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« | Home | »

Holyfield could fight for a title soon

By Zach Arnold | November 20, 2006

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Two interesting news items regarding boxer Evander Holyfield. First, the San Antonio Express reports that former Minnesota Vikings NFL owner Red McCombs is interested in booking a show at the Alamodome in 2007 with Evander Holyfield fighting for a world title. Second, frequent site commenter Mr. Roadblock pointed out to us that Holyfield is scheduled to fight on the undercard of the Ricky Hatton vs. Juan Urango HBO-produced event on January 13th. Could we see Holyfield vs. Klitschko?

Topics: All Topics, Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

12 Responses to “Holyfield could fight for a title soon”

  1. Psygone says:

    The WBC is the only major belt that currently has Holyfield ranked in their top 15. I think a Maskaev fight is more likely.

  2. Tomer says:

    I have a feeling Holyfield will probably try to get a title shot at Nicolay Valuev as Valuev is currently scheduled to make his WBA title defense on 1/27 according to Boxrec, so they may just push it back to be the undercard to the Hatton/Urango IBF title fight. Also, the IBF is trying to force Wladimir Klitschko to face his ‘deserving’ mandatory, Ray Austin, instead. Although, I have a feeling he’ll try to get Shannon Briggs in the ring to win the WBO trinket first.

  3. Psygone says:

    Ruslan Chagaev (who just beat John Ruiz) is Valuev madatory

  4. Psygone says:

    Also keep in mind for those who dont know, “World Tile” in Boxing is an ambiguous term. There are numerous lesser titles and Evander could just simply be fighting John Chapman the currant NABC World Champion (no Ive never heard of him either)

  5. Tomer says:

    Psygone: Yes, but to be completely fair, mandatories don’t really mean anything 99% of the time. For example, Jorge Arce was Pongsaklek Wonjongkam’s WBC Flyweight mandatory for over a year (which should have meant that Pongsaklek would have been stripped of his title for failure to defend against him), but as neither party really pushed the issue (since Arce was able to call himself ‘Interim Flyweight Champion’ until he went up to Junior Bantamweight and beat Hawk Makepula, the WBC didn’t, either.

    I’m sure Valuev’s handlers could *cough* convince the WBA to give him a leave from his mandatory defense for one fight (99.99% of the time, the sanctioning bodies do if their palms are properly greased, as well as the mandatory getting some ‘shut up and watch’ money to let it go without starting trouble). As an example, Oktay Urkal was originally scheduled to face Carlos Quintana for the vacant WBA Welterweight belt, but gave up his opportunity for a fee and a guarentee of getting the first title defense for the new champion.

  6. Psygone says:

    Yes even though Chagaev won his eliminator and his promoter paid the sanctioning fee required to get the #1 ranking…he could still end up oh hold because at the end of the day money controls everything. But that’s exactly why I doubt Valuev would be fighting Holyfield in Texas when he has a German promoted mandatory challenger.

  7. Tomer says:

    Given Holyfield’s last few ‘efforts’ (including his string of losses), I seriously doubt Valuev has much to worry about since he probably could jab (poorly) Holyfield to death at this point. But in any case, it’s possible Holyfield won’t fight on the Urango/Hatton undercard and will face Valuev in Germany or perhaps he’ll fight another top 1000 guy like Jeremy Bates was on 1/13 as a warm-up to a Valuev fight.

    As a note, however, Boxrec is now listing Urango/Hatton on 1/20 and Holyfield on 1/13.

  8. Mr. Roadblock says:

    1-2 wins by Holyfield and he gets a title shot. If he wins his HBO fight by anything better than highway robbery I think he may get a late spring/early summer title shot. And he might die in the ring that night.

  9. Sam J says:

    Klitschko is the absolute last guy Evander should be fighting at this point. I think if matched properly, Evander may still have one last good effort in him. He need’s somebody’s who’s going to come to him and fight. Wlad is not that guy. I think Maskaev is the best choice for Holyfield and it looks like it’s the most likely as well.

  10. Donut62 says:

    Klitchko has to fight Ray Austin or be stripped by the IBF. Evander is going to die or be seriously damaged. Honestly. Klitchko stands the best chance of killing him in the ring, so I’m glad that is an impossibility at this juncture. Maskaev is his only hope, but he’ll have to get there before B Hop does.

  11. ZDL says:

    Ugh, let’s see if I’m still banned.

    Here’s everything explained to you:

    -Any mandatory can be sidelined merely by giving them step aside money. Its real simple. Tyson once did it to Lewis. It worked for Urkal at Welter, who was #1 for over a year and collected more money taking step asides than if he fought.

    -Maskaev and Klitschko are working on a date in April according to ESPN.com, whom I trust a lot more than The San Antonio Express. ESPN also broke the move of the Hatton bout to Vegas or Atlantic City (went to the former) several weeks ago. Holyfield still fighting on 1/13 right now, looking at 7 or so weeks away, looks unlikely, especially against a world champion. Boxrec still hasn’t moved the fight because there’s been no word one way or the other.

    -Valuev is clearly the most likely to take the shot because both he and Chagaev are under the same promotional blanket and because a win over Holyfield is more notable to fans anywhere (including Germany). Not only that, that would be fight 3 of his deal with Don King. Chagaev will probably continue to take step aside money for a good long time, whilst fighting garbagemen in Stuttgart.

    -Jorge Arce was never “mandatory”. In fact, the guy that Pongsaklek beat a few days ago was the mandatory. Yes, the mandatory over Arce, the “interim champion”. Arce’s handlers kept the strap on him the way they did to promote him as a “real world’s champion” even though he never did actually beat the #1 fighter at the weight. Or the #2. Or #3.

  12. dave says:

    Holyfield was a truely great boxer but his time has past and he should hang up his gloves before he really hurts himself. he has nothing left to prove and even though the heavyweight devision is poor I still don’t think he has the ability to do so anymore. the hardest opponent he has to fight at the moment is his age – so PLEASE stop now before it’s too late.

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