He may be significantly older, lighter and smaller than WBA heavyweight belt-holder Nikolai Valuev, but challenger Evander Holyfield insisted at Friday's weigh-in he will be crowned world champion for the fifth time.ZURICH (AFP) -
He may be significantly older, lighter and smaller than WBA heavyweight belt-holder Nikolai Valuev, but challenger Evander Holyfield insisted at Friday's weigh-in he will be crowned world champion for the fifth time.
At the Grand Casino in Baden, Switzerland, ahead of Saturday night's fight, a lean Holyfield tipped the scales at 97.2kg, while giant Russian Valuev weighed in at a huge 141kg.Holyfield is 11 years older, 43kg lighter and nearly 30cm shorter than Valuev, 35, the heaviest and tallest champion in history, who at 2.13 metres is a high target to hit.The Russian has only been beaten once in 51 fights when he lost his WBA title to Ruslan Chagaev last year, before he regained his belt by beating John Ruiz in August.But Holyfield, 46, has beaten the likes of Mike Tyson, James 'Buster' Douglas, Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe in his long career with a blemished record of 42 wins, 27 knock-outs, two draws and nine defeats.
He beat Douglas to win his first world title in 1990 and 18 years later insists he will be a champion for the fifth time at Zurich's Hallenstadion on Saturday.
"Yeah, he's bigger and heavier than me, but a fight is a fight," Holyfield told AFP.
"Everybody is talking about my age, but we'll see on Saturday night. I don't think age will be a problem."And although we are less than a week from Christmas, Holyfield knows Valuev will not gift him the title in front of a sellout 12,500 crowd.
"I am not into the whole wishing thing," said Holyfield when asked what he wanted for Christmas. "I will win on Saturday and then I want to enjoy Christmas."
Having been one of the best fighters in the heavyweight division in the 90's, Holyfield has lost four of his last eight fights and last held a world title in 2000.
The manager of the Klitschko brothers, world champions Vladimir and Witali, has said the Valuev-Holyfield is a 'disaster' for boxing's credibility.And even as recently as October, Valuev's manager Boris Dimitrov described a fight against Holyfield the fading star as 'ridiculous', but a sizeable purse seems to have smoothed over any misgivings.The Valuev camp now say they are using the fight to attract some publicity for the champion in the United States.This will be Valuev's second appearance in Switzerland having stopped Jameel McCline in the third round when they met in January 2007.And the winner of Saturday night's fight will have to face former WBA champion Chagaev in a mandatory defence after the Uzbekistan fighter was forced to relinquish his title through injury this year.SOURCE
