Evander Holyfield joins boxing’s Hall of Fame after 27 years of courage, heart and determination
The ring legend had 24 world championship fights and was undisputed world cruiserweight and heavyweight champion
EVANDER HOLYFIELD will be inducted into the American Boxing Hall of Fame on Sunday, to take his rightful place among the heavyweight immortals.
The Real Deal, as he is known, was nowhere near as charismatic as Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano or Muhammad Ali, but not one of that illustrious quartet would have fancied fighting him.
Holyfield’s career spanned an incredible 27 years spread over four decades that started when he was 21 and finished when he was 48.
In that period he had 24 world championship fights, was undisputed world cruiserweight and heavyweight champion, and he is the only man to have won four versions of the richest prize in sport.
Evander, 54 was blessed with many of boxing’s essential skills but it was his innate courage that endeared him to me and so many of his contemporaries.
The late Lou Duva, his volatile trainer summed him up perfectly when he said “We’ll probably never see another heavyweight with the heart and determination of Evander.
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“He loved the sport and he wanted to be champion more than he wanted the money that came with it. It was a pleasure and an honour to work with him.”
We have learned of so many acts of indescribable bravery recently following the Borough Market terrorist attack.
Holyfield is certainly the kind of individual who would run headlong into danger while others were travelling in the opposite direction.
He proved he feared no one on numerous occasions. But it as an incident at the American amateur boxing teams training camp at Colorado Springs, six weeks before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics that demonstrated it was most unwise to mess with Evander Holyfield.
Typically the teenage Mike Tyson, had been bullying most of his teammates who were scared of the fierce punching heavyweight from the Brooklyn ghetto.
Matters came to a head one night when Tyson was hogging the pool table and refusing to allow anyone else to get near it.
He held up his cue and made it clear he would start cracking heads if anyone tried to get in his way.
Suddenly the door opened and in walked Holyfield the squad’s light-heavyweight.
Evander quickly sized up the situation. Taking a cue out of the rack he started walking menacingly towards Tyson.
The eye witnesses held their breath as if they were looking at a scene from the showdown at the Gunfight at the O.K Corral.
It was an apprehensive Tyson who blinked and walked away from a confrontation with the softly-spoken Southern Gentleman from Georgia.
I was fortunate to have covered all of Holyfield’s most historic fights. The three epic battles with Riddick Bowe, the two inflammable wars with Tyson and the highly controversial couple he had with Lennox Lewis.
Sir Winston Churchill, could have been sitting in a ringside press seat describing Holyfield when he wrote “Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is courage to continue that counts.”
Sadly beyond the ropes Holyfield’s domestic life has been a disaster zone. His $230 million fortune evaporated long ago and he is a declared bankrupt.
Failed business ventures didn’t help but much of his cash has gone in child support to the six women, three of them he married, who have born him eleven kids.
His wealth may have disappeared along with his outrageously ostentatious 109 room mansion in Atlanta.
But in fact Evander is still one of the world’s most affluent fighters.
As he takes his deserved standing ovation at his induction ceremony in Canastota, New York, he knows he has earned the respect of every fight fan and fellow boxers around the globe.
That’s the kind of riches money simply can’t buy.