Evander Holyfield: The old man just may pull it off!
By Benny Henderson Jr (Oct 8, 2007) DoghouseBoxing        
From boxing his way to a bronze medal in the 84’ Olympics, to fighting his way into pugilistic history, with a professional career that spans twenty-three years and counting, the legendary Evander Holyfield has came and conquered, but by no means is content. A former undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight champion who has seen action in fifty-two professional fights, twenty-three of which were championship bouts. The ‘Real Deal’ has waged three hundred and eighty-six total rounds of war, thirty-seven championship rounds, along the way picking up four heavyweight titles, and at the tender age of forty-four, the old dog still has his bite.

With so much Evander has done, seen and accomplished, and no doubt a future Hall of Fame inductee, why would a man with such stature want to continue on? To ask Evander himself, you would not get a simple explanation, maybe not even a reasonable one at that. But it would be a sincere one.

As stated above Holyfield has many accolades he can look back on and be proud of, and although the man has held a heavyweight title on four separate occasions, six days shy of his forty-fifth birthday the elder will go for his fifth world strap as he takes on Sultan Ibragimov, 21-0-1 (17), in Sultan’s home country of Russia for Ibragimov’s WBO heavyweight strap. Although just a quarter of a portion of the alphabet soup known as the sanctioning bodies, just beginning as Holyfield bumped up into the heavyweight division in 1988, it is a recognized title and if Holyfield can pull it off October 13th, it will be his fifth, once again making history.

How did he get here?

Two wins over Dwight Muhammad Qawi, two over Mike Tyson, a thrilling three-peat against Riddick Bowe, a shrilling
three against John Ruiz, wins over George Foreman, Michael Moorer and Larry Holmes. To being on the losing end of the stick against Lennox Lewis, to the downside of his career with three consecutive losses that began with Chris Byrd, went on to James Toney then ended against Larry Donald and began a two year hiatus with the New York State Athletic Commission suspending the former champ in 2004 indefinitely for his health. We have seen the good, the bad, and the worse of Holyfield, the young, the old and now the older Holyfield.

Which Holyfield do we get come fight night?

Before I go on I must say that I have been a harsh critic of Holyfield’s. Yes, I was one of the many that shouted out for the man to call it quits, I no doubt thought he had seen better days and maybe the old cowboy should just ride off into the sunset and let the show end. But the saga continues.

After Holyfield decided to get back in the ring to go another round or two, he made his way to my neck of the woods coming to Dallas, TX late summer of 2006, I was ringside to see him hand down a one-sided two round shellacking to the TV friendly Jeremy Bates. I say TV friendly because although the strong looking Bates played the part of spoiler to Evander’s return, he was by no means a solidified threat.

After the win I was appalled by the fact that Holyfield could come back after two years, beat a guy like Bates and get a ranking in the top fifteen as he did; but hey, who am I to criticize, this kind of hypocrisy happens all the time.

After defeating Bates I knew it was over for Holyfield as it was announced that he would take on the former heavyweight title challenger Fres Oquendo. Boy was I wrong, Holyfield pulled out a unanimous yet questionable decision. Badda-boom badda-bang, wins over Vinnie Maddalone and Lou Savarese, and now here we are today, bracing ourselves for Holyfield’s shot at a title. And although I am not a big fan of how he got to this point, I must say now that he is here, the old man just may pull it off!

Ibragimov, a 2000 Olympic silver medal winner who has been a pro for the past five years, is Holyfield’s opponent. Not a bad fighter, but not exceptional either. Solid in some categories, flawed in others, and in my opinion could fall to Holyfield.

What? Yes, I am actually putting my money on Holyfield in this one go around, the old guy has proven me wrong a time a or two, let’s see if he can prove me right.

I will come out and say it, although I am not a fan of how Holyfield got to this point, I will say that I like his chances. Ibragimov is not a push over; he has some credible wins over Lance Whitaker, Javier Mora and Shannon Briggs, but although not a robbery from the judges calling the Ray Austin fight a draw, it was a fight I felt Ibragimov lost.

The guy is not a solid scrapper, and he can be provoked into a slugfest, and with the experience to Holyfield’s credit, I can see the old dog having a few tricks up his sleeve swaying the fight Evander’s way. Yes, the age difference is a factor, but then again just ask a forty-five year old George Foreman and twenty-six year old Michael Moorer, age is just a number.

So this time I will not be blasting out Evander, and I will not look to the future and say he will once again become the undisputed heavyweight champion, but I will say, come October 13th when he faces off against Ibragimov, the old man just may pull it off.






Questions or comments,
e-mail
Benny at: CrazzedTrucker@aol.com
Visit Benny's: Fighters of Faith - Gospel Gladiators
Benny's MYSpace Visit: Myspace.com/bigdog1975
© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2007