Evander Holyfield Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Holyfield vs. Botha=== After the loss to Valuev, Holyfield took a period of inactivity. He reportedly agreed to fight [[Sport in South Africa#Boxing|South African]] boxer [[Francois Botha]] on January 16, 2010; it was agreed that the venue for the fight would be the [[National Stadium (Uganda)|Nelson Mandela Memorial Stadium]] in [[Kampala]], Uganda. A few weeks before the fight, it was revealed that the bout would be postponed to February 20, 2010.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8436344.stm | work=BBC News | title=Holyfield-Botha fight is delayed | date=January 4, 2010 | access-date=May 2, 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4686941&name=rafael_dan Thanksgiving offers no rest for busy boxing folks β ESPN]. Sports.espn.go.com. Retrieved on October 3, 2011.</ref> The match was put in jeopardy due to economic disagreements but was later confirmed to be on April 10, 2010, at the [[Thomas & Mack Center]] in [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]].<ref>{{cite web | author =Lotierzo, Frank | title =Evander Holyfield Is Making It Hard To Remember How Special He Once Was | publisher =TheSweetScience.com | date =April 10, 2010 | url =http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/7911/evander-holyfield-making-hard-remember-how-special-once-was/ | url-status =dead | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100413024748/http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/7911/evander-holyfield-making-hard-remember-how-special-once-was/ | archive-date =April 13, 2010 }}</ref> When asked about his upcoming bout, the four-time world heavyweight champion said: "I've been hearing for a while that I can't do it. All it does is light a fire under me to prove people wrong." He added: "I can still fight. I don't want to leave until I've become the undisputed heavyweight champion one more time. That's been my goal the entire time."<ref>{{cite web | author =Carp, Steve | title =Holyfield fights Botha, doubters in ring tonight | website =Las Vegas Review-Journal | date =April 10, 2010 | url =http://www.lvrj.com/sports/holyfield-fights-botha--doubters-in-ring-tonight-90463884.html}}</ref> The American boxer scored an eighth-round knockout of Botha to win the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) Heavyweight title.<ref>{{cite web | author =Avila, David | title =Evander Holyfield Stops Botha In 8th | publisher =TheSweetScience.com | date =April 11, 2010 | url =http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/7916/evander-holyfield-stops-botha-8th/ | url-status =dead | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100413055003/http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/7916/evander-holyfield-stops-botha-8th/ | archive-date =April 13, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title =Evander Holyfield beats Frans Botha to take WBF title in Las Vegas | work =Guardian.co.uk | date =April 11, 2010 | url =https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/apr/11/evander-holyfield-frans-botha | location=London | access-date=May 2, 2010}}</ref> Holyfield started slowly as usual in the early going. Botha held and hit Holyfield, and took the control of the fight for the first three rounds. However, the South African could not slow down Holyfield, though he did hurt him, and the American boxer slowly began to punch him more to take control of the bout in the later rounds. In the seventh round Holyfield stunned Botha and knocked him down in the eighth round. Though he beat the count, Holyfield cornered him and landed many punches that forced the referee Russell Mora to stop the bout. At the time of the stoppage, Holyfield was behind on two judges' cards, 67β66, while the third judge had it 69β64 for the American boxer. Only 3,127 attended the fight.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/mma/boxing/04/11/holyfield.botha.ap/index.html |work=CNN |title=Holyfield, 47, KOs Botha in 8th to capture WBF heavyweight title |date=April 11, 2010 |access-date=May 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414175047/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/mma/boxing/04/11/holyfield.botha.ap/index.html |archive-date=April 14, 2010 }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page