Welcome fight fans to our live coverage of the heavyweight clash between living legend Evander Holyfied and Sherman Williams.
Despite being 48years old and two years removed from his last great performance in a disputed defeat to then WBA Champion Nikolai Valeuv the surefire Hall of Famer continues to fight on and on. That performance shocked many with Holyfield showing some of his old form to not only frustrate but in the eyes of all but the judges at ringside outpoint the giant Russian. Holyfield clings to that night as proof that he can achieve his dream of regaining the heavyweight title that he has not worn in over a decade.
Given the quality of his ‘WBF Title’ winning performance against fellow aging legend Francois Botha last year many of unreasonably laugh at such a dream as nothing but a delusion while others don’t find the idea of a man rapidly nearing fifty being punched in the head so funny. But boxing is full of stories of men being too old to continue and somehow overcoming the odds, indeed one of the most famous happened thirty-eight years ago today when Muhammad Ali defeated George Foreman in The Rumble In The Jungle. George Foreman himself would have a miracle comeback in the 1980s and 1990s, performing creditably in several losing world title tilts before securing the Lineal, WBA and IBF titles by defeating Michael Moorer. In doing so he became the oldest man to ever win a major boxing world championship and in the last major boxing match of 2010 we saw Bernard Hopkins come desperately close to breaking that record in a spellbinding performance that saw him outclass if not quite outpoint WBC, IBO and Ring Light Heavyweight Champion Jean Pascal.
It seems absurd to compare such historic moments to Holyfield’s desperate attempt to convince a major sanctioning body to give him yet another chance to fight for a world title but you can be sure that The Real Deal draws real inspiration from them. With rumors that if he gets by Williams tonight and Brian Nielsen in March he may earn a shot at WBC Champion Vitali Klitschko and WBA Champion David Haye increasingly running out of even remotely marketable challengers then the stakes may be surprisingly high.
9:55pm: The atmosphere for this event is decidedly odd with the card actually being held at some hotel in West Virgina as a black tie event, complete with entertainment interludes. Very strange. In the first undercard match, Willie Fortune defeats Donatas Bondoravas in an energetic eight round middleweight scrap on scores of 77-75, 75-77 and 77-75. Was a fun little fight truth be told.
10:00pm: Oh David Haye just got burned by the commentators. In the middle of hyping Monte Barrett they talked about all the great fighters he had met in the ring including the likes of David Tua, Wladimir Klitschko, Olandier Solis…but no mention of the world famous, internationally renowned WBA Champion. Its like nobody outside the UK has the slightest clue who the guy is.
10:15pm: Monte Barrett is looking awful against a man in Charles Davis that has an undistinguished, losing record. The second and third rounds were clearly for Davis and Barrett just looks apathetic and lethargic. He’s fighting in far too passive a manner and is clearly struggling to work out the southpaw.
10:40pm: Hilariously the scores are 77-75 to Charles Davis, 76-76 and 76-76 and so the result is a majority draw. That’s Barrett’s second draw in as many fights, having drawn against David Tua in his last outing. A terrible fight that saw Davis frustrate a passive Barrett for long stretches both due to Barrett not being able to work out the southpaw and Davis’ frequent holding. Barrett just looked like he didn’t want to be there and quite frankly after eight rounds of turgid action I didn’t want him to be there either.
10:45pm: As we have another entertainment interlude (sadly some guy doing a poor Ray Charles impersonation rather than the dancing girls) let’s remember that just over two years ago David Haye announced himself onto the heavyweight scene by defeating Barrett in five rounds. Even today that is still his third best victory at heavyweight and is something he actually includes it in his boasts. And people wonder why I say he’s gone off the deep end.
10:50pm: Burn for David Haye Number Two – explaining away Kevin Johnson’s one-sided loss to Vitali Klitschko the commentators explain “that we all know in heavyweight boxing there’s the Klitschko brothers and everyone else”. Hey they’ve got a point.
10:55pm: After conducting an interview with Larry Holmes in the previous fight we now get Lennox Lewis whose still explaining away why Vitali Klitschko kicked his ass before losing on a cuts stoppage. I mean I love Lewis but no revisionism can hide the fact that he was lucky to escape with the title that night and afterwards wanted no part of Klitschko in a rematch.
11:30pm: Kevin Johnson comfortably outpoints Julius Long with all three judges scoring it 79-71. The key was the final round when Johnson dropped Long twice and so secured a 10-7 round. Other than that Johnson didn’t look great against a poor opponent but you can’t expect much from somebody who gets called up on three days notice. Poor fight until the final round. And that’s our third decision in a row…as a poor Brit who is still up at 4:30am local time I’m begging somebody to get a quick finish in the main event.
11:35pm: Please stop the boring lounge live entertainment interludes. If you must show me something other than boxing, go back to girls dancing to “War! What’s It Good For”.
11:45pm: Our main event is about to start…
Evander Holyfield vs. Sherman Williams
Round One
Williams is quite a bit shorter than Holyfield. Holyfield is bouncing around trying to work and opening at less than a minute in we get our first clinch. They disengage and Holyfield tries to come in again but gets tied up. Holyfield popping the punch out and pressing the action. Twice Williams hits on the break and is already complaining about Holyfield using the head. Williams swings for the overhand right but misses. 10-9 Holyfield.
Round Two
Holyfield trying to work the jab, which is unusual for him. Williams lunges forward with some wild shots that miss. Holyfield responds withs ome tight and tidy jabs. They get tangled up again. Williams gets a few punches into the body. Williams lands some lefts straight down the pipe. Holyfield opens Williams up with some jabs and then tries to follow up with a combination but just misses. Williams throws some big single shots, connecting with a left hook but missing with the right hook. Holyfield puts together a combination but Williams lands some good body shots in up against the ropes. Williams round, 19-19.
Round Three
Start of the round is delayed due to issues in Holyfield’s corner. Holyfield trying to pressure Williams, pushing him back into the corner with some one-two combinations. Holyfield is cut underneath his eye. Williams again misses with his big overhand right. They grapple/exchange on the inside and Williams finally lands his overhand right cleanly. Holyfield looks like he didn’t like that. Williams lands another big overhand right. Williams follows up with an up-down combo and his legs visibly weaken. Williams lands another right hand and follows up with more body shots. Bad, bad round for Holyfield who looked very uncomfortable. 29-28 to Williams
The minute Holyfield gets to the corner he complains that he cannot see out of his right eye due to a cut, that the blood is getting into his eye. This is to put it slightly questionable given that there seems to be very little blood coming out of the cut. The corner is trying to convince Holyfield to continue but the fight is over due to cuts stoppage. There is then a debate about whether the cut was caused by a punch or a clash of heads, and it was eventually shown that it was a clash of heads at the end of the second round. As the fight hadn’t gone the required four rounds the fight is ruled a no-contest. Holyfield seems disinterested in the post-match antics while Williams is strongly claiming that the cut was due to a punch. I would say its a disappointing end but this fight was always going to be what it is and nothing more. I am amazed that they had the brass neck to charge Americans thirty dollars to buy this on pay per view.
Evander Holyfield vs. Sherman Williams ruled a no-contest
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