Evander Holyfield Knocks Francois Botha Out in Eight

By Mark Vester

At the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, a crowd of around 2,000 fans saw a battle of veteran former champions. Evander Holyfield (43-10-2, 28 KO) knocked out Francois Botha (47-5-3, 28 KO) in the eight round.

Botha was outworking Holyfield in the first two rounds. Holyfield began to get his engines going in the second with some good counter left hooks. The third and fourth rounds were close with Holyfield looking more to counter Botha's right hand. A Holyfield chant broke out in the fifth round as the former undisputed champ tried to get better punches off.

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Holyfield was putting better punches together in the sixth and seventh. He was throwing late flurries to make sure the rounds went his way on the offical scorecards. In the eight, Holyfield dropped Botha with a monster right hand. Botha beat the count but Holyfield stayed on him for the finish by battered him with punches until the ref jumped in to stop the fight.