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! ===Cruiserweight=== {{Main|Dwight Muhammad Qawi vs. Evander Holyfield|Evander Holyfield vs. Henry Tillman|Evander Holyfield vs. Rickey Parkey|Evander Holyfield vs. Ossie Ocasio|Evander Holyfield vs. Dwight Muhammad Qawi II|Evander Holyfield vs. Carlos De León}} Both he and his next opponent, [[Tyrone Booze]], moved up to the [[Cruiserweight (boxing)|cruiserweight]] division for their fight on July 20, 1985, in [[Norfolk, Virginia]]. Holyfield won an eight-round decision over Booze. He then went on to knock out Rick Myers in the first round on August 29 in his hometown of [[Atlanta]]. On October 30 in [[Atlantic City]] Holyfield knocked out opponent Jeff Meachem in five rounds, and his last fight for 1985 was against Anthony Davis on December 21 in [[Virginia Beach, Virginia]]. He won by knocking out Davis in the fourth round. He began 1986 with a [[knockout]] in three rounds over former world cruiserweight challenger Chisanda Mutti, and proceeded to beat Jessy Shelby and Terry Mims before being given a world title try by the [[World Boxing Association|WBA]] Cruiserweight Champion [[Dwight Muhammad Qawi]]. In what was called by [[The Ring (magazine)|The Ring]] as ''the best cruiserweight bout of the 1980s'', Holyfield became world champion by defeating Qawi by a narrow 15 round split decision. He culminated 1986 with a trip to [[Paris, France]], where he beat Mike Brothers by a knockout in three, in a non-title bout. In 1987, he defended his title against former Olympic teammate and Gold medal winner [[Henry Tillman]], who had beaten [[Mike Tyson]] twice as an amateur. He retained his belt, winning by seventh-round knockout, and then went on to unify his WBA belt with the [[International Boxing Federation|IBF]] belt held by [[Ricky Parkey]], knocking Parkey out in three rounds. For his next bout, he returned to France, where he retained the title with an eleven-round knockout against former world champion [[Ossie Ocasio]]. In his last fight of 1987, he offered Muhammad Qawi a rematch and, this time, he beat Qawi by a knockout in only four rounds. 1988 was another productive year for Holyfield; he started by becoming the first universally recognized World Cruiserweight Champion after defeating the [[Lineal championship|Lineal]] & [[World Boxing Council|WBC]] Champion [[Carlos De León]] at [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/cruiser.htm|title=Evander Holyfield - Lineal Cruiserweight Champion|publisher=The Cyber Boxing Zone Encyclopedia}}</ref> The fight was stopped after eight rounds.<ref>{{cite news | title = Evander Holyfield, king of the cruiserweights, bravely – 04.18.88 – SI Vault | access-date = April 27, 2009 | url = http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1067221/index.htm | work = CNN | date = April 18, 1988 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130102113354/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1067221/index.htm | archive-date = January 2, 2013 }}</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