Holyfield

As we all know by now Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield, 39-8-2 (26), stopped Jeremy ‘The Beast’ Bates, 21-12-1 (18), by second round technical knockout. Because of his quick stoppage win we already have those declaring that Holyfield is back, and that his George Foreman like quest to regain the heavyweight championship will be successful. I do not wish to insult Holyfield, nor do I wish to belittle Bates, but we must put this in proper perspective.

Evander Holyfield was a great champion, a surefire Hall of Famer, and an all time great. It takes a lot to become an all time great, but being the most dominant cruiserweight champion ever, and being a four time heavyweight champion in an
era with fighters such as Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and even Riddick Bowe is enough to qualify you for all time great status. That said these days are long gone, and unlike Foreman, Holyfield does not have freakish power.

In any discussion about Holyfield’s comeback we must look at the person brought in to make us believe that he could give it one more go. Jeremy Bates is probably a good guy, but he is not a good boxer. He had lost eleven times before his loss to Holyfield, and five of those loses came by stoppage. His biggest win lately was a unanimous decision against Jason Waller, 28-33-4 (19). Since then he has lost to cruiserweight Zack Page, and was stopped in two by Ray Austin. I am sure he made some decent change for this fight, but he has never beaten a top fighter, and every time he has fought a fighter near the top he has been stopped quickly.

The truth is that Holyfield didn’t show us he could beat a top fighter, he showed us he could beat a journeyman, and that is it. If the rumors are indeed true that he is fighting Sinan Samil Sam, 26-3 (15), in his next fight then we should all see quite clearly that Holyfield is done. Sam will most likely break down Holyfield in much the same way he broke down Danny Williams.

Assuming Holyfield does somehow beat Sam he still needs to fight either Oleg Maskaev, a man who beat Sinan Samil Sam, Wladimir Klitschko, Sergei Lyakhovich or Nikolai Valuev to attain a world title. The truth is that he does not beat any of these guys; Oleg can simply outbox him, Wladimir punishes him into submission quite brutally, and Sergei and Nicolai both stop him.

Personally I do not think that the titleholders are the only fighters can beat him. I do believe Sinan Samil Sam, Ruslan Chagaev, Calvin Brock, Samuel Peter and a slew of other fighters including young guns Oleg Platov, Chazz Witherspoon, Eddie Chambers, Jason Estrada or Alexander Povetkin can beat him. I do not mean to beat up on Holyfield, I think he was a great fighter in his day, but the sun has set on his career and it is time that he let it go.

I am sure that Holyfield will fight his next fight against a solid fighter, and unfortunately we will see him probably get dismantled and stopped by a fighter that he would have easily defeated ten years ago. I cannot tell Evander to stop fighting, and this article is not about telling Evander to stop fighting. My only intention is to tell Evander’s fans and those casual sports fans that follow boxing to realize that as great as Evander once was, that is gone and it never comes back.

By Julian Kasdin

Nada ! The guy that wrote that article just stating his opinion only, don't mean squat ditty ! Evander Holyfield Heavyweight Champion of the World 2007 you can go to the bank on that ! ;)

cool Click for sharing though !

I don't think many people really question this.

But - fantasy is a very important ingredient in the human-world quotient.

And Holyfield was a boxer who (despite Manny's characterization of him as more egotistical than most of us realize) was easy to like.

And some times fantasies do come true despite their unlikelihood.

And even if they don't sometimes they are persuasive up until the brutal end.

So you're not telling anyone anything they don't know. Nobuddy here is actually stupid. (I may be wrong about that but not to my direct knowledge.)

Sometimes we just believe in something without really believing it because it feels good.

And hey ... ya know? there's always that. "Hey."