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! ===Undisputed heavyweight champion=== {{Main|Buster Douglas vs. Evander Holyfield|Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman|Evander Holyfield vs. Bert Cooper|Evander Holyfield vs. Larry Holmes}} Holyfield had been promised a title shot against Tyson in 1990. Before that fight could occur, in what many consider to be the biggest upset in boxing history, relatively unknown boxer, 29-year-old, 231 lb. [[Buster Douglas]] defeated the 23-year-old, 218 lb. [[Mike Tyson]] in [[Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas|10 rounds in Tokyo]] to become the new undisputed heavyweight champion. Instead of fighting Tyson, Holyfield was Douglas's first title defense. They met on October 25, 1990. Douglas came into the fight at 246 lb. and offered little in the fight against Holyfield, who was in ideal shape at 208 lb. In the third round Douglas tried to start a combination with a big right uppercut. Holyfield countered with a straight right hand and Douglas went down for the count. Holyfield was the new undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion of the World. At the time of the knockout, Holyfield was ahead on all three judges' scorecards, all seeing it 20β18 for Holyfield. In his first defense, he beat former and future world champion [[George Foreman]] by unanimous decision. The fight was billed as a "Battle for the Ages", a reference to the age difference between the young undefeated champion (28 years old) and the much older George Foreman (42 years old). Holyfield weighed in at 208 pounds and Foreman weighed in at 257 pounds. Foreman lost the fight by a unanimous decision, but surprised many by lasting the whole 12 rounds against a much younger opponent, even staggering Holyfield a few times and knocking him off balance in the seventh round. Then a deal was signed for him to defend his crown against [[Mike Tyson]] in November 1991. Tyson delayed the fight, claiming he was injured in training, but was then convicted for the rape of [[Desiree Washington]] and sentenced to six years in prison, so the fight did not happen at that time. They fought in 1996 (Holyfield won by a TKO in 11) and a rematch in 1997 (Holyfield won by disqualification in three, after Tyson bit both of his ears). Holyfield made his next defense in Atlanta against late replacement in [[Bert Cooper]] over [[Francesco Damiani]] who suffered a foot injury in training days before the fight, Cooper surprised Holyfield with a very good effort. Holyfield scored the first knockdown of the fight against Cooper with a powerful shot to the body, but Cooper returned the favor with a good right hand that sent Holyfield against the ropes; while not an actual knockdown, referee Mills Lane gave Holyfield a standing eight-count. Having suffered the first technical knockdown of his professional career, Holyfield regained his composure quickly and administered a beating that left Cooper still on his feet, but unable to defend himself. Holyfield landed brutal power shots, culminated by repeated vicious uppercuts that snapped Cooper's head back. Referee Mills Lane stopped the bout in the seventh. In his first fight of 1992, he faced 42 year old former world heavyweight champion [[Larry Holmes]], and had just pulled off an upset against [[Ray Mercer]]. During the bout, Holyfield suffered the first scar of his career with a gash opening up over his eye, the result of Holmes' elbow. The fight ended with a unanimous decision in favor of Holyfield. 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