By Michael Marley
The West Virginia State Athletic Commission has contributed nothing to boxing and the board has continued its ineptitude in giving 48 year old former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield a free pass to go on with a bout in Copenhagen on March 5.
I received confirmation with recordkeeper Annibal Miramontes of Fight Fax Inc. that the commission did not give former heavyweight champion a medical suspension of any kind.
"No," Miramontes said Tuesday, "there is nothing listed as to any suspension for Evander."
Commander Vander, whose bout against Sherman "The Tank" Williams was ruled a no contest after three rounds Saturday night in White Sulphur Springs (Greenbriar Resort) when he complained that he had blood from a cut over his left eye obscured his vision, takes on the decrepit, 45 year old "Super" Bria" Nielsen, the Danish boxing star who returns from a 2002 retirement bid. Against Williams, Holyfield was down on the cards and getting rocked before the bout was stopped before the start of the fourth.
Holyfield was paid $225,000 to fight Bahamian Williams and now will get paid $500,000 in Denmark. Nielsen-Holyfield is being held in a 2,000 seat venue where the cheapest tickets are above $500 USD.
When I mentioned those expensive tickets and a pay-per-view price of about $90 in Denmark, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank said, "Somebody's been blowing too much weed."
Any competent boxing board would have handed Holyfield a six-week suspension to make sure that he would not spar and give the cut time to heal but competence and the West Virginia commission do not belong in the same sentence.
