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Evander Holyfield challenged for Nikolai Valuev's heavyweight title on Saturday in Zurich Switzerland. We have not recapped any matches by either boxer. However, here is an article we did a while ago when Holyfield did an angle for WWE:

WWE Saturday Night's Main Event Boxing and It's Implications

Recorded August 13, 2007

Madison Square Garden-New York City, New York

On the NBC WWE special onAugust 18, 2007,Matt Hardy (0-0, 0 KO's, 227 pounds) faced Evander Holyfield (42-8-2, 27 KO's, 218 pounds) in a semi-shoot boxing match. Matt Hardy according to his MySpace page had no boxing training going into the scheduledbeating. This match was a potentially disastrous idea for WWE.

Heavyweight Match 2 Minute Rounds (scheduled for however longWWE wants it to last):

Evander Holyfield (42-8-2, 27 KO's, 218 pounds) vs. Matt Hardy (0-0, 0 KO's, 227 pounds)

Holyfield has won his last 4 matches going into this scheduled assault. Prior to his winning streak, Holyfield lost a 12 round unanimous decision to Larry Donald at MSG, on November 13, 2004. After the match, the state of New York stripped Holyfield of his boxing license, citing the boxer's "diminishing skills". (After contacting the New York State Athletic Commission, I was informed that underNew York's2002 Professional Wrestler Safety Act, the only person required to be licensed at a professional wrestling event in New York is the promoter. Therefore, Holyfield was not required to be licensed for this match.) That loss was the third in a row for the 4-time-heavyweight champion and part of a frightening trend that saw Holyfield win only 2 of his last 9 matches over the course of 5 years.

Commission shopping allowed Holyfield to apply for a boxing license in a state with a lax commission while avoiding having to re-apply for hisboxing license back in New York. Holyfield returned to the ring to compete in Texas (which thequestionablenessof their commission has been written on before)on August 18, 2006. Holyfield has won his last 4 matches since reinstatement against soft opposition. Ranked the number 53 heavyweight in the world by boxrec.com, he will challenge Sultan Ibragimov for the WBO Heavyweight Championship in Moscow, Russiaon October 13, 2007. Holyfield is a last minute replacement for Ruslan Chagaev, who was announced to have withdrawn due to an undisclosed stomach ailment (reports have it that the real reason Chagaevpulled out is becausehe has contracted Hepatitis B). Holyfield will turn 45-years-old, 6 days after the match with Ibragimov. During the introduction, Michael Buffer announced the match as taking place on pay-per-view. (Thatis still not official, but Holyfield's people have nixed the dealto putthe matchon ESPN Classic and ESPN360.)

The rules of this contest are made up, but officially New York uses the unified rules of boxing. There are no judges and the name of the referee was not announced.

Hardy was knocked down 3 times in round 1. The times were 1:44, 1:03, andwith 25 seconds to go in round 1. After the third knockdown, Hardy was only able to get back to his corner by holding on the ropes andreceiving help from the corner men WWE had hired. Hardyappeared tonot properly see his stool to sit down immediately between rounds. 1:08 of the first round was spent applying a count to Hardy. Hardy landed 2 punches in the opening round and was definitely in no shape to continue after 57 seconds, because of the legitimate punching damage he had sustained. Ahumane referee would have been required to stop it then. Holyfield was pulling his punches, butenoughgood punches were landing to damage Hardy.

Round 2 consisted of Matt Hardy being helped to stand, and Holyfield refusing to hit the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion, anymore. An angry MVP came into the ring demanding Holyfield finish Hardy, Mortal Kombat style. Holyfield went to walk away out of the ring, and then turned around to hit MVP with a cupping right hook. Matt Hardy's MySpace page contends the punch legitimately knocked MVP unconscious. (However, such an event should have required an incident report be filed with the New York State Athletic Commission and none was filed for the event.) The result of this match was never announced, and under boxing rules the best guess I could make is that it was a No Contest. The referee called for the bell at 1:17 of round 2, when Holyfield knocked out MVP in the ring.

Despitethe fact no injuries appear to have resulted from this match it was a reckless endangerment of 2 WWE superstars. Asking 2 wrestlers to be punched by a 4-time-heavyweight champion with no experience throwing a worked punch is inherently unsafe. The rules of the match were set up with a complete lack of understanding of what happens in a boxing ring. The match featured 16-ounce gloves, and the problems about larger gloves have been written enough on this website to skip. Matt Hardy got to wear boxing headgear, unfortunately it provides the same problems as larger gloves. The headgear is most effective at preventing cuts and superficial bruising. It does not stop the brain from being bounced around inside the skull when hit with a punch. It will keep a wrestler standingin the ringto get hit and potentially injured, if Holyfield does not take enough steam off of his punches. It is contradictory to the wellness policy WWE is going to defend to congress shortly to havewrestlers getting punched by untrained 4-time-heavyweight champion boxers, no matter how controlled the environment is supposed to be.

