By Eric Thomas: For what it’s worth, heavyweight Evander Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KOs) has, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, asked the World Boxing Association (WBA) sanctioning body to look at his decision loss to Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KOs) last Saturday and change the outcome of the decision. However, the chances of Holyfield’s protest of having any success is probably very slim, with the best case scenario seeing Holyfield given an immediate rematch with the big giant at some time in the near future.
That would be a victory of sort for Holyfield, I suppose, except that the loss would still likely be on his record. Under an ideal situation, Holyfield would be allowed by the WBA to be given an immediate rematch instead of having to wait months for Valuev to first face Ruslan Chagaev, the champion in recess, and then turn his attention to Holyfield.
For Holyfield, 46 and getting older by the day, that’s not a good option for him for a couple of reasons. One, Valuev could lose to Chagaev and that would erase the chance for a bout with him, and two, Holyfield is getting older and it’s hard to say how much he’ll have left of his fading skills eight to ten months from now.
Against a fighter like Valuev, who looks to be losing a lot of his own skills as well, it might not matter all that much, but against a smaller, faster fighter like Chagaev, it could be a big problem for Holyfield. That would be a tough fight for Holyfield to win even now, and to have to wait a prolonged amount of time wouldn’t serve Holyfield well.
Holyfield appeared to defeat the 7-foot Valuev by a comfortable margin, and when the final decision was given by the judges, it seemed like a huge surprise to many fans and boxing writers, most of which had seen Holyfield winning the fight by as many as four rounds or more. However, the fight was in Europe, a place that is historically a tough place for a foreign fighter to win a decision if a fight is somewhat close.
In this case, the fight seemed to be a clear cut win for Holyfield, who had landed the harder, more significant blows in most of the fight, and had looked to have won most of the first six rounds. The 2nd half of the fight was a little more murky, most people would agree, with both fighters looking good from round to round.
The loss was a huge setback for Holyfield, who almost had within his grasp an incredible 5th heavyweight world title win, an accomplishment that would have guaranteed Holyfield a special place in the history of boxing. Additionally, to accomplish it at his age, 46, would have been an extraordinary feat and would have earned him a lot of praise around the world.
Instead of a victory and another title, Holyfield get’s another loss and may be put in the position if the WBA denies his protest to be put back down to the bottom of the heap. Of course, Valuev, knowing that his victory was an unpopular one, could give him a rematch after he deals with Chagaev, something that his manager Chris Meyer has said, but that’s obviously not nearly as appealing to Holyfield than having the decision overturned and the victory be given to him. Like I said, that probably won’t be happening.