INTRIGUE

He’s the man who won’t go away. Fast approaching his 41st birthday, after an unbelievable 19 years as a professional fighter and 46 bouts, some of them among the most gruelling in modern ring history, Evander Holyfield steadfastly clings to the belief that he will once again hold the undisputed heavyweight championship.

It is a belief so strong and unshakeable that nothing short of defeat of the most total and crushing type is going to make it go away. Seldom, in the history of the sport, has anyone been quite so unyielding in the pursuit of what some would say is an impossible dream.

But don’t tell Evander what’s possible and what isn’t possible because here he comes again, topping the bill on pay-per-view television live from the Mandalay Bay casino resort in Las Vegas on 4 October when he meets another durable, long-lasting veteran in the rejuvenated James “Lights Out” Toney, a mere youngster of 35 but who has been a pro for 15 years and has had 72 fights, of which he has lost only four with two draws.The scheduled 12-rounder has the fight game buzzing. Everyone you talk to finds Holyfield-Toney intriguing.

In Holyfield you have a four-time heavyweight champion who keeps coming up with surprising performances just when you get ready to count him out. Toney is the International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion who wants to fight for the heavyweight belt.

Can Holyfield keep the flame alive? Is Toney capable of being a legitimate heavyweight contender or will extra pounds be a burden? These are the main questions people in the game are asking.

Toney regularly spars with heavyweights and once weighed 226lbs (16st 2lbs) for a fight but that was when, in bloated condition, he knocked out journeyman Wesley Martin in three rounds a little over two years ago.

This time, says his promoter Dan Goossen, Toney will look the part and fight the part, too. “When he first came here [to Goossen’s promotional company] he said he wanted to fight in the heavyweight division,” Goossen said, “and it’s not because ‘I can’t control my weight.’ His goal is to capture the heavyweight title, and when he believes it, I believe it. He’s going to be an in-shape heavyweight, not someone who comes in out of shape but with a true heavyweight mentality and a heavyweight body.”

Goossen, of course, is a true believer in Toney. He said all along that Toney was certain to beat Vassiliy Jirov to win the 190lbs (13st 8lbs) cruiserweight belt, which Toney did. Now he is saying that Toney will have too much talent, quickness and hand speed for a Holyfield who, while naturally the bigger man, is five years older and lately has been able to fight only for 30 to 40 seconds a round.

Toney has, as ever, been talking the talk, saying he’ll be coming to fight, not to run, even going so far as to say that he’ll knock Holyfield out. But pre-fight threats and attempted intimidation do not sit at all well with Holyfield, and Toney’s remarks might backfire on him.

Holyfield is “up” for the fight and looking forward to it. He feels that the boxing world did not see the real Holyfield last December when he was outboxed by Chris Byrd for the vacant IBF heavyweight title. He was fighting under the handicap of an injured left shoulder that night and underwent surgery the week after the fight.

There have been positive words from Holyfield’s camp (see separate story), with adviser Jim Thomas and trainer Don Turner talking of the best Evander we have seen in years coming out to face Toney on 4 October. But this is a man who has been in many tough fights over the years, and lately the vintage performances have been fewer. He fought superbly in the rematch with Lennox Lewis but there were the three struggles with John Ruiz, followed by a much sharper performance against Hasim Rahman, then the widely scored loss to Byrd.

We have been wondering for years just how much longer he can keep going to the well, but it doesn’t seem to have run dry just yet. Several times in the last decade there have been suggestions that Holyfield is a “shot” fighter. More than 10 years ago, after Holyfield’s lacklustre points win over Alex Stewart in Atlantic City in June 1993, the New York writer Wallace Matthews offered the view that Holyfield “looked as spent as old buckshot”.

Rock Newman, manager of the then-heavyweight champ Riddick Bowe, who had taken the title from Holyfield seven months earlier, said after the fight with Stewart that Holyfield should retire, that the rematch with Bowe, which was scheduled for later that year, wouldn’t last three rounds. But Holyfield fought an inspired fight to pull off the upset.

This has been a pattern ever since: Holyfield is written off, then comes back seemingly with a new lease of life.We had the loss to Michael Moorer in the first fight (with attendant fears that Holyfield was suffering from a heart ailment), the devastating knockout loss in his rubber match with Bowe, a laboured performance against blown-up light-heavy Bobby Czyz, the unsatisfying three-fight series against John Ruiz. All raised serious doubts about the wisdom of Holyfield continuing to fight. Yet just when you think it must, surely, be all over, back he comes with another excellent showing, such as the win over Hasim Rahman in June of last year. 

