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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > December > 23
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Holyfield has no hope of correcting ‘injustice’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two days before his plans to celebrate a religious miracle, Evander Holyfield asked one of boxing’s sanctioning bodies to admit a mistake.
Might I suggest a change of venue from Venezuela to Bethlehem?
“I don’t know why the judges did that, but it’s an injustice,” Holyfield said of losing his latest bid to reclaim the heavyweight title, a majority decision loss to WBA champion Nicolai Valuev Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland. “We’re filing a protest that basically says, ‘We want you to overturn this.’ I just want what’s rightfully mine. I didn’t lose. I won.”
Holyfield and his manager, Ken Sanders, filed a protest Tuesday. To understand the odds of the decision being overturned, consider this: Even organized sports with real leagues and actual bylaws that don’t operate two neighborhoods over from South American drug cartels don’t overturn event results.
The best Holyfield probably could hope for is a rematch. (What then? Try to find a host more neutral than Switzerland?)
This is what happens when you’re 46 years old in a relatively young man’s occupation. Fans, judges, media — everybody looks at you funny. You say, “I feel great.” They counter, “You haven’t held a piece of the title in a distressed weight class in over eight years. Goodbye.”
Holyfield is fighting something worse than time. He is fighting perceptions. So many just want him to go away. It’s tough enough in boxing when everybody actually likes you.
By all accounts, Holyfield fought — and certainly moved — as well as he had in years against Valuev, a plodding Lerch-like figure at 7-feet, 311 pounds. He moved for 12 rounds. He seldom let Valuev get set. He jabbed and counter punched. One writer for SI.com scored the bout 118-110 in Holyfield’s favor. But officially, two judges gave it to Valuev (116-112, 115-114) and a third had it even (114-114).
“It was pathetic,” Holyfield’s trainer, Tommy Brooks, said Tuesday.
When asked if he believed judges were colored by cries for Holyfield to retire and his recent string of bad performances, Brooks said, “I don’t even think it was that. I think it was just some home cooking for a promoter’s fighter. I think somebody was just greasing somebody’s palms.”
That’s the great thing about boxing. Nothing ever changes. Every other fight plays out like, “On The Waterfront.” Every bad decision is manufactured in the shadows. Every bad-luck pug is Terry Malloy.
The WBA has offices in Venezuela and Panama. (I’m sure they’ve got dockworkers.) Gilberto Mendoza, the sanctioning body’s president, did not return an email Tuesday. Robert Mack, a WBA attorney based in Tacoma, said he had not yet heard of Holyfield’s protest but said, “We accept any protest and have our champions committee consider it.”
The process?
“It’s not a quick one. It could be weeks. Months.”
Can decisions be overturned?
“No. But if there is some concern about a decision, a rematch could be ordered.”
Of course. Sanctioning bodies make their money on fees associated with title bouts. Rematches are gold for them. They don’t get any residuals for overturning decisions. But if you would like to try, the standard paper bag deposit will do.
Holyfield doesn’t have a belt. But if he needed affirmation that he can still perform amid projections of doom, he got it. He kept his criticism of the decision to a minimum after the fight. But after returning home to Atlanta, he watched it on tape and saw himself do things and react in ways he hadn’t in some time.
Judge Holyfield scored himself winner, 10 rounds to 2 (rough translation in 10-point must system: 118-110).
“I think the judges were shocked I was whipping him so bad,” he said.
Has he ever felt this strongly about a bad decision?
“Yeah, the Olympics,” he said, referencing when he was disqualified by the referee in a semifinal for hitting on the break in 1984 in Los Angeles. “At least they let me keep my [bronze] medal. But everywhere I went, people cheered me like I was the gold medal winner.”
They don’t cheer Holyfield like a world champion now. Nor, apparently, do they judge him like one.
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Now batting eighth, the Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now for the Tuesday Countdown:
10 - The Falcon will be in the playoffs for the ninth time in 43 seasons. They’re batting .209, or eighth in the order. But say this for the Birds, when they get there, they usually do something.
9 - Got up this morning, remembered I was out of coffee and remembered I was supposed to blog (bad combination). But I did a little research this morning. (It happens.) Did you know the Falcons have won at least one playoff game in five of their eight postseasons, which is pretty impressive for a franchise that generally goes dormant in January.
8 - Look at the last three playoff years. 1998: Won the division, earned a bye, defeated San Francisco and Minnesota in the NFC, made a Dirty Bird dancer of Dan Reeves, then lost to Denver in the Super Bowl. 2002: Went to Green Bay and handed the Packers their first postseason loss at Lambeau, then lost to Philadelphia in the divisional playoffs. 2004: Won the division, earned a bye, annihilated St. Louis, then lost at Philly for the NFC title.
7 - Then again, there was that 12-4 record and NFC West Division title back in 1980, which gave way to a 30-27 first-round home loss to Dallas. But that was so yesterday. I mean, look at the Cowboys now.
6 - It was minus-8 when I left Minneapolis Monday morning. I couldn’t feel my toes until halfway over South Carolina.
5 - I’ll have more on this later today, but Evander Holyfield is upset about the decision that saw him lose in to WBA champion Nicolai Valuev Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland. The problem, of course, with trying to protest a decision is sanctioning bodies like the WBA answer to nobody. And their offices are in Panama and Venezuela.
4 - I guess Brett Favre is still immune to criticism because the only guy catching heat for the New York Jets’ funny collapse is coach Eric Mangini. Today’s back page of the New York Post had a picture of Mangini with the headline,”Win Or Else!” The back page of the Daily News had another shot of the coach with the headline, “Win Or Take A Hike!” Newsday merely advanced the story: “Cowher Power!” with a picture of, duh. And what of the saintly Favre …?
3 - Try this: In the last four games (three losses), he has one touchdown pass, six interceptions, nine sacks and a QB rating in the 50s. The four defenses he faced were Denver, San Francisco, Buffalo, Seattle. No greatness there. Favre has worn down. He has no arm left. He is making bad decisions. So why is nobody scolding him? Too afraid to admit it was a lame decision to bring him in?
2 - Richard Carrion, the IOC’s finance commission chairman, admitted the IOC has about $4.8 million at risk in Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. The IOC’s most powerful Dept. of Slush Funds, Payoffs and Acquisitions is still calculating the impact.
1 - The Braves sent me a unique holiday card that could be unfolded and turned into wrapping paper. Of course, there was no pitcher inside.
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