Evander Holyfield has been making the rounds doing promotion for Saturday’s heavyweight championship fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Bryant Jennings but, of course, he had to touch on various aspects of the big Mayweather-Pacquiao fight that is a little over one week away.
Holyfield has brought up some concerns in the past regarding the judging for the Mayweather-Pacquiao megafight. In his most recent stop at ESPN’s First Take, he was asked to clarify those thoughts and offered a unique “fighter” perspective with regards to judges.
“When it go down to the decision, the judges make the decision. This is the reason you have to get out of the comfort zone and you have to do something because if you allow the judges to make a decision on who they thought won, you sittin here like ‘aw shoot, nothin I can do about that’. ”
It’s not a surprise that Holyfield would be the kind of guy that wanted to put all of the responsibility on himself. He was always the kind of fighter that embodied the spirit of a hard worker that left it all in the ring. I can imagine it driving him nuts when he had to wait for a decision. Evander has always considered himself to be in control of his own destiny… with a little help from God, of course.
Holyfield was then asked to get specific about the fights of his that he went into concerned about the judging and he didn’t hesitate.
“In all of ’em. Yeah. Because I know ain’t anyone on my side… Them judges ain’t on my side… You don’t know who [judges] against. [Pacquiao] is the nicest guy and they did him that way, what did he do wrong when he fought Bradley? And what happened?”
The legend makes a great point. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to bad judging. Sometimes it just happens. No one can say who will get robbed next, all you can be sure of is that it can happen to anyone at any time.
With this in mind, Holyfield’s comment about getting out of your “comfort zone” seems particularly relevant to Mayweather. While Mayweather may well dominate Pacquiao, there is always the risk that he will not be busy enough or aggressive enough to meet the standards of certain judges and outpoint the active Filipino. It may benefit Mayweather to heed “The Real Deal’s” advice and step out of his defensive comfort zone and try to get Pacquiao out of there before the final bell.
