Evander Holyfield: 'I Know Why the Klitschkos Won't Fight Me' by Mark Dodge
On Saturday, Jan. 22, the former champion meets Sherman Williams at The Greenbrier resort in W.V. But talk continues to focus on Klitschko-Holyfield.
Evander Holyfield leaned close to the speakerphone, his voice sounding scratchy and raw.
“Look, I understand why the Klitschkos won’t fight me,” the 48-year-old former heavyweight champion stated bluntly. “I wouldn’t want to fight me.”
On Monday, Holyfield and his opponent Saturday, the 38-year-old Bahamian heavyweight Sherman “The Tank” Williams, held a frank and revealing conference call with reporters to drum up publicity for their 12-round bout at The Greenbrier, a 200-year-old luxury resort, casino, golf club and spa in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
It had been a busy day for the aging Holyfield. There was an early morning television appearance on Fox NY and an open workout at New York City’s Church Street Boxing Gym. And when deferential reporters gathered for the media call, the former champ seemed a bit tired. Sensing this, most of the eager writers lobbed softball questions, more content to heap praise on the future Hall of Famer rather than cause a stir.
Maybe the relaxed atmosphere helped, as the fighter affectionately known as "The Real Deal" began to open up.
“When I was 29, George Foreman was 42 and I didn't want to fight George Foreman,” he admitted, putting himself in the shoes of belt holders Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali Klitschko and David Haye. “If I won (against Foreman), I knew I wouldn't get any credibility. You're supposed to beat the old man. And, if you lose, it's going to be a disaster.
“But I made $20 million, so I went ahead and took the fight,” he laughed, perking up a bit.
In addition to the money, though, Holyfield also learned the importance of properly promoting a fight from "Big George."
Foreman, who had reinvented himself during a decade-long retirement, climbed back into the ratings in the early 90s with a fresh, homespun persona that attracted new fans to the sport. He also made a big impression on the young champion, who was still relatively unknown by the general public.
Over the next two decades, Holyfield would transform himself into one of the most recognizable, popular and highly-paid champions in boxing history.
Now he’s the aging veteran trying to entice one of the younger champs to step into the ring with him.
“Why fight me, when they can fight somebody who won’t be a threat?” Holyfield continued, beginning to sound more like a salesman than he had earlier.
Then he answered his own question.
“When you’ve been a champion, people like to ask ‘How much money did you make when you were champion of the world?’" said Holyfield, no doubt speaking from experience. "And you'd like to say you made a lot of money.
“Hopefully, somebody will put up enough money that (the Klitschkos) will take that chance,” he added.
Maybe that somebody will be Jim Justice, owner of The Greenbrier, who was also on the line. Because Justice has certainly shown himself to be a person who is willing to throw a few chips in a high-stakes pot and gamble on a longshot.
Evander Holyfield + Mike Tyson = Redemption in America
Despite the inclement weather, steep ticket prices and threats of a blizzard this weekend, the demand for tickets to the biggest fight in West Virginia's history is running high. That’s just what Justice had hoped when he snatched up the Holyfield-Williams promotion from Detroit, where it was postponed nearly a half-dozen times.
“I truly believe the Greenbrier is a national treasure,” Justice said Monday. “But it became sleepy. At one time it almost became like an elegant retirement home. I mean it has its tradition. It has a history that's beyond belief. But it needed energy pumped into it. So that's the whole concept behind what we're trying to do. That's been our strategy, and you can't do that without stepping out and doing special things. And this prizefight between Evander and Sherman is a special marquee event.”
Titled "Redemption in America: The Journey Back Begins Now," the night will feature a full undercard, dancers, aerial artists, as well as a performance by Tony Award nominee Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays the lead in the upcoming Broadway play Unchain My Heart. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has also agreed to appear at ringside.
But when the aerial dancers, the Ray Charles impersonator and Mike Tyson all take their seats, the man standing in the opposing corner won’t be one of the towering, charismatic Klitschko brothers. It will be career sparring partner Sherman Williams, a short, stocky fighter with a modest 34-11-2 record. In fact, Williams has been such an after-thought throughout the promotion that his face didn’t appear on much of the advertising until this week.
