As if pulling a blanket over his head to hide from a world of troubles, Evander Holyfield will finally retire on his 50th birthday this Friday.
One of the ring’s most heroic warriors has been defeated not by one of his catalogue of formidable opponents but by the wounds of self-inflicted poverty.
A man who battled his way out of the ghetto to a $350million fortune will wake up this morning in a grim apartment in down-town Atlanta. From The Real Deal to Meals On Wheels.
This is the deepest cut of all those sustained by so many fighting men who have squandered fortunes. Even Mike Tyson only blew $250m. Worse, Holyfield seems more afflicted than most by the punishment inflicted by sledge-hammer blows to the head.
Yet even though his speech became increasingly slurred as he fought on, he had still been hoping for one last big payday to keep the wolf from the door.
Holyfield has been waiting for a call which will not come. His potentially suicidal campaign to fight Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko has fallen on ears that are more kind than unreceptive.
Holyfield says: ‘I believe I can beat either of them but I don’t have time to fight my way back up the rankings and become the No 1 contender. There’s no point badgering them any longer. If I don’t get the call on Friday, I quit.’
The phone will not ring.
Bernd Bonte, manager of the Klitschkos, says: ‘Neither of the brothers will fight Evander. Both of them would destroy him, and they respect him far too much to do that. He is one of their idols and that means more than any money the fight might make.’
The esteem in which Holyfield is held by the Klitschkos is hall-marked by the horde of memorabilia which he must surrender to auction next month.
As the only four-time winner of the world heavyweight title, Holyfield surpasses even Muhammad Ali. That collection of WBC, WBA, IBF and Ring belts are to go under the hammer in Los Angeles, along with the gloves, shorts and robes worn in his major fights.
Those treasures drip with the sweat of his epic trilogy with Riddick Bowe, the two controversial battles with Lennox Lewis and — along with his blood from that infamous biting of his ear — the sensational victories over Tyson.Yet, although there is no telling how long his memory of the glory nights will remain sharp, the item from which he will part most reluctantly is the classic red Chevrolet manufactured in 1962, the year of his birth. Yet even if the sale raises its projected $5m, that will cover only half his bankruptcy.
How could it have come to this? As the money poured in, so Holyfield took to gambling much of it away. As all the pretty women flocked around, so he fathered 11 children with five of them, as well as marrying and expensively divorcing three times.
He also flaunted his riches by buying Atlanta’s answer to Buckingham Palace. The most frequently mentioned statistics of that estate are the 109 rooms and 17 bathrooms. When I visited him there he took most pride from having not one but two marble staircases. There were also houses in the grounds for his ex-wives and some of his children.
This was a monument to extravagance that was beyond his means to sustain. His residence now is a small apartment in one of the less salubrious parts of his home city. The stately home was repossessed when he fell $14m behind on the mortgage repayments.
Now one of his daughters has won an order for immediate payment of $500,000 in maintenance arrears. Since he has no prospect of paying that, he faces being held in contempt of court shortly.
What they cannot take from him is a phenomenal career. A Golden Gloves amateur title and Olympic bronze were followed by a reign as undisputed cruiserweight champion. After winning the heavyweight crown by defeating James Buster Douglas, who had shocked Tyson, he went on to fight all the best big men. He would been a five-time champion had he not been robbed of a decision by Nikolai Valuev in February 2010, at the age of 47. He has the satisfaction of bowing out a winner, having defeated Danish veteran Brian Nielsen in his last fight.
Win or lose, the way Holyfield always went to war in the ring was thrilling and unforgettable.
Some may withhold sympathy, given the former scale of his wealth. Yet while his excesses were a folly, the sadness is profound.
Tyson is offering advice to the man whose generosity has extended to forgiving Iron Mike for chewing off his ear.
Famously a born-again Christian, Holyfield says: ‘I still have hope.’
He also needs help. Hopefully, from all the people whose lives he has enriched with his courage, it will be forthcoming. – Daily Mail