It's been recently reported (March 15th, 2008) that Evander Holyfield has 1 big fight that he wants more than any other, and that's with currently IBO, IBF, and WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitshcko. He thinks that it would add a big name to his resume(sorry no special characters you can resume reading now).
What?
OK. I respect Holyfield. The guys one of the top heavyweights ever, but come on. Holyfield lost to Sultan Ibragimov in a easy decision victory for Sultan, and Sultan lost an easy decision victory to Klitschko. What makes Holyfield think he even has a chance to compete with Wladimir is beyond me, but there's no way Wladimir would or should fight him anyway. He's got 2 mandatory fights to take care of against fighters who have defeated sound opponents to make their claim at challenging Wladimir unlike Evander Holyfield, and that's against IBF mandatory Alexander Poevetkin, and WBO mandatory Tony Thompson.
At Holyfield's age, I honestly don't see him getting to the point of legitimately fighting for another heavyweight world title (you never know with sanctioning bodies and Don King who might creep in). I realize other fighters like George Foreman have made successful comebacks at a advanced age and succeeded, but can't we accept that not everybody has that ability? I believe Foreman was special in the fact he hadn't fought for so long before returning to the ring making him at least able to fight and not deteriorated due to too many hard fought battles, and the fact his style and body makeup allowed him to fight without needing a lot of assets attributed to youth. He could take a punch ( no need for reflexes to dodge), he could punch hard (so even if he wasn't as fast, or his reflexes caused him to miss, he had that 1 punch KO power), and he had had good endurance for his age or any age upon his return.
A fighter like Holyfield needs to work in combinations and doesn't have 1 punch KO power. His reflexes aren't what they used to be which means he can get hit ( he does have a good chin) , but can't hit the target as good as he used to. Unlike the case with Foreman, if he does land a good punch or 2, that doesn't mean the end of the night for his opponent.
In my opinion, if Holyfield does want to make 1 more big payday, there has has been talks of a rematch with Tyson. Now this is a little too late to be happening in my opinion, but I can see it happening since it would make a good payday for Tyson and Holyfield both of which could probably use it.
Good luck to Holyfield though on whatever he decides to do next, and his new autobiography.
For more information you can go here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment