By Luke Furman
On October 19th, former four time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (44-10-2, 29 KOs) will be 49-years-old. The veteran wants to hang around until he receives another shot at the title, and recently there has been some talk about facing WBA "regular" champion Alexander Povetkin on December 17th in Zurich.
During his career Holyfield fought every major name, including Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, James Toney, Nikolai Valuev, Michael Moorer and several others.
But it was his first championship fight, fifteen rounds at cruiserweight against Dwight Muhammad Qawi (41-11-1, 25 KOs) in 1986, that he found to be the toughest fight of his life.
"The hardest fight for me was for the title at cruiserweight against Dwight Qawi. I won, but after the fight I spent the entire week lying in the hospital and I never wanted to return to the ring [after that]," Holyfield said.
Holyfield also discussed his current relationship with Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs). He forgives Tyson for the infamous ear-biting incident in their June 1997 rematch. Tysonw as disqualified in the third round for biting off a piece of Holyfield's ear.
"Of course I forgave him. Why should I be upset him? After all, I owe him a lot. I got a lot from him. Tyson, as a heavyweight was always short, but he broke all records. He was nimble, aggressive and unpredictable in his attacks. In turn, I was never the biggest, fastest or the strongest, but thanks to my approach to fighting I could beat everyone," Holyfield said.
Luke Furman covers the boxing scene for bokser.org