Evander Holyfield belongs to an era of boxing when people knew their heavyweight champs by name; a far cry from today when only the real aficionados would be able to tell you the champ – and that too from any one camp, you know WBA, WBC, WBO! Usually boxers are not known for their smarts and apparently Holyfield too belongs to that breed which makes money by the truckloads but just can’t save any for a rainy day. Then they are back to doing the only thing they know best – boxing.
In keeping with that tradition, we have the Holyfield vs Valuev fight today at Hallenstadion in Zürich Switzerland. The fight, even if he loses it, will give him a cheque of $600,000. This is the lowest he has ever been guaranteed for a fight.
Consider the advantages that Nikolai Valuev enjoys over Holyfield -
- Valuev is 35, eleven years younger than the 46 year old Holyfield.
- Valuev is 7′ while Holyfield is 6’2″. That’s a height and reach advantage.
- Add the clear 100 pounds by which he outweighs Holyfield and you have what looks like a gross mismatch. Valuev was 309 pounds at the weigh-in while Holyfield was 204 pounds.
Surely, Holyfield is a champ, no doubt and champs are known to pull off the incredible. But his slow relfexes that allowed Sultan Ibragimov to beat him in the WBO title fight nearly 17 months back could not have gotten any better.
Holyfield (42-9-2, 27 KOs) ; Valuev (49-1, 34 KOs).
