Evander Holyfield and Francois Botha schedule fight to cancel

by Scott Christ on Nov 23, 2009 11:10 AM EST in Boxing News Analysis

Evander Holyfield is scheduled to face Francois Botha in January. Don't expect the fight will actually happen.

Francois Botha, who holds the "WBF heavyweight title," will fight Evander Holyfield in Uganda on January 16. (Wink, wink.)

Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KO) turned 47 in October and hasn't fought since his mind-numbingly boring and fairly controversial decision loss to Nikolai Valuev in December 2008. Botha (47-4-3, 28 KO) is a spry 41, and is 3-0-1 since his 2007 comeback. The draw came in his last fight, an eight-rounder against 39-year-old Cuban Pedro Carrion (8-1-1, 6 KO). Botha has called that the worst performance of his career.

Chances are this fight never happens. You can almost set your watch to Evander scheduling a fight in a foreign country and then it never happening, so don't expect this one to actually take place either.

And if it does, that's 88 years of heavyweight in the ring. I suppose if it does happen, and Holyfield were to get the W, he'd start calling himself heavyweight champion of the world and demanding fights with the Klitschkos.

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So you mean to say this fight's not callcelled OFFICIALLY?

by Fj-3 on Nov 23, 2009 12:40 PM EST reply actions

There's a WBF title?

by black dragon on Nov 23, 2009 5:08 PM EST reply actions

yep

They’ve been around a long time, and recently changed their philosophies or some other nonsense. I don’t know. They don’t matter.

Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes

by Scott Christ on Nov 23, 2009 5:13 PM EST up reply actions

I hold the BHWBC heavyweight title.

And on days when I can drain myself enough, I hold the cruiserweight title as well.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Nov 23, 2009 10:06 PM EST up reply actions

Hmm, yeah but..

Evander is a little long in the tooth and probably should have retired several fights ago but I think he deserves more respect than your giving him. When you think of warrior this guy should be one of the first names to come to your mind, even above Gatti. Over the years, Holyfield has given his all in the ring for some very entertaining fights. He fought during an era of great heavyweights. Just imagine if we had heavies like Holy and Bowe and Tyson today in their prime. Indeed he does matter. He is a legend.

Every fighter has a game plan until he get's punched in the mouth.

-Mike

by Craigman on Nov 23, 2009 7:39 PM EST reply actions

Evander is a little long in the tooth

A little?

~~and probably should have retired several fights ago~~

Ya think?

but I think he deserves more respect than your giving him.

Why? Because he was a great heavyweight 15 years ago? I have no problem with Evander’s standing as a legend. He is. But he’s completely irrelevant today. The last time he beat a decent opponent was Fres Oquendo, and you can easily argue he didn’t deserve that win. The last one before that? Hasim Rahman in 2002. He’s won exactly two meaningful fights this entire decade. I like Evander, but he couldn’t even compete with Sultan Ibragimov, who retired after being embarrassed by Wladimir Klitschko in his next fight.

Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes

by Scott Christ on Nov 24, 2009 12:16 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Why? Because he was a great heavyweight 15 years ago?

Yep! And a sure hall of famer.

I suppose if I hang around long enough, you will eventually say something good about a good fighter.

Every fighter has a game plan until he get's punched in the mouth.

-Mike

by Craigman on Nov 24, 2009 1:51 AM EST up reply actions

If this was 15 years ago, I’d have plenty of great things to say about Evander Holyfield. If you want to talk about the Evander Holyfield from 15-20 years ago, I have plenty of great things to say about the man. He’s a legend. He’s going to the Hall of Fame. And his January 2010 fight against Francois Botha doesn’t mean a thing in today’s actual boxing climate. The Holyfield/Bowe/Tyson “what a world it would be!” is a nice penny in the fountain, but it doesn’t mean Holyfield is good anymore.

Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes

by Scott Christ on Nov 24, 2009 2:06 AM EST up reply actions