By Mark Vester

The only bright spot involved with Evander Holyfield challenging the 7-foot Russian giant, Nikolai Valuev, for the WBA heavyweight title, is Holyfield announcing that he "may" retire in 2009. According to Holyfield, contracts will be signed by the end of the week, with the fight taking place on December 20 in Zurich, Switzerland. Holyfield, 46, will only make $600,000 for the fight, a far cry from the multi-million dollar paydays that he made for bouts with Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe, Lennox Lewis and several others.

Holyfield says that if he wins the title, and "God" tells him to continue, he may fight beyond 2009. With all of his widely reported financial problems, he says money is not the reason he continues to fight. He doesn't have a trainer, but managed to reunite with his first manager, Ken Sanders.

“I’m not in control of my life. If the Lord says, ‘I made you heavyweight champion again and I want you to keep fighting,’ I’ll stay as long as He wants me to stay. I knew I would get one more shot, I just had to be patient,” said Holyfield to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "But I realized my time is running out and I’ve got to get this thing pretty soon. My whole thing, how old do you want to be when you pursue this?”

“People are always asking me, ‘Why are you keeping this going? Are you doing this for the money?’ It’s kind of odd. I had this as a goal even before I had any money problems and situations. You get tired of explaining to somebody that you’re not doing this for the money. It may look like it now, but it’s not the case.”

Holyfield says the fight will probably be kept off pay-per-view because Sauerland Event doesn't want the public to watch him upset Valuev for the title.

“I don’t think it will be. It’s sort of like this is going to happen in secret. That’s too bad because it’s going to be a great story. It’s going to be a shocker,” Holyfield said.

Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com