By Matthew Hurley

When Evander Holyfield steps into the ring this Friday night against Jeremy Bates, the bout will be broadcast on the Fox Sports Network. Holyfield’s name alone will garner curiosity seekers and some of those who don’t closely follow boxing might just assume that this televised bout is a rebroadcast of a classic Holyfield battle because even non-boxing fans must be shaking their heads and wondering aloud, “Holyfield?  Is he still fighting?”

Indeed he is, despite the fact that he is 2–2–5 in his last nine fights and so far removed from his fistic heyday that these meaningless bouts against the Larry Donald(s) and John Ruiz(s) of the world threaten to tarnish a glorious reputation.  Couple the fact that he can’t beat these guys with the alarming degeneration of both his motor skills and speech pattern and Holyfield is becoming yet another proud champion reduced to physical and mental rubble by the very sport that built him up into a monolithic champion.  It is a sad and very old story told too many times, without the benefit of an alternate ending to make it interesting.

Evander Holyfield was considered undersized when he ventured out of the cruiserweight division to engage the big boys at heavyweight.  Then, when he won the championship with a one punch knockout against Buster Douglas, and proved his toughness over and over again in subsequent fights he was labeled an overachiever. Personally, I’ve always felt both labels were insulting, back handed attempts at praise from people who refused to acknowledge what a great fighter Evander Holyfield really was. 

Physical size, so often, should not be an intangible thrown into the mix when it comes to boxing. Skill, training, determination, dedication and courage are what a championship level fighter must have in order to overcome intimidating obstacles like size.  Holyfield had all of these in massive quantities and they beat fiercely from within his muscled chest – best described by commentator Larry Merchant when he opined, “If Holyfield weighs 210 pounds, his heart weighs 205!”

So many attributes separated Evander Holyfield from his peers, but one thing always runs out when it comes to any athlete in any sport – time.  Holyfield’s time is over.  There is nothing so compelling as a young kid finding solace and redemption through sport and through a coach who guides him to a better future. 

Holyfield experienced this and we experienced his transcendence right along with him – through the Olympics, his cruiserweight dominance and his improbable heavyweight brilliance.  It is gut-wrenching when an athlete can’t see, or won’t accept, the end of the line.  We see it and we feel it when a hero breaks apart.  It’s the hardest thing a sports fan can go through.

Fighters are a rare breed of athlete.  It takes tremendous courage just to step through those ropes and not only swap punches with another man who has prepared himself to deliver concussive blows, but to deal with the inner demons that drove you into the ring in the first place.  Most fighters do not experience careers like Sugar Ray Leonard or Oscar De La Hoya or, indeed, Evander Holyfield. 

Most fighters come out of the sport worse off than when they went in.  But nearly every fighter who has ever set foot in the ring will raise their chin up in defiance and pride when talking about their career regardless of how much they achieved.  To be a fighter is to be a member of an exclusive club that won’t allow anyone else to enter, period.

And to be a member of that club too often seems to require a refusal to let go.  Damage will be done and all the pain and suffering that went into becoming a champion will be experienced yet again, on a physiological level, long after that last time a glove was laced up.  Like a flame struggling to remain ablaze in the face of a chill wind, Evander Holyfield continues to try and convince his body and himself that he still has enough fire in his belly to rally past all the obvious indications that his career has reached its end.  The passion and the heart that made him one of the great fighters of his time are now conspiring against him. 

Evander Holyfield will step into the ring yet again this Friday night and people will watch.  But those of us who love him and cheered him on when he was a fighter to behold will turn their backs, shake their heads in disillusionment and pray that this once proud warrior will come to realize that despite all he’s accomplished in his career he’s just as human as the rest of us and it’s time to let go and give up the fight.