Evander Holyfield fighting yet again on November 5

Evander Holyfield turns 48 in October, and is looking toward a November 5 fight with Bahamian heavyweight Sherman Williams (34-11-2, 19 KO). The fight will take place at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Holyfield (43-10-2, 28 KO) won a fight in April over a clearly out of shape Francois Botha. Williams is built like a tank (hence his "Caribbean Tank" nickname) at 5'11" and usually around 260 pounds in recent bouts. He also lost his last fight against Manuel Charr last October.

What saddens me is not that Holyfield continues to fight, but that he continues to fight in bouts nobody cares about as a means to stay active and pray that he'll land a major fight again. The Klitschkos and David Haye are not going to fight Holyfield. They all are keenly aware that beating an ancient, battered "Real Deal" is going to do more harm than good to their reputations. So Holyfield fights a half-interested Botha and now Williams instead. I can't help but continue to regret that he didn't get the decision over Valuev in 2008. Maybe -- probably not, but maybe -- he would have been happy enough with that to walk into retirement. Evander Holyfield will go to the Hall of Fame as soon as he's eligible, and I admire the man's career. He was a great fighter. But this is sad. A lot of fighters hang on way, way too long, but almost none of them held on this long, and with that standard, even less were as great as Evander Holyfield.

I'd expect the fight will wind up on Integrated Sports pay-per-view. The Botha fight had a rotten undercard, and given that Holyfield has no connections to major promoters, the same should be expected again. It'd be nice to see some Detroit fighters, perhaps Vernon Paris, on the card, but money will likely be very tight.