Notebook: For better or worse, Holyfield faces Belfort in heavyweight exhibition

Valdez edges Conceicao; Lopez upsets Flores; Quick hits

A decade after legendary four-time heavyweight titleholder Evander Holyfield last boxed — a 10th-round knockout victory over Danish hero Brian Nielsen in Denmark in 2011 — “The Real Deal” will climb the steps into the ring once again.

To many it will be sad to see the 58-year-old long-faded all-time great take punches again. To others there will be a sense of nostalgia when he faces UFC all-time great Vitor Belfort, who is crossing over to boxing, in an eight-round short-notice heavyweight exhibition bout on Saturday night in the main event of a Triller Fight Club pay-per-view card (7 p.m. ET, $49.99) at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

The fight only came about a week ago when Oscar De La Hoya, who was coming out of a 13-year retirement to face Belfort in an official boxing match at Staples Center in Los Angeles, came down with Covid-19 and had to withdraw.

Holyfield was in a dispute with Triller over an exhibition bout he was contracted for against fellow Mike Tyson conqueror Kevin McBride that was postponed from June and which Triller had so far refused to reschedule. So, Holyfield filed a demand for arbitration seeking the more than $5 million Triller owed him for the bout.

But with De La Hoya out, Holyfield agreed to step in against Belfort. He’ll get his money and Triller will be off the hook. But when the California State Athletic Commission declined to sanction Holyfield-Belfort, Triller moved the event to Florida, where the commission is not nearly as stringent on approving matches.

So, the show will go on, for better or worse. Although Triller has been promoting the fight as an officially sanctioned boxing match it is in fact an exhibition, multiple sources with knowledge of contracts for the event told Fight Freaks Unite. The Hard Rock is also marketing the event as an exhibition, the rounds will be two-minutes in duration instead of the standard three and the boxers will wear 12-ounce gloves rather than the standard 10-ounces gloves that heavyweights would wear for an official fight.

All that stuff aside, Holyfield (44-10-2, 29 KOs), of Atlanta, was happy to replace De La Hoya when the opportunity came up. He had been training for months to face McBride and, frankly, he wants his money.

“When Oscar De La Hoya came down with Covid they asked me to fight Vitor Belfort,” Holyfield said. “Training is what I do. Like I tell the young people, if you do things right, it will work out for you. That works for older folks too.

“Boxing is a game and I know how to prepare for it against Vitor Belfort. I’m sure if I was getting in his (MMA) game, I’d be in trouble, but he’s getting into my game so he’s in trouble. I’ve been training for over two years because there were fights mentioned against other fighters. I realize now as I prepare to face Belfort I’m in good shape and I don’t get out of shape.”

The 44-year-old Belfort, a southpaw from Brazil and fighting out of Boca Raton, Florida, is a former UFC light heavyweight champion who has faced many top MMA opponents. He has had one previous boxing match, a first-round knockout win in Brazil in 2006. He was fine with switching opponents on a week’s notice.

“I don’t see the change in opponent as a problem, I see it as an opportunity,” said Belfort, who did not have to cut down to the 185-pound contract weight he had agreed to for the De La Hoya fight and instead was 206.2 pounds to Holyfield’s 225.4. “And this is a huge opportunity for me to face a legend like Evander Holyfield.

“In boxing there’s too many big fights that aren’t happening. Oscar and Evander truly built the sport of boxing during their careers. Evander’s a Hall of Famer and I’m very excited to be fighting him. The king of the jungle is the lion, not the elephant. I’m smaller than Evander but I’m the lion. Speed and power are more important than size. It’s about hit and don’t get hit, I know how strong Evander is. It’s about fighting a smart fight on Saturday night.”

Holyfield initially began training because he thought he would face Tyson, whom he beat twice in back-to-back mega world title fights in 1996 and 1997, in an exhibition. But when they could not make a deal, Tyson faced Roy Jones Jr. in November in an eight-round exhibition that did big pay-per-view business. It’s possible that with a decent showing Saturday that Holyfield could go on to face Tyson next year.

“It’s not so much that I miss (boxing) but people always ask about Mike Tyson and I fighting,” Holyfield said. “They’ve offered so much money that I would definitely take a chance against someone I’ve already beat.”

Holyfield knows he is not a young man anymore, but he still looks tremendously fit, albeit awfully slow when he did mitt work in front of the media this week.

“I think I look alright but this is after two years of solid training,” Holyfield said. “When I was young I didn’t have any bad habits and so I’m older now and feel good.”

