Holyfield Will Return to the Ring in October
Evander Holyfield (43-10-2, 48 KOs), who turns 48 in October, will fight Sherman Williams (34-11-2, 19 KOs) in an October 5th fight. The fight is scheduled to take place at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. In April Holyfield won a championship bout against Francois Botha which rendered him WBF World Champion. The bout awarded him his fourth all-time heavyweight championship, a record to which only he can lay claim.
Many are sceptical about Holyfield’s future plans, as he continues to vie for more relevant titles held by other contenders, such as the Klitschko brothers. He has lost two of his last three bouts, against fighters many agree he would have defeated in his prime.
After defeating Botha, he said: “I've been hearing for a while that I can't do it [become the unified world champion]. All it does is light a fire under me to prove people wrong." Then to abate criticism that he should retire, he added: “I can still fight. I don't want to leave until I've become the undisputed heavyweight champion one more time. That's been my goal the entire time.”
While Holyfield is looking for a shot against David Haye (WBA Champion) or the Klitschko brothers (WBO, IBF, WBC, IBO Champions combined), few analysts think that these prime heavyweights would be willing to step into the ring with Holyfield. While he is still a money maker and a fan favourite, the consensus is that these fighters will not fight Holyfield because they are aware it would do more harm to their reputations than good.
In 2008 Holyfield took on Nikolai Valuev in a bout for the WBA Championship. After a tough twelve rounds, most had him leading the fight, but it was awarded to Valuev to much controversy. The WBA held an investigation into the fight afterwards, but Valuev lost the title in his next fight to current champion David Haye.
Holyfield is most known for his two matches with Mike Tyson in the mid-90s, the first of which made history when he defeated Tyson via TKO in the 11th round for the WBC and WBA titles.
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