Furthermore, in a time of heightened media scrutiny and congressional investigations, Holyfield is the worst boxer for WWE to choosefor this angle. No competitive athlete short of Jose Canseco has as long atrack record of prolonged abuse of performance enhancing drugs as Holyfield. The first public signs were on April 22, 1994, whenHolyfield lost the heavyweight championship to Michael Moore and dislocated his shoulder during the match. In the hospital after the match, Holyfield was diagnosed with a heart condition. The condition is associated with chronic abuse of human growth hormone (HGH). However, there is no test for HGH, and therefore no proof he was taking the drugs. After a $265,000 check to Preacher Benny Hinn, Holyfield had found Christ, was healed and ready to return to boxing. Holyfield returned healthy andmiraculously in great shape towin the heavyweight championship twice more.

A February 2007 Sports Illustrated article that linked Holyfield to steroids is what should have kept him far away from this show, though. The article reported that Holyfield was a client of the same mail order pharmacy that supplied steroids and HGH to: Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, Shane Helms, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Jr., the late Eddie Guerrero, the late Chris Benoit, and the late Brian Adams, among ahost of other wrestlers. According to reports in SI.com Holyfield was ordering from the pharmacy: testosterone, Glukor, saizen (a brand of HGH), and injection supplies. Actually, "Evan Fields" who was born on the same day as Holyfield and lived at a similar address to Holyfield, ordered the supplies. Reportedly, Holyfield would then pick them up the supplies after Fields' products were delivered to Holyfield's urologist. The evidence that tied Holyfield to Fields was when reporters from Sports Illustrated called the number Fields have given the pharmacy on the order form and Holyfieldanswered the telephone. There is no direct proof that Holyfield took Fields' prescriptions, but one month after delivery of his Fields' newest batch of goods from the pharmacy, Holyfield went to see his urologist about hypogonadism.That is an impairment of the performance of the "wedding tackle" frequently caused by chronicsteroid abuse. It would be strangecondition for a man to suffer from that already has 2 children from1 marriage and at least 9 from women he was cheating on his wife with during that marriage, as of 1999. (Goes well with WWE's theme of revealing illegitimate children for the night.) Boxing only tests right before matches and Holyfield has yet to fail one of those. (Issues with masking agents and cycling being able to beat steroid tests are documented though, and again, there is no test for HGH.) Holyfield is employing the McMahon defense to the most recent charges, that the media is making everything up to sell papers. He (Holyfield) announced that his people were launching aninvestigation into the accusations against him. Thatinvestigationhas yet tofind, the real Evan Fields.

WWE cannot get itself involved with more known steroid users. Sports broadcaster Jim Rome, among others, will have a field day (pun somewhat intended) for months, because"Fields" has delayed training for his championship match to visit with his fellow pharmacy patients at a company under investigation for drug abuse. Holyfield worked in the WWE appearance around catching a flight to Panama where he was due the morning after the match was taped to promote "WBA-KO drugs" (the hypocrisy is almost too painful to laugh).

This will lead to a greatclip where viewers will get to see the vignette from ECW on August 21, 2007 where McMahon tells CM Punk (who would be a good guy to put as the face of the company with drug problems abounding) that he cannot be a son of Vince McMahon, becausePunk isalcohol free,tobacco free, and drug free. In fact,Punk could not be a son of anyoneMcMahon knows. Think about that scene for a second, that is more then WWE did. The pure stupidity and arrogance to have the head of a billion dollar corporation under congressional investigation joke in a taped segment on worldwide television that everyone young man he knows is does drugs, requires such a complete disassociation from the reality surrounding WWE and wrestling in general that it is hardly believable.

Congress is going to bring up when WWE comes before them that the company has employed at least wrestlers who were clients of the same pharmacy as Holyfieldand have all died prematurely (Guerrero, Benoit, Adams). Two more (Orton, Helms)of the known pharmacy patients have been suspended for steroids, but remain on the WWE roster, and an additional client (Angle)was fired for drugs by WWE, then hired by TNA and made their champion. The other 2 prominent names on the list (Edge) was made champion since the list was published. Mysterio has been on the cover of a company magazine, and had a huge return angle built around him for SummerSlam, even after his name came out in the pharmacy investigation and he was named on the Dr. Phil Astin indictment. It is going to get even harder to explain to Congress, if the Raw champion is one of the guys who has tested dirty and been linked to the pharmacy. How will it look when Congress starts putting together the pieces of one pharmacy selling steroids and HGH to8 WWE employees and 7 were world champions during that stretch. Bringing in Holyfield only highlights this.

Finally this match did not accomplish a positive thing for anyone. Holyfield and a few other people picked up bonus checks. The next Holyfield match will still do sub-TNA numbers at sub-TNA prices on PPV on channel 103 (channels 101 and 102 run porn at that time). Boxing fans will not buy it, because they know better, and Holyfield's draw to the casual paying audience has evaporated.WWE did a good number for a SNME, but they will not see an increase in revenue from the number. Raw was already off 0.1 from the previous week by Monday to dispel the notion of bringing back fans. SummerSlam will not sell an extra buy based on MVP or Hardy getting hit. The US Title still means nothing. The Hardy/MVP feud is still midcard filler material. This was an entirely pointless endeavor, and it's negative effects could be felt for years.

Sincerely,

Jereme Warneck, boxing correspondent for wrestlingobserver.com
Hidden Valley Lake, CA


I can be reached for feedback and comments at ZurRoadie@aol.com or as JeremeW on XBOX Live. I read everything.