It took four-time heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield less than six minutes to stop Jeremy Bates (21-12-2) for his first win in over four years. Holyfield, 43, threw combinations and looked sharp after a 21-month layoff. Bates was game and landed one decent right hand in the second round but was completely outclassed from the opening bell. Bates was never knocked down but the referee almost stopped the fight at the end of the first round and finally called a halt to the one-sided action at 2:56 of the second with Bates trapped on the ropes and not firing back.
After the fight, Holyfield said he'd like to fight a top ten heavyweight later this year and then contend for a title in 2007. Next up might be a November date with Sinan Samil Sam of Turkey -- a much more difficult opponent than Bates and ranked number five by the WBC (though not legitimately a top ten heavyweight). Hey, George Foreman won a title at 45 so you never know . . .
Comments
It,s sad to see Evander back in the ring,i havn,t seen the fight but if he looked sharp who knows what he could pull off the division is so weak at the moment.
It,s sad that he won,t stop until he is like Ali.
Holyfield has the “greatest will” that I’ve ever witnessed in boxing. Even with slowed reflexes, this man is still capable of great things, especially if he finds himself with a challenge that evokes that will.
Steve, I agree. It’s time for him to stop, but whats with Ali? If you are referring to Ali’s Parkinson’s disease, Iam not so sure there are any scientific evidence for connection between the P-disease and boxing?
1. Farid mentions ALI and writes that he’s not sure about a connection to Boxing and Ali’s Parkinson’s. ANYONE IN THE WORLD CAN TELL YOU ALI WAS SLURRING HIS WORDS BEFORE HE EVEN RETIRED FROM THE RING!!!!!!! He clearly fought too long and is a victim of puglistic demntia and some form of Parkinson’s.
I”M VERY surprised that Andrew condones what Evander is doing. It is sad, pathetic, dangerous, and stupid regardless of the weakness of the heavyweight division. THANKS jason
Jason, thank you for your comment! If you consider all other prof.-boxers that after a long career do not show any health damages, would you then say:
Boxing is a very healthy sport as anyone in the world can tell you most of boxers DO NOT show any health defects before and after they retired from the ring!” ??
What Iam saying is not that prof.boxing (as many of other elite sports) are harmless, BUT is there really a connection between Ali’s Parkinson and boxing or is that, as usual, our normal human action to generalise something dangerous out of few negative things we have heard/seen? If you or anyone else have any statistics or scientific papers on these matter, please do inform me. We, you and us other boxing lovers, know one Ali and maybe few other slurring boxers. But how many other nonslurring boxers do we know? Does that make boxing a healthy sport?
Sadly, in Sweden pro.-boxing is illegal. I wish it was because of something else than similar ignorance as above. However, again, I agree that Holyfield should retire, even though I understand his passion for this sport.
Greetings, Farid
As far as ali goes regardless of his parkinsons all the blows he took through his fights in the 70,s can,t have helped the state he finds himself in he stayed way to long and he fought until he was i think 39-40yrs.
Evander should be banned from the sport to protect him from himself,he is a disaster waiting to happen and it brakes my heart because i have been watching him for 17 years and is my favourite fighter.
LET THEM MAKE THE DECISION WETHER OR NOT THEY SHOULD “GET READY TO RUMBLE”