By Jim Dower: Former world champion Evander Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KO’s) will have to wait a little longer to face South African Francois Botha (47-4-3, 28 KO’s). Their fight date has changed from January 16th to February 20th, and will be taking place at the Nelson Mandela Memorial Stadium, in Kampala, Uganda. Botha, 41, will be defending his obscure World Boxing Federation heavyweight title, and hoping to impress against the 47-year-old Holyfield.
If this fight had taken place 13 years ago, there would be little question that Holyfield would easily win the fight. However, Holyfield has been on a serious decline for the past decade or so, losing six out of his last thirteen fights since 2000. Holyfield hasn’t fought since losing a close 12 round majority decision to World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev in November 2008.
It was a fight in which Holyfield uncharacteristically stayed on the move for most of the fight, throwing few punches, but still getting the best of the slow moving Russian heavyweight. The judges, however, felt that Holyfield hadn’t done enough to get the decision, and gave the win to the 7-foot Valuev by the scores of 116-112, 114-114, and 115-114.
After this fight, it would have been a great opportunity for Holyfield to fight a couple of top contenders and then try to get a title shot against either IBf/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko or his brother WBC title holder Vitali Klitschko. Unfortunately, Holyfield has done nothing since losing to Valuev up until arranging this fight with the forty-one year old Botha.
Once a slim and toned fighter in his prime, Botha now looks like an overweight middle-aged fighter who has seen better days. In his last fight, Botha weighed a heavy 252 for a 12 round majority decision over Pedro Carrion in October 2009. It’s unclear whether Botha is looking to eventually get a title shot against one of the world champions like the Klitschko brothers or WBA champion David Haye.
If that’s Botha’s goal, he will have to take on some younger top contenders, look good and hope he doesn’t decline physically through aging. Botha, 6’2”, isn’t a big heavyweight and doesn’t have the hand speed or punching power to make up for his lack of size. He was stopped eight years ago by Wladimir Klitschko in a one-sided match in 2002, and it’s highly doubtful that Botha would do any better than that if he were somehow able to get a rematch with him.
Holyfield is fast approaching 50, and many boxing fans would like for him to hang up his gloves for good. He looked decent against Valuev in his last fight over a year ago, but that was against a slow, limited fighter. There’s little chance that Holyfield could compete against top heavyweight contenders like Odlanier Solis, Eddie Chambers, and Alexander Povetkin.
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