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Holyfield, Batman It's time for Evander to face reality
What goes around comes around, so the saying goes. So the outcome of the WBA heavyweight title bout between Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz should leave no one in the Holyfield camp feeling hard done by. A paper champion at best coming into the fight, Holyfield won the title by default after the WBA stripped the real champion, Lennox Lewis, of the belt on a technicality contrived by Don King. Holyfield has been riding his luck for a long time and had to be due for a fall. First, let me say that through the years he had been a great champion. Anyone who forges his way to the top of the heavyweight division while being at such a physical disadvantage compared to the naturally heavy fighters has to be revered. And there's no doubt that Evander did earn his place in history. The "Real Deal" competed at the top of the division for 11 years, amassing three legitimate world heavyweight titles -- plus the one contentious belt -- by sheer force of will. That said, the fact he was able to call himself a champion for so long had as much to do with politics as determination. Against Lewis in their first fight in 1999, he was outmuscled and outclassed for the full 12 rounds, only for the judges to wilt in the face of what must have been external pressures by declaring the one-sided fight a draw. Then, having lost the Lewis rematch and finagled a title back, Holyfield was again completely outfought by Ruiz in their August 2000 meeting, only to be given the benefit of the doubt by some more dubious judgment. On that occasion, unlike the first Lewis fight, even Evander himself couldn't offer any rhetoric to back the judgment. Instead he resorted to playing dumb, which he most definitely is not, by saying he was only there to fight and abide by the judges' rules.
Six months later, the pendulum has swung the other way. The second Ruiz fight, (which I watched on tape, having chosen not to risk seeing Evander mug Ruiz one more time on pay-per-view), was a close one, no doubt. But even though both men took a beating, Ruiz had the edge throughout and did enough in the last two rounds to leave the judges with no room to even contemplate double-dealing. So Holyfield's lucky streak came to an end. And with it, in my opinion, his chance of ever being a legitimate world champion again. Yes, like many shot fighters before him, he refuses to go quietly into the sunset, insisting he can still be a champion by "going back to what I used to do and not leave things to the judges." But I think those are the words of a delusional man. The time when his awesome determination and dedication truly made him the "Real Deal" surely passed long ago. Perhaps as long ago as November 1995, when he lost his third fight with Riddick Bowe. Since then, his first victory against Mike Tyson is his only credible success. Besides that, he's fought overmatched opponents in Bobby Czyz and Vaughn Bean, the disinterested Michael Moorer, and Lewis and Ruiz, against whom he rode his luck to get decisions he had no right to claim. Will he ever acknowledge the fact that he's living, in boxing terms, on borrowed time? Not very likely, on current evidence. Since George Foreman won a world title at 45, many aging fighters seem to have lost what power of reason they had. However, if Holyfield, after the loss to Ruiz, won't save himself from himself, I think the boxing authorities should at least save boxing fans from his public humiliation by ensuring he never again be permitted to appear in a world championship ring. But with his connections, I might add ... that'll be the day. Terry Baddoo is co-host of World Sport, the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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