By Sean McDaniel: The sagging career of 47-year-old Evander Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KO’s) could get some new life. The Las Vegas-Review Journal is reporting that Holyfield could be facing 41-year-old heavyweight Francois Botha (47-4-3, 28 KO’s) on April 17th, at the Orleans Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight, if it takes place, would match two former heavyweight champions who are clearly on the downsides of their careers. Still, the fight would be appealing to some diehard fans of the two fighters.

Botha and Holyfield were supposed to fight in Uganda, but the fight fell through because of financial issues. Holyfield hasn’t fought in over a year since losing a controversial 12 round majority decision to then World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev in December 2008. Holyfield didn’t look all that bad in the fight, fighting well enough to win by many accounts. The loss was Holyfield’s second in a row. He lost to another heavyweight champion WBO title holder Sultan Ibragimov by a 12 round decision in October 2007.

What Holyfield hopes to accomplish with a fight against Botha is unclear. It obviously will give Holyfield a paycheck, but if he is hoping to use this fight as a catapult for another title shot it’s not likely to happen. Holyfield has already lost back to back title shots against champions Ibragimov and Valuev.

Holyfield will likely have to get busy and put together another string of victories if he wants to get another title shot. Holyfield threw a year of his career by fighting after his loss to Valuev. That’s unfortunate because Holyfield could have used that time to get in two or three shots against B class opposition, which would have put him in a good position for yet another title shot by now.

Holyfield’s skills have obviously eroded somewhat, but his name value is still high and the heavyweight champions need a name fighter to oppose them, even if Holyfield isn’t fight at the level he once did earlier in his career.

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Kali Meehan vs. Ruslan Chagaev in WBA heavyweight title eliminator

Former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (25-1-1, 17 KO’s) and Kali Meehan (35-3, 29 KO’s) will be facing off in a WBA heavyweight title eliminator with the winner of the bout to become the mandatory challenger for WBA heavyweight champion David Haye.

As of now, Haye has a fight next up against mandatory challenger John Ruiz. The winner of that fight will have to face the Chagaev-Meehan winner. The 39-year-old Meehan has been waiting a long time to finally get another shot at the heavyweight title. Meehan, 6’5”, was defeated by then WBO heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster by a controversial 12 round split decision in September 2004.

Meehan fought remarkably well in that fight and seemed to have Brewster out on his feet at point after catching him against the ropes and pummeling him for an extended period of time. Two months later, Meehan was easily defeated by Hasim Rahman by a 4th round stoppage in November 2004.

Since then, Meehan has won six consecutive fights against mostly 2nd tier opposition. Of those wins, his sixth round stoppage over the hard-hitting DaVarryl Williamson in 2007 is easily the best of his victories. Meehan, however, hasn’t been very active since 2004. He also hasn’t fought since beating Dominique Alexander by a 2nd round knockout in August 2008.

Chagaev, 31, is coming off a 9th round stoppage loss to IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in June 2009. Chagaev was never competitive in that fight and ended up taking a one-sided beating from the large Ukrainian. Chagaev hasn’t been very active in the past three years due to chronic health problems.

Chagaev should win this fight as long as he doesn’t get clobbered by some of Meehan’s big shots. Kali can punch a little and if he opens up with some of his flurries, he could give Chagaev some massive problems. Chagaev, 6’1” is a lot smaller than Meehan and we could be seeing another Klitschko-Chagaev replay if Meehan goes at Chagaev hard early in the fight.