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DEL.ICIO.USInner voice, ugly wins extend Holyfield’s quest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Antonio — With apologies to Fres Oquendo, who dedicated Friday night’s heavyweight bout in the Alamodome to his recently deceased mother-in-law, and to the Blues Brothers, who spoke of following heavenly voices, Evander Holyfield is the dude on a mission from God.
So says Holyfield. I might say something else after watching the former champ often look older than Methuselah, Moses and their grandparents, but I’m not Holyfield. Not only is he the owner of boxing shorts with Bible verses, but he is religiously in pursuit of becoming the only five-time heavyweight champion ever.
You know, no matter what. That included Holyfield’s 12-round decision (116-111, 114-113, 114-113) over Oquendo that caused eyes to roll. He knocked Oquendo to the canvas with a right hand seconds into the bout, but that was Holyfield’s only highlight. He blamed Oquendo’s awkward style on his inability to use his 44-year-old reflexes to pound his foe when given numerous chances.
“I’m not terribly impressed with myself, but I got the job done,” Holyfield said later. Added Oquendo, who appeared to capture several of the early and middle rounds, “I boxed his ears off.”
Don’t mention “ears” and “boxing” around Holyfield. (Remember that Mike Tyson thing?) Anyway, Holyfield just won something called the USBA Gulf Coast Regional title. Such a title is roughly equivalent to the IHOP championship for consuming blueberry pancakes.
Holyfield prefers alphabets such as WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF after winning for the second time in as many fights since his 21-month absence due to injuries. Said Holyfield, “I told the Lord that, if he allows me to be the heavyweight champion of the world again, I’ll stay out here as long as you want me to stay out here.”
Looks like the Lord wants Holyfield to stay longer. So says Holyfield, who spent 10 years ago to the month shocking Mike Tyson at a packed Las Vegas venue. This time, given the decent but obscure Oquendo, much of Bexar County stayed away, presumably to watch high school football or to do laundry. “If I would have beaten Lennox Lewis [in November 1999], that would have been it,” said Holyfield, referring to his failed chance to become the undisputed champion. “To be the very best that I want to be, that means I have to retire on top and not the bottom. I’m smart enough to stop on top.”
We’ll see. Several of Holyfield’s predecessors evolved into the feeble likes of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. To which I say of Holyfield’s desire to keep slugging for just shy of forever: It’s his obsession, and he has the right to continue it along the way to a pretty or ugly finish.
Ugly is another Oquendo away for Holyfield. It’s just that you can’t dismiss the guy in a boxing universe filled with, well, let Hall of Fame trainer Lou Duva tell you. “Can you pronounce the names of any of these Russian champions?” said Duva, referring to Oleg Maskaev, Nikolay Valuev and Wladimir Klitschko. You also have Brooklyn’s Shannon Briggs, the WBO champion. Whatever that means.
It means Holyfield should have the opportunity to face any of the above. According to Murad Muhammad, the promoter for Friday night’s “Holyfield V: The Final Chapter Continued,” Holyfield will fight again in the first quarter of next year. He’ll likely return to Texas, among the few places that will license him.
“Fighters come into this industry for three reasons: To win a title, to make money and to make more money,” said Muhammad, once the security chief for that other Muhammad named Ali. “We ain’t begging here. We’re saying that, if you come to beat us, we’re going to pay. And, of course, to get the money, you have to bring the honey. We believe that the honey is a championship belt, and we don’t care whose waist it’s around.”
Just as long as that championship belt doesn’t involve a Rutti Tutti Fresh And Frutti.
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Comments
By Traci
November 12, 2006 11:10 AM | Link to this
Holyfield is nice guy…I am glad that he won; and even happier that he got out of the ring unharmed. We have lost 2 phenomenal people in our community this week - Ed Bradley, and Gerald Levert. I was glad to see tht Holyfield did well, and didn’t get hurt.