By Chris Williams: Evander Holyfield turned back the time last night in taking out 41-year-old Francois Botha in the 8th round at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Holyfield, now 47, shook off some early rust in the fight and turned up the heat on Botha in the 8th round, knocking him down with a tremendous right hand the head and finishing him off with a some nice shots after he got back to his feet.
Holyfield fought surprisingly well for a fight who hadn’t fought in over a year and who is approaching his 48th birthday. Holyfield’s hand speed was a little less than it was in his prime, but his power was still pretty much intact as he showed in the 8th.
After the fight, Holyfield said that he wants to continue fighting and is still looking to capture a heavyweight title. There’s no opponent yet for his next fight, but it would be interesting to see Holyfield and 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins meet up in an old timers’ fight between boxing greats.
Forgetting about titles for a second, this fight would likely attract some interest in the boxing public if nothing else just for the curiosity. Hopkins recently beat Roy Jones Jr. by a 12 round decision a week ago, and looked so-so in the fight. Hopkins talked later about wanting to fight World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye, but that doesn’t look like its going to happen because Haye isn’t interested. But a fight between Holyfield and Hopkins would be a good alternative. At least we could see where Hopkins is at, and also see how Holyfield would do against a much smaller fighter than him.
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