By Eric Thomas: Former two division world champion Evander Holyfield (44-10-2, 29 KO’s) will be turning 50 this Friday night and he’s reportedly poised to retire from boxing if he can’t get a fight against one of the Klitschko brothers. Holyfield doesn’t want to stick around and fight for peanuts at this late stage in his incredibly long 28-year pro career.
It’s hard fathom a fighter still in the pro game after 28 years as a pro, but Holyfield is still here somewhat. He hasn’t fought in over a year a half and doesn’t want to have to fight his way to a title shot like other fighters have to do.
Holyfield just wants one of the Klitschkos to select him to fight, kind of how heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev and Sultan Ibragimov picked Holyfield to defend their titles against in 2007 and 2008 despite Holyfield not being ranked high in the world rankings.
Holyfield told Sportsillustrated.cnn.com “Even at this old age, I’m willing to fight the Klitschkos. I can beat the Klitschkos, but they didn’t want to do it. I can’t make nobody fight.”
Even if Holyfield could get a fight against the Klitschkos it’s difficult to see how that would change Holyfield’s situation any. He’s reportedly living in an apartment, saddled with debt, and his Georgia mansion was recently auctioned off. If Holyfield could get a $1 million payday fight against one of the Klitschko brothers, that money would likely still go to a lot of Holyfield’s debts.
The only way Holyfield would make out well was if he could beat one of the Klitschkos, because he could then get a huge payday in a rematch with one of them and that would definitely be a life-changing event. However, the Klitschkos are not interested in fighting Holyfield, and WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin doesn’t appear interested in either.
It’ll be sad to see Holyfield retire from boxing but he probably should have retired long ago, perhaps as far back as 1998. Holyfield wasn’t the same fighter after 1997, after his two fights with Mike Tyson and his wars with Riddick Bowe.
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