Evander Holyfield got an unusual reception for a defeated fighter Saturday night, a standing ovation from an assemblage that included James Toney, the man who had just thoroughly beaten him.
The applause was in recognition of Holyfield’s brilliant 19-year boxing career, which has featured memorable victories over Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe, George Foreman and Buster Douglas.
But the kudos also held unspoken wishes that Holyfield’s tired performance against Toney, which ended when his corner threw in the towel after Toney had floored him in the ninth round, could make this his final postfight appearance.
Retirement, however, is a bitter word for Holyfield, nearly 41, to even utter, let alone swallow. Just as it was for Tyson after Holyfield whipped him, for Larry Holmes after Tyson floored him, for Muhammad Ali after Holmes beat him up or for Joe Louis after Rocky Marciano battered him. Only Marciano, who died in a plane crash, finished his career unbeaten.
It was gratifying to see Holyfield, despite being bloodied and dominated by Toney, maintain his consistency in facing questions, whatever the situation. It was sad to hear him say: “I am not going to retire. I am going back to the drawing board.”
He wants to confirm his suspicion that “I was watching more than fighting” Saturday night, and that his lack of aggressiveness, rather than slowed reflexes, was the reason Toney continually beat him to the punch and repeatedly made him miss badly.
“Toney showed me that if I’m not going to be aggressive, if I’m thinking instead of fighting, I’m going to get beat,” the four-time heavyweight champion said.
That is the kind of reasoning that trumps thoughts of retirement. After all, watching for openings rather than attacking can be corrected. Aging and lack of speed cannot.
The Toney-Holyfield pay-per-view telecast will be replayed on Showtime at 9 p.m. Saturday, along with Joel Casamayor’s technical knockout of Diego Corrales in an action-packed junior-lightweight title elimination bout. There were three knockdowns, two by Casamayor, who cut and bloodied Corrales’ mouth so badly the bout was stopped after the sixth round.
Though Holyfield promised to reflect further on whether his severely damaged position in the heavyweight division has a future, Toney, 35, is in a different lineage of fighters. He joins the list of those who have sought to build on the momentum of a big-fight victory.
Will he be like Holyfield, who capitalized after moving up from cruiserweight to beat heavyweight champ Douglas? Or will he be like Bernard Hopkins, who has advanced little beyond the glory of beating Felix Trinidad? Or like Shane Mosley, whose second victory over Oscar De La Hoya gives him another chance to prove himself a superstar against top-level opponents?
Toney, who weighed in at 217 pounds for Holyfield, has said he would go back down to 190 to defend his cruiserweight title. But there are bigger potential payday bouts now that he has joined the list of heavyweight contenders. There is Tyson. There is fellow Michigan native Chris Byrd, who holds one of the title belts, although that is a less lucrative matchup. There could even be champion Lennox Lewis, if he does not retire. And, most intriguing, there is recently crowned champion Roy Jones Jr., who already was in the ring talking to Toney’s promoter, Dan Goossen, before Toney exited through the ropes.
“I’ll fight whoever Goossen lines up,” Toney said. “I’ll knock them out, from 195 pounds to 295.”
With a record of 66-4-2 after 15 years as a prizefighter, Toney has been here before. He was an unbeaten super-middleweight champion when he lost a unanimous decision to Jones in 1994 in a career-defining bout that Toney approached with poor training and diet.
From August 2000 till last December, when Holyfield and John Ruiz split a lackluster three-fight heavyweight series with one victory apiece and a draw, the lighter Jones and Toney watched and thought they could beat either of the two.
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Now they have proved it. Jones wrested the title from Ruiz, and Toney took Holyfield’s position among contenders. That makes a Jones-Toney rematch most intriguing.