Legendary Hall of Fame fighter Evander Holyfield is the former two-division undisputed World champion in the cruiserweight and heavyweight division and stands as the only four-time World Heavyweight Champion. He also is very forthright about his exhilaration for Saturday’s super-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. In an interview with The Players’ Tribune, the fighter billed as ‘The Real Deal’ went as far to say that the impending fight is the “biggest fight in history.”
Although Mayweather-Pacquiao will undoubtedly be the biggest and most lucrative fight in the sport’s history, Holyfield adds that the sport has much work to do – he sees American boxing dying a slow and painful death at its current rate – as we see fewer and fewer American boxers rising through the ranks.
Speaking with For The Win’s Nate Scott, Holyfield, who received a bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics fighting at light-heavyweight, spoke candidly about his concerns for American youth boxing.
“We’ve had American boxers go out and lose to boxers from India,” he stated. “Can you imagine that happening thirty years ago?”
Holyfield blamed the shortfalls on the inadequacy of televised fights and poor structure in youth development as the main reasons why youth boxing is falling behind in the United States. Meanwhile, he praised Howard Cosell for being one of the reasons why boxing became mainstream in America, adding that the current structure lacks the leadership Cosell possessed to make progress.
“You always need leadership. Howard Cosell would put the fights on during Saturday afternoons and kids around the country, even the poor kids, they’d see the fight. They wanted to be fighters,” Holyfield said. “Cosell was able to predict who the next champion was going to be, so you’d see the best. We need to get some people who are willing to think of more than themselves. They need to say, ‘I’m willing to help these kids.’”
At the end of 2014, the only live boxing on cable television was broadcast on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights or Golden Boy Promotions events on Fox Sports 1. Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions Series is attempting to do just that. Although the series is not even two months old, it has had a solid impact thus far. In it’s first two events, PBC averaged 3.15 million viewers, which is more than most PPV events. Although the numbers have slipped over the last couple of cards, it hasn’t been substantial. In addition, the caliber of fighters are not the same on every card, so that could play a factor in how the tv ratings swing one way or another.
Holyfield sees boxing as an authentic way to get out of poverty. Growing up in the ghetto himself, he knows how tough the battle can be, which has fueled his calls for someone with leadership capabilities to step up and help these kids who desperately want to make ends meet. The situation with the riots in Baltimore has engendered the retired fighter more than ever.
“That’s how it is, even in Atlanta, where I’m from,” he said. “They don’t have so many great amateur kids, but the few they do, once they get to 17 or 18 years old, they got people saying ‘Come on, man. Let’s get out of the gym.’ And now these kids could have been millionaires, they end up in jail, fighting for free.
“I came from the ghetto. I know how it is. You just want to be part of the group. You don’t want to be by yourself. No one wants to be by themselves. If your parents are on drugs and people promise you things, what are you supposed to do?”
We see more often today that our country gets weaker and sadly, it’s a domino effect. Once kids are ingrained to believe one way or another, it’s very difficult to get them out of that mindset. For example, a New Hampshire school district banned dodgeball and other “human target” activities over concerns of violence and bullying.
Windham Superintendent Dr. Henry LaBranche said, “We spend a lot of time making sure our kids are violence free. Here we have games where we use children as targets. That seems to counter what we are trying to accomplish with our anti-bullying campaign.”
This is just disgusting and bloody saddening for an American school to have such a weak policy. Oh and to make matters worse, this does nothing to combat bullying – not at all – it’s a tragedy. The way you combat a bully is by stopping the bully, not by putting a sign that says, “This school is violence free.” I suppose they think gun control keeps criminals away from guns too, right? It’s toxic.
Holyfield acknowledges that parents have the right to have their kids not do what they want to do in response to a question about raised awareness of the dangers of the sport and if that had any impact on the structure of American youth boxing.
“You have the right to have your kids not do what they want to do,” he said. “Parents know their kids. Some kids aren’t made for this. They’d try to do this, and they’d get lit up. You have to treat your body right. You have to make sacrifices.”
As for Mayweather-Pacquiao, Holyfield hopes there will be no judging controversy, but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
“I don’t know the judges. In this situation, they should be able to point out why a fighter wins. Pacquiao is going to be more aggressive. Mayweather moves a lot, but they should be able to explain who really won the fight,” he said. “Mayweather moves, but I hope he brings it, too. I want the judges to be able to say, ‘No only did he take the other guy’s stuff, but he gave some, too.’ I just hope people out there can see it clearly, and the judges make it clear.”
Although it seemed like he was leaning towards Pacquiao based off his exposition, he refused to make an official prediction.
“I like both of the fighters. I’m going to pay my own money to see this fight because I want to see what happens,” he said. “These guys are so good; we want to see for ourselves. How are these individuals going to handle the pressure? This is one of those fights that we’re all going to remember.”
