If you don’t follow boxing, you may not know who Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield is. Then again, you may, because he’s quite a guy and spends a great deal of his out-of-the-ring time doing great things for good causes.
He is what heroes are made of.
If you don’t keep up with boxing, you may not know that Evander, or “Holy,” as we like to call him, is a four-time heavyweight champ. That’s a record; not even the great Muhammad Ali was able to accomplish that (Ali was a three-time champ).
You also may not know that Holy just lost his fourth title belt last Saturday night to a journeyman named John Ruiz — a good boxer but, hey, he’s not Evander.
If you do follow the sport, you know that Holy is an aging champ; he’s 38 years old and while that’s not “old” by normal standards, by boxing standards and for most boxing professionals, reaching 38 in the ring is the same as reaching 68 outside the ring for you and me.
To look at Holy, you’d think him most capable — his physique is awesome. He’s 217 pounds of raw muscle, but that enormous mass is only surpassed by his heart, desire, determination and will.
After last Saturday’s loss — Holy twice beat boxing’s bad man Mike Tyson, once fought current undisputed champ Lennox Lewis to a draw, and beat a much larger Riddick Bowe in the mid-1990s one-out-of-three (you should see Bowe) — most boxing “experts” now say the ex-champ ought to hang up his gloves.
Indeed, most of them said he should have hung up his gloves a couple years ago after losing to Lewis in the second of their two matches.
That hurts if you’re me. I’m a boxing fan’s fan and — aside from light-heavy Roy Jones Jr. — Holy’s “the man,” as far as I’m concerned.
Such “advice” also hurts Holy; a guy who has never known how to quit is being asked to quit a job he dearly loves.
It also hurt to watch the lesser known, lesser-talented Ruiz put Holy on the mat in the eleventh round last Saturday night in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay arena — especially since Holy had been, in my view, winning the fight and had fought Ruiz much better than when the two met in August last year, when “The Real Deal” won his fourth title (WBA Heavyweight Championship).
I’m not taking anything away from Ruiz, but after Holy beat him bloody for ten rounds, a solid left jab, right hook to the temple combo caught Holy blind and put him down early in the eleventh.
That was 30 seconds into the round; he had 2:30 to go before the bell, but instead of quitting and “staying down,” he hung on, hung in there, and made it out for the 12th and final round.
In another day, a guy like Ruiz — solid, though he is — would have lasted maybe three rounds with Holy. Maybe less. But the aging champ is, well, aging, and so Ruiz is a match for him these days.
“Maybe you should just quit, Evander. Just put the gloves down. You’ve had your moment in the sun.”
Because of great purses and wise investments, Holy is worth some money. Unlike many former champs who get old, he isn’t hurting financially; he made the sport pay and he kept ahold of most of its treasures. With much of his winnings and other business interests, he gives quite a bit to charity.
But he won’t quit fighting. In fact, in post-fight interviews, a cut and swollen Holy said he’d just “get back in line” and wait for his next chance to reach his goal: He wants to retire, but not until he’s — once again — the undisputed heavyweight champ of the world.
The odds are against him. Age, a combination of too many wars in the ring and fleeting fight opportunities are all combining to work against him. More than perhaps anyone else — unless you’re a fighter, too — Holy knows all of this. He’s been fighting professionally since winning a bronze Olympic medal in the mid-1980s.
But he won’t quit; despite what the experts, pundits, and boxing enthusiasts say, he simply isn’t ready yet to lay down his gloves.
The experts say that’s because he just “doesn’t know when to quit.” Really? I don’t know about that, but I do know it is precisely his rock-solid determination that has made him a four-time world champ. And it’s probably why he was voted fighter of the decade, 1990-2000.
To Holy, I want to say that I admire his spirit, his grit and will to beat the odds (or at least cheat them a little longer), and to throw sand in the faces of his ample critics who are now almost demanding he quit to “save face” and “save the integrity of boxing.”
To hell with that, Holy. You want to fight? Do it; I’ll be watching. So will millions of your fans, right up until the time you say it’s time to quit.
So what’s all this have to do with the price of eggs in China or the political landscape these days? Much. I seek to make two points:
- First, I wanted to let Holy know he still has a very dedicated fan “out here (two, actually, including my lovely wife!) who loves his spirit, his “Warrior” (that’s his nickname) ethic, and determination, and that I believe he (like his awesome predecessor, George Foreman, who stayed in the game into his 40s) should keep fighting if he wants to;
- Also, to use his stupendous example as a way to let Americans frustrated — as I am — with our system know that we can, using Evander as a mentor, effect the political, social and economic changes we seek, despite the “odds” stacked against us. That is, if we don’t quit.
Like Holy, if we quit, then we lose.
In the game of politics, as in boxing, there is no second place. History will not be kind to freedom lovers who voluntarily give in to the power-hungry, sadistic, hypocritical elite that try daily to micromanage our lives.
Let the fight begin. Call such determination the “Evander Factor.”
