Stop Evander Holyfield Before He Boxes Again
New York Commission suspends Holyfield!
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The once great heavyweight and cruiserweight world champion Evander Holyfield has had his medical suspension lifted by the New York State Athletic Commission, one which kept him from fighting around the United States, but the same organization has also suspended his license for the State of New York on grounds of “diminished skills and poor performance.” Unfortunately |
it appears that Holyfield is preparing to continue his career in Europe. What will it take for this aging titan to unlace the gloves?
Holyfield last saw action in a loss to another veteran, 37 year old Larry Donald, last November. It was a heartbreaking display of painfully slow reflexes from “The Real Deal” but unfortunately one that we’ve all come to expect in Holyfield’s once a year appearances in the ring. The Donald loss came on the heels of the beating applied to the former great by James Toney, who handed Holyfield only the second stoppage defeat of his nineteen year career.
It’s been quite clear that Holyfield has been finished for some time now and the last good performance the Atlanta man had was in June of 2002 when he pulled off something of a resurgence to win a technical decision over Hasim Rahman. The signs of deterioration had started to show well before that and since November of 1999, Holyfield’s record of 2-5-1
has certainly borne that out.
If Evander does go on to fight in Europe it will be a sad ending to what at one time was one of the most magnificent careers in the sport. The governing bodies in the sport need to step up to the plate and without exception prevent Holyfield from appearing on any fight card anywhere in the world before a permanent injury or worse finishes his career once and for all.
Contact Curtis McCormick at thomaspointrd@aol.com