Boxing

Holyfield Gets His Title Shot

Evander Holyfield will fight Sultan Ibragimov in Moscow on October 13 for the WBO heavyweight title, replacing WBA champ Ruslan Chaegav, who pulled out of the fight.

Holyfield, who will be trying to win the title for a record fifth time, can that Chaegav for coming down with an “undisclosed stomach ailment”, allowing Holyfield to step in on short notice.

I have nothing against Holyfield, but this is a mistake. In my opinion, he is not ready to be fighting with the top level heavyweights right now. Beating Fres Oquendo and Lou Savarese may be enough to convince Evander fans that he deserves a title shot, but this could be a disaster for him. Now, I will grant you that Ibragimov is the weakest of the heavyweight title holders. But he is still 21-0 with 17KOs, and it’s not 1997, which both work against Holyfield.

I like Holyfield, and I have no problem with him continuing to fight. But I still remember watching him get hurt badly by James Toney and embarrassed by Larry Donald. Don’t be fooled by the three losers he just beat up on. Those wins still don’t convince me that this isn’t the same shot Holyfield. I’ll do a full preview the week of the fight, but right now I’m just hoping that Holyfield doesn’t get seriously hurt.

By the way, how much does this fight reek of typical old-school boxing chickanery? Relatively unknown heavyweight champ steps aside with an “undisclosed stomach ailment” two months before the fight, conveniently allowing the bigger named fighter to step in and fight for the title. Does it seem odd to anyone else that Holyfield signed this fight the same day that Chaegav reportedly came down with his illness? Or that a stomach ailment can knock someone out of a fight two months in advance? I’m not saying that anything is fishy here, but something’s fishy here.

**Other boxing news….

- Roy Jones, Jr. is hoping to be back in the ring in November, against either Glen Johnson, Zsolt Erdei, or Felix “Tito” Trinidad. The plan is to fight on either the 3rd, 10th, or 17th, possibly live on ABC and likely down in the Mississippi Coast Coliseum again.

A fight against Johnson makes sense because it is a rematch, while Erdei makes sense for Jones because it is for a legitimate title. I don’t like the idea of fighting Trinidad because I don’t think a win would prove anything, and Roy needs to prove something. Erdei and Johnson scare me like I am with Holyfield, but I think Roy has a chance to still be great, and a win over one of them puts him legitimately back in the picture at light-heavyweight.

As with any Roy Jones, Jr. talk, I will not believe any of it until the fight is signed, and more likely, when I see Roy actually set foot in the ring on fight night.

- Vic Darchinyan is planning on returning this year in the super-flyweight division. Vic plans on fighting in Sydney in either October or December, likely against either Alex Banal or Eden Sonsona. Darchinyan said he would like to fight three or four times and then have a rematch with Nonito Donaire.

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