Valdez holds onto title

After all the controversy and talk about his positive drug test, Oscar Valdez finally put it out of his mind and got to work. The result was hard-fought and competitive unanimous decision to retain his WBC junior lightweight title against Robson Conceicao in the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ main event on Friday night before an announced sold-out crowd of 4,545 at the AVA Amphitheater at Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona.

Conceicao, who owned a significant amateur win over Valdez, fought well for most of the first half of the fight but Valdez took over in the second half and won 115-112, 115-112 and a surprisingly wide 117-110 to retain his 130-pound belt for the first time. I wrote about the fight for The Ring magazine website. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/626870-oscar-valdez-rallies-past-robson-conceicao-for-hard-fought-decision-win/

In the co-feature, junior lightweight Luis Alberto Lopez dominated and battered favorite Gabriel Flores Jr. in a one-sided unanimous decision that came about only because the referee missed the corner calling off the fight. Please read my co-feature story here: https://www.ringtv.com/626863-luis-alberto-lopez-upsets-gabriel-flores-jr/

The rest of the undercard was also entertaining, including Junto Nakatani retaining the WBO flyweight title with a bloody fourth-round stoppage of mandatory challenger Angel “Tito” Acosta, whose apparent broken nose was bleeding so profusely the fight had to be stopped. Please read about that fight, wins by prospects Xander Zayas and Lindolfo Delgado and the rest of the undercard here: https://www.ringtv.com/626858-junto-nakatani-scores-bloody-fourth-round-stoppage-of-angel-acosta-retains-flyweight-belt/

Quick hits

Weights from Hollywood, Fla., for Friday night’s Triller Fight Club PPV: Evander Holyfield 225.4 pounds, Vitor Belfort 206.2 (exhibition); Anderson Silva 192.6, Tito Ortiz 200; Andy Vences 129.4, Jono Carroll 130; David Haye 211.5, Joe Fournier 195.5; Anthony Chavez 129.2, Diuhl Olguin 128; Eliezer Silva 158, Terry Roscoe 155.

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Heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic (13-0, 11 KOs), 29, a 2016 Olympic super heavyweight bronze medalist from Croatia, easily destroyed Marko Radonjic (22-1, 22 KOs), 31, of Montenegro, in a fourth-round knockout victory on Saturday in a DAZN main event at Worthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria. Hrgovic, in his first fight in 10 months, scored five knockdowns — four in the second round and one in the third — before referee Joerg Milke stopped the fight moments after the bell rang to begin the fourth round. Radonjic, who amassed his glossy record against horrendous opposition, showed tremendous heart but was outgunned every which way as Hrgovic hit him at will with right hands.

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The IBF announced that George Martinez will be sanctioning body’s ratings chairman in the wake of the recent death of Anibal Miramontes. Martinez previously worked for the WBA in various capacities since 2000, including as a longtime member of its rankings committee. In 2004, Martinez organized female boxing for the WBA, creating the rankings and overseeing is rankings committee. In 2016, he became the WBA’s championships chairman. In 2018, he became the WBA’s rankings chairman before resigning in October 2020.

Show and tell

In the early 1990s, Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez were widely regarded as the top two pound-for-pound best in boxing, so when they were matched in a mega fight it was a big deal. At stake was P4P supremacy as well as Whitaker’s welterweight world title. Chavez, who was moving up from junior welterweight for the showdown (which was contracted at a 145-pound catch weight), had an opportunity to win a world title in a fourth weight class. They drew some 60,000 to the Alamodome in San Antonio for the Showtime PPV event. In the end, Whitaker, with his slick boxing and supreme defense, appeared to handily defeat Chavez — until the scorecards were read. Chavez, the enormous favorite of the heavily Mexican crowd, got every possible benefit of the doubt in one of the most controversial decisions in boxing history. The fight was ruled a majority draw with judges Franz Marti and Mickey Vann scoring it an absurd 115-115 and Jack Woodruff having it a still-too-close 115-113 for Whitaker. The cover of Sports Illustrated following the fight read “Robbed! Pernell Whitaker whips Julio Cesar Chavez in a dubious draw.” The fight was 28 years ago on Friday. Here’s a site poster (with the late legendary artist LeRoy Neiman’s artwork) in my collection.

Holyfield-Belfort photo: Amanda Westcott/Triller Fight Club; Valdez-Conceicao photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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