When Holyfield lost to Chris Byrd last December it might have seemed that this really would be the final curtain, but he blamed his failure that night on the shoulder problem that, it would seem, has now been remedied. And here he comes again, like a trusty, long-serving tank pushing forward across the battlefield, a bit dented but not yet out of the fray and still capable of inflicting damage.

But there comes a time when all things have to end. Perhaps 4 October is the night when it will end for Holyfield, because it would be almost impossible to come back from a loss to Toney, a naturally smaller man who is a slight underdog in the betting.

Opinion in the trade seems evenly split. A lot of people simply are not sure what to make of this fight. Trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr thinks Toney is going to beat up Holyfield, hitting him with counter punches all night. But Chris Byrd’s lawyer, John Hornewer, feels that Holyfield will walk through Toney. Trainer Emanuel Steward says it is too difficult to make a prediction. “Being the bigger man should favour Evander but he seems to be getting injured all the time as he gets older and that could be a big factor,” Steward said.

Toney, although giving away size and natural strength in this fight, is one of the great craftsmen of the sport whose biggest problem has often been himself, with destructive impulses that included a tendency to overeat. But on sheer, old-school boxing skills, Toney has few equals.

This is a man who has truly learned his craft. He was middleweight champion more than 13 years ago and has fought in five weight classes, including the one-off appearance as a heavyweight against Wesley Martin.

He has the timeless technique of an Ezzard Charles or an Archie Moore, a defensive master who counter punches beautifully. And Toney is also one of the toughest fighters in the business, having only been dropped twice, once as a middleweight, by Reggie Johnson, when he got up to win, then as a super middleweight by Roy Jones Jr., when he was partly off balance.

When he won the cruiser title from Vassiliy Jirov last April it was one of Toney’s most text-book perfect performances as he blocked and slipped punches and blasted back with counters until Jirov finally went down — though not out — in the last round.

But he was fighting a 190-pounder that night. In Holyfield he meets a 220-pound heavyweight, a fighter who bullied Mike Tyson and backed up Lennox Lewis. Holyfield might be able to take whatever Toney throws and just keep on coming. But how will Toney react when Holyfield starts hitting him? John Hornewer suggests that Holyfield’s punching power is underrated, his informant being his client Chris Byrd, who offers first-hand experience. “Chris told me that Holyfield hits harder than people think,” Hornewer said over the phone from Chicago. “Chris said he was sore for two weeks after the fight.”

So, durable and savvy though Toney is, he might start to feel the effect of Holyfield’s heavyweight hammers by the middle rounds. The sheer physical strength, body weight and pressure of Holyfield could simply wear Toney down. But when Toney seeks to stall and kill time, as he surely will at various points in the fight, Holyfield must keep his hands moving and keep the punches coming. This is something he has not been able to do in recent fights.

Bursts of 30 or 40 seconds a round won’t get the job done for Holyfield in this fight. But perhaps the shoulder surgery will allow Holyfield to be more consistent with his punching than has lately been the case. So much depends, I think, on whether or not Holyfield can raise his punch-output.

I can visualise Toney getting off to a tremendous start, landing lots of punches and sliding out of harm’s way, his hand speed and relaxed, sly defensive moves making Holyfield look old and slow. But Holyfield is difficult to discourage and I think that he will gradually begin to get into the fight, landing his own shots as Toney — as I think will inevitably happen — starts to lay back on the ropes for a breather.

The big question is whether Holyfield will be able to hit Toney often enough and consistently enough to gain more than merely temporary control of the fight. It won’t be enough to hurt him once in a while; he has to try to make sure that Toney stays hurt.

For Holyfield, this is it. No more tomorrows. He cannot lose this fight and still talk of reclaiming the championship. The public won’t buy it. A win is the only thing that will keep the flame of hope burning. Certainly there is a very good chance he can do it, with his heavyweight’s firing power plus willpower. But we cannot discount the evidence of our own eyes, and Holyfield has been unimpressive more than he’s been impressive in his last five bouts

I believe Toney will most likely land more punches than Holyfield in the course of the 12 rounds, but that, in this hurting business, Holyfield will probably dish out greater hurt — but maybe not often enough to win the fight.If it goes to the cards, as seems likely, anything could happen and I have heard it suggested that Holyfield might get a “sympathy” vote from the judges. But in the belief that a greater volume of punches, cleanly delivered on target, will count for more with the judges than stronger but less frequent slams, my expectation is a win for Toney, by decision.