Holyfield planning to fight in October, this must be stopped!

[EastCoastBoxing]

It appears that Evander Holyfield will fight on the undercard of a show being put on by Italian promoters in October. Holyfield cannot get a license to fight in the US because of his deteriorated boxing skills, which will eventually lead to him being seriously hurt or possibly worse.

This bout must somehow be stopped!

We, as boxing fans and enthusiasts must find a way to stop this. There must be something that can be done to ensure this man's safety is upheld. Would we throw a paralized man into a river? I have the greatest respect for Holyfield as a fighter. He is one of, if not the, greatest warriors of all time...but is time is done!

We need to join together to have our voices heard so this fight will not go on! The more people that speak their mind here, the more we will be heard. Please join me and show your support for boxing as a sport, not something that is used to destroy a man!

[TKODoll]

It appears that Evander Holyfield will fight on the undercard of a show being put on by Italian promoters in October. Holyfield cannot get a license to fight in the US because of his deteriorated boxing skills, which will eventually lead to him being seriously hurt or possibly worse.

This bout must somehow be stopped!

We, as boxing fans and enthusiasts must find a way to stop this. There must be something that can be done to ensure this man's safety is upheld. Would we throw a paralized man into a river? I have the greatest respect for Holyfield as a fighter. He is one of, if not the, greatest warriors of all time...but is time is done!

We need to join together to have our voices heard so this fight will not go on! The more people that speak their mind here, the more we will be heard. Please join me and show your support for boxing as a sport, not something that is used to destroy a man!

Holyfield has had his medical suspension by the NY State Commission lifted. He is suspended administratively now by NY. He can still fight in any other state, since they don't have to go along with NY's administrative suspension. Let me quote an article here that is very appropriate.

HOLYFIELD FINALLY WINS A FIGHT;
GOOD FOR HIM

By William Dettloff

I’m not usually a the-cup-is-half-full kind of guy, but I saw the recent lifting of Evander Holyfield’s medical suspension by Ron Stevens’ New York Commission as a victory for Holyfield. Though he remains barred from fighting in New York—big deal—other states are under no obligation to honor New York’s mandate. So Holyfield can fight in whatever jurisdiction he pleases, so long as he passes the medicals beforehand. I say good for him.

I’ve heard all the arguments in favor of banning Holyfield from fighting again: “We have a duty to protect him from himself.” “A boxing license is a privilege, not a right.” “It’s for the good of the sport.” It’s hogwash. All of it. And it’s unfair.

No one’s saying Holyfield is a top prizefighter anymore. Maybe he isn’t even a very good one. If you want proof, look at a tape of his loss to Larry Donald, who would have been hard-pressed to give him three competitive rounds even five or six years ago. But since when is not doing your job as well as you used to grounds for barring you from doing it? This “poor performance” and “diminished skills” argument from Stevens is full of holes and very close to indefensible.

There are guys out there who won their first 10 fights in a row and then lost their next 60 and are still fighting. Nobody asks questions. You want a classic case of “diminished skills”? Try Mike Tyson. He’s lost three of his last four fights, all by knockout, two of them to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride, a pair of journeymen. If he decides against careers in **** or missionary work—we forget which it is this week—and decides to fight again, do you think he’ll be prevented from doing so because of his obviously diminished skills? Of course he won’t.

Meanwhile, Holyfield’s recent losses, aside from the one to Donald, have come against Lennox Lewis, who was the heavyweight champion at the time; Chris Byrd, The Ring ’s current top contender; John Ruiz, the number-two contender; and James Toney, who comes in at number four. And he holds a June 2002 win over our number-three guy, Hasim Rahman, who will meet Vitali Klitschko for the title in November. Hello?

Just about every champion in the history of modern prizefighting has fought well beyond the point of diminishing skills. Pick any great champion—Louis, Ali, Frazier, Holmes, Robinson, Armstrong, Leonard (both Benny and Ray), Pep, Duran. The list goes on and on. It’s a cliche already. Is Holyfield so much farther gone than they were that he should be banned? With all the problems this sport has, this is the issue commissions get all excited about? There’s nothing else to do?

It’s clear that Holyfield is being singled out. Why? It’s simple: People love the guy. And they should. The way to show that is to honor his sense of pride and to let him be a man. They don’t want him to end up like all those other champions who had retirement beaten into them and suffered later because of it. But Holyfield is a man before he is fighter and he’ll be a man after he’s done too. The way to honor him is to treat him like one.

Life is full of painful consequences, which, given the choice, we’d rather not face. But taking away a man’s freedom to make choices about how he lives his life because we find the potential consequences distasteful is selfish and unfair. For all he’s given us, Holyfield deserves better.

Bill Dettloff’s book, Box Like The Pros, written with former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, will be published by HarperCollins in November. Bill can be contacted at dettloff@ptd.net

No one has the right to keep Evander Holyfield from boxing.