↑ "Listen who's hammering", Season 3, Episode 19: "Team Spirit" on TV.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Dwight Muhammad Qawi	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) July 12, 1986 - April 9, 1988	Taoufik Belbouli
Ricky Parkey	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) May 15, 1987 - April 9, 1988	Glenn McCrory
Carlos De León	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) April 9, 1988 - April 9, 1988	Carlos De Leon

predecessor	Office	successor
James "Buster" Douglas	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) October 25, 1990 - November 13, 1992	Riddick Bowe
James "Buster" Douglas	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) October 25, 1990 - November 13, 1992	Riddick Bowe
James "Buster" Douglas	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) October 25, 1990 - November 13, 1992	Riddick Bowe
Riddick Bowe	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) November 6, 1993 - April 22, 1994	Michael Moorer
Riddick Bowe	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) November 6, 1993 - April 22, 1994	Michael Moorer
Mike Tyson	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) November 9, 1996 - November 13, 1999	Lennox Lewis
Michael Moorer	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) November 8, 1997 - November 13, 1999	Lennox Lewis
Lennox Lewis	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) August 12, 2000 - March 3, 2001	John Ruiz