By Eric Thomas: According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (42-9-2, 27 KOs) is going to get yet another shot at a heavyweight title, this time against WBA heavyweight title holder Nikolay Valuev in a title shot on December 20th. The location isn’t known at this time, but it will probably take place in Germany where Valuev, 35, fights most of his bouts. Holyfield reportedly hasn’t yet signed the contract for the fight but is having his attorney review it, according to ESPN. If Holyfield does end up taking the fight, which is very likely, he will be 46 by then, making him one of the oldest title challengers of all time.
He hasn’t fought since losing a one-sided decision to WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov last October. It would seem almost beyond belief that Holyfield would be given another shot considering he’s not fought in a year, and has done nothing to deserve a shot at a title. Six years ago, in December 2002, Holyfield also lost in a title bid against Chris Byrd for the vacant IBF title, getting beaten easily by Byrd in another one-sided decision loss. It’s been an incredible seven years since Holyfield last held a title, losing his WBA heavyweight title after only one fight, getting beaten by John Ruiz in March 2001.
Holyfield, a medium sized heavyweight at 6’2″, no matter what his age, would be at a huge size disadvantage against the 7-foot Valuev. Although Holyfield has a lot of prior experience fighting large super heavyweights like Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe, both 6’5″, Holyfield didn’t fare particularly well against either, though he did get two wins out of his many match-ups with them. However, against Valuev, who is much bigger than either of them, albeit much slower as well, Holyfield would be at a significant disadvantage in the fight.
Beyond the size problem, though, Holyfield’s age is probably the biggest factor that will keep him from doing well against Valuev. Holyfield looked slow, and unable to pull the trigger in his last fight a year ago against Ibragimov. Indeed, Holyfield looked as bad as he had in his three fight consecutive losing efforts against Byrd, James Toney and Larry Donald in 2002 to 2004, in each of which Holyfield had looked slow, throwing few punches per round and looking shot.
He then took two years off from boxing between 2004 and 2006, and returned against against a series of C-class fighters which he suddenly looked good against. However, when Holyfield finally met up with a good fighter in Ibragimov, Holyfield once again looked as shot as he did in 2002-2004. I suppose he may have a chance against Valuev, who is even slower than he is, but he’s going to have a difficult time trying to compensate for his lack of height and reach. Vauev, who’ll outweigh Holyfield by at least a 100 pounds at 320 lbs compared to his svelte 215, fights tall, using his reach to jab his opponents from the outside. When someone does come in range of him, he either nails them with uppercuts or grabs then in a clinch and mauls them like a big bear. This is a fight that the young Holyfield probably could have won, but it wouldn’t have been easy. However, at 46, with most of his speed and work rate now badly diminished, Holyfield will probably be easily defeated by Valuev.