“I have to give back one way or the other,” said Evander Holyfield. “That’s what we’re supposed to do.”
The world’s only four-time world heavyweight champ visited St. Louis recently to give area kids some lessons, inside and outside the boxing ring.
About 100 children – many with listening parents – showed up at Respect Center, a fitness and fighting arts academy in Overland, to get schooled by one of the best boxers the sport has known.
The former champ attributes much of his success to support and encouragement he received as a child. He gives back through his Holyfield Foundation, which helps disadvantaged youngsters become healthy, successful and productive adults.
Holyfield told the young fighters that they have to listen, follow directions and never quit in order to be successful, which his mother taught him at early age.
His mother told him she didn’t raise a quitter when he lost his first fight at age 11 and went home crying, ready to hang his gloves up.
Evander fought the guy again, losing again. But at age 12 he beat him.
“That’s because she didn’t let me quit,” Holyfield said.
“She told me that I can make better decisions when I do well, but quitting because I lost would mean that I would always quit if things don’t go my way.”
And things haven’t always gone Holyfield’s way – in or outside the ring – but he’s never been a quitter.
Holyfield went on to lose 11 more fights in career, but walked away with 164 wins under his belt. And he isn’t finished yet.
At 47, he’s looking for a heavyweight fight and another belt that would be a rematch again Russian giant Nikoaki Valuev, who beat Holyfield last year.
Some say he’s too old, but he snapped at those jabs.
“I don’t worry what people say. People said I would be nothing,” he said. “They try to limit you to where they are. They may be the same age, but their body is different. We all pay the price for what we like. I love boxing. And it’s not about age – I took care of my body.”
The four-time champ finished that flurry saying, “I will be champ again.”
That positive, triumphant attitude is essentially what Holyfield slipped under the children’s belt while he was here.
“You do something wrong – you go back and make adjustments,” he told the children, who have attorney Richard Banks to thank for Holyfield’s visit.
Banks and Holyfield are good friends. They met 12 years ago on a flight to St. Louis from Caesar’s Palace following the Tyson/Holyfield “Bite Fight” on June, 1997, during which Tyson took a bite out of Holyfield’s ear.
“He breaks the mold of boxers: He’s bright and intuitive,” Banks said of his friend.
Banks weighed in on Holyfield’s decision to seek a rematch.
“He’s not over the hill – he’s in great shape,” Banks said.
Like many observers, Banks thinks Holyfield actually beat the 7-feet Russian in the first fight, but didn’t get the nod because he fought on Valuev’s turf.
A rematch could go down somewhere in the states around September of this year, according to Banks and Holyfield.
The good-hearted boxer recently had a highly publicized bout with the economy, with reports that he could lose his Atlanta home to foreclosure. The champ said he was able to bounce back and that he was singled out for attention because he is famous.
“The economy is affecting a lot of people, but I overcame it and people will forget about it,” he said.
“People tend to want to keep up with the bad things, like with Michael Jackson and even the Rams. When the Rams won the Super Bowl, everybody forgot about the bad years.”
Holyfield said he calls his losses “setbacks,” as he told the St. Louis youths.
The boxer also said that the toughest fighters come from St. Louis. He noted that two of his early boxing highlights happened here.
In 1984 he won the National Golden Gloves Championship here and couple years prior successfully made it through the Pan American Boxing Tournament tryouts in St. Louis.
“Two key things that allowed me to be the fighter that I am happened here,” Holyfield said.
He said local fight fans are fortunate to have the world’s best growing up around them.
“Whenever we went to nationals, we looked for St. Louis. The toughest fighters come from St. Louis – they could fight,” he said.
“They come from humble beginnings like me, but nobody really beats them – they beat themselves.”
