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Time for Holyfield to quit?
LAS VEGAS -- When Evander Holyfield sits in the home theatre of his Atlanta mansion and watches the tape of his fight against Lennox Lewis, he finds himself overcome by one basic emotion.
Embarrassment.
"I see all these things I did wrong,'' Holyfield said. "I didn't move my head. I was flat-footed. I was predictable.
"It wasn't what I learned about Lennox Lewis when I watch the tape -- it's what I learned about myself. It wasn't him, it was me. I didn't fight a good fight and I still got a draw. I felt embarrassed by it."
Holyfield was given a gift by incompetent judging and another chance to call himself heavyweight champion of the world. To most, Holyfield was soundly defeated in that first fight with Lewis on March 13 at Madison Square Garden. It wasn't so much what Lewis did but what Holyfield didn't do.
But Holyfield sees the world differently than most and he believes even now, at age 37, he is still capable of one more night of greatness.
When he speaks of tomorrow's fight at the Thomas and Mack Center, his eyes light up and there is passion in his voice and you want to believe in him.
The way the judges wanted to believe in him the first time around.
Eight months ago, Evander Holyfield was religiously steadfast in his belief he would knock Lewis out in the third round. He repeated it so often it became his pre-fight mantra.
"I said it out of anger," said Holyfield. "The guy showed himself to be a lot better than what I expected. In the third round, I thought I was going to take him out. After that, I didn't have anything left but I kept on going. I didn't want to be a quitter.''
That night he almost quit before he began. In the dressing room, his stomach was cramping. In the ring, his legs were betraying him. On the outside, the body may have looked chiselled but on the inside he was hurting.
That is the story from the Holyfield camp, a story Lennox Lewis has no time for.
"I think he has lost a lot of respect because of how he has talked about that fight,'' said Lewis. "He always has an excuse when he loses. He said it was a draw. Everyone knows it was a bad decision. I think it is time for him to retire and I am going to make him retire after this fight."
There is, beneath the usual pre-fight boxing blather, a truth. The truth is that it may be time for Holyfield to walk away. The truth may be that this remarkable champion, one of the truly storied figures of a troubled sport, has all the will to beat Lewis but none of the arsenal.
And yet there is too much history to completely dismiss Holyfield -- too many times he has won when he was supposed to lose.
He lost to Riddick Bowe but came back and beat him in the rematch. He lost to Michael Moorer and came back to beat him in their rematch.
Now it is the rematch with Lewis.
"The ones who stands out most to me are those who take chances," said Holyfield, taking a swipe at Lewis. "Once you have been tested, you know how you are going to respond. My whole career has been about proving people wrong. I made the Olympic team when I wasn't supposed to and I won the cruiserweight title and people said 'What's a cruiserweight?' I moved up to heavyweight and people said `You're too small.' And when I won the heavyweight title for the first time they said, `You didn't beat Mike Tyson, you beat some fat guy (Buster Douglas).'
"No matter what I did, I didn't get the credibility I wanted. People stuck it in my face all my life and then I beat Tyson twice and that changed everything. Against Tyson, people questioned my integrity and my faith.
"And I pulled that one off, too."
And now the final test in a career of so many. Evander Holyfield won't allow himself to talk about next week or next year. Tomorrow night's fight is all too consuming.
"Everything I ever wanted to accomplish I was able to accomplish," said Holyfield, in words that sound like a pre-retirement speech. "This definitely may be one of my greatest fights."
Definitely. Maybe.
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