But "The Tank" doesn’t talk like a man who's in this for a couple of bucks and a few nights at a fancy resort. He has stated publicly that this bout was postponed repeatedly because Holyfield needed more time to get in shape to fight him. And though Williams sounded respectful on Monday, sometimes even veteran sparring partners decide to test their employers to see how much they’ve really got left.
“Evander is a tough guy,” Williams said the moment a question was directed at him. “But I'm a tough cookie as well. I ain't no pushover. He's got a lot of experience and a lot of wisdom on his side. So do I. And once we get into the ring, whatever it takes to accomplish what I need to get done is what I'm willing to do.”
Holyfield, however, didn’t take the bait. In fact, he thanked Williams for putting up with the delays. He also shot down the notion he had anything to do with it.
“(The postponements) have been very difficult,” Holyfield told reporters. “This fight should've been five or six months ago, but people didn't do what they said they was going to do. And I'd like to thank Sherman for not getting frustrated. Things like this happen. It’s not on my behalf that it happened this way. I'd have done anything to have this fight three months ago.”
In fact, when the Dec. 9 date at Joe Louis Arena was called off, Holyfield signed to fight former contender Brian Nielsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 5. Now he’s got to be ready to fight again in six weeks, something Holyfield hasn’t done since 1986.
“When I accepted the Nielsen fight, I didn't even know if this fight was going to happen,” Evander added. “Hopefully this fight won't take so much out of me that I can't fight the next one."
Holyfield vs. the Klitschkos: ‘You have to outsmart them’
The clock is definitely ticking.
Often overlooked when Holyfield discusses fighting for a world title is that he’s received the opportunity in two of his last three bouts. Both times he was unsuccessful.
In October 2007, while his boxing license was revoked in the U.S., the former champ traveled to Moscow and took on Sultan Ibragimov for the World Boxing Organization belt. Though he lost by the lopsided scores of 117-111 (twice) and 118-110, the wide margin was just a case of Ibragimov landing a few more punches than Evander in most of the rounds. Holyfield wasn’t battered or hurt in the fight.
Fourteen months later, without a single tune-up bout, Holyfield showed up in Zurich, Switzerland, and squared off with the 7-foot, 310-pound World Boxing Association champion Nicolay Valuev. Though he was outweighed by 100 pounds, Holyfield demonstrated quite a bit of guile and arguably fought better against Valuev than David Haye did when he won the title from the giant Russian in 2009.
Unfortunately for Holyfield, the three judges handed Valuev a majority decision win, with two giving it to Valuev by the slimmest of margins while the third scored the bout a draw.
“Nobody guarantees you anything in life,” Holyfield told Fightnews.com on Monday, when asked about those two unsuccessful challenges. “Boxing is no exception. I lost some fights I shouldn’t have, and I won some when the luck was on my side. I never had a problem with the opposing fighter after losing. There are no cheaters in ring. We’re all fighters – brave men.”
Fightnews also brought up the announcement last week that Polish heavyweight Tomasz Adamek will be fighting one of the Klitschkos this fall in Poland. Asked if he had any advice for Adamek, since the former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion has a style similar to Evander’s, Holyfield gave the Polish boxer an excellent chance to win if he continues to move his hands and his feet.
“I know he (Adamek) will step into ring without fear,” Holyfield said. “When you fight big guys like the Klitschkos, you have to outsmart them with your footwork and your combinations. Just hit them cleanly. You don’t have to knock them down. Clean hits will make them uneasy, because they are not used to getting hit at all.
“They are very good when you let them put punches together,” he added. “But not when they have to react to your attack."
One thing is certain. If Holyfield does get the call in 2011, he'll be ready. And staying busy is part of his preparation.
“It's more beneficial to me to fight,” Holyfield told the press before concluding the conference call. “You don't get any better when you don't fight. One fight a year isn’t enough. I do feel better because I don't spar as much as I used to, so I don't leave it all in the gym. But you've got to take chances to be the very best. There should be one champ. And my plan is to get all of them.
“But I don't have all day,” he added, with a laugh. “I'm already 48. I'll be 49 this year.
“Hopefully I can get out of here before I turn 50.”
See Also It's On Again: Evander Holyfield Fights Sherman Williams Jan. 22
See Also Holyfield-Nielsen: A Haughty Spirit Before the Fall
Copyright Mark Dodge. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
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