[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjP4EtPDUc8[/YT] Saw this on youtube recently and thought it was a load of crap. I remember watching this fight live and Evander was a white hot favourite for the gold medal in LA. During this fight he was warned numerous times for hitting on the break and left the ref with no option in my opinion but to DQ him. Barry was unable to contest the final as he had a 30 day standdown after Holy KOd him according to amateur rules. Even the commentator wonders allowed if the ref was going to disqualify Holy, so it is pretty rich of the interviewees to suggest the ref did a poor job, pretty classless of Josipovic to pull Evander up to the top of the dias during the medal ceremony. Evander was far and away the best fighter in the 178 class but was rightly a bronze medal recepient. Anyone else remember this event??
Yes, I remember it well, and what doesn't come through on that video because of the narrator talking over it, is the referee's first call to "stop" a second or two before he issued a 2nd call to "stop" just as Holyfield was letting go with that last left hook. I've always felt that there were definitve grounds for a DQ if Holyfield did hear the first order of the two, and even more so, because, as you pointed out, he was already warned four seperate times previously by the referee for hitting after a call to break. To be fair, though, Barry was also warned on four seperate occasions for the same infraction, as well as a couple of warnings for holding. I would never call that a robbery of Holyfield, but I do think that Barry was somewhat fortunate that he wasn't disqualified too in that foul filled fight the two had.
somehow holyfields followers have always made excuses for his loses.. why he didn't do this why he didn't do that ... always excuses