[NYT 1989] A Hungry Holyfield Gets His Chance

Found this article on Holyfield's early pro career very interesting. Discusses his difficulties making 175, the big difference he found initially in fighting 190-lbers vs. 175-lbers, his war with Qawi, and his preparations for fighting Douglas.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/22/sports/a-hungry-holyfield-gets-his-chance.html?pagewanted=all

A Hungry Holyfield Gets His Chance
By PHIL BERGER
Published: October 22, 1990

LAS VEGAS, Nev.— FROM his earliest days as a professional fighter, Evander Holyfield saw his future as a heavyweight. Never mind that Holyfield, who campaigned first as a light heavyweight and then as a cruiserweight, knew that those weight classes lacked the glamour and the financial prospects of the division that had made household names of Dempsey, Louis, Marciano and Ali.

For Holyfield, the seductiveness of the heavyweight's work day owed as much to the latitude he was afforded at the dinner table as to the lavish purses he could earn.

"It was my idea to move up from light heavyweight," Holyfield said, "because every day I'd have to train like I was obese. Run five, six miles. Diet. I couldn't take a day off 'cause the weight might get back on me. I was losing interest in the game of boxing because it was killing me."

These days, Holyfield is eating enough to satisfy a sumo wrestler. He takes up to six meals a day to fuel a regimen that has built his body into a chiseled slab in anticipation of the opportunity Holyfield finally gets Thursday: fighting for the heavyweight title.

At 6 feet 2 1/2 inches and 212 pounds, the 28-year-old Holyfield is the product of a demanding process that has involved not only pummeling heavy and speed bags and the occasional sparring partner, but also hours of weight training, running, swimming, jumping, climbing and pushing and pulling at the latest high-tech instruments of fitness.

In addition to his trainers, George Benton and Lou Duva, Holyfield is attended by a coterie of specialists. Lee Haney, a former body-building champion, supervises the weight work. Tim Hallmark is his conditioning coach, forever worrying over matters like Holyfield's heart rate and recovery time while putting him through endurance workouts. And there is even a ballet teacher, Marya Kennett, a woman of indeterminate age -- she confesses to having performed during the 1940's -- who leads Holyfield through stretching exercises so he will be limber enough when he meets James (Buster) Douglas on Thursday to do what a fighter must.

The care and maintenance of Holyfield-the-heavyweight began soon after the fighter unified the cruiserweight title by stopping Carlos DeLeon in eight rounds in April 1988.

Under Hallmark, Holyfield continued a conditioning regimen dating to 1986: two-hour morning strength sessions three times a week and, after a midday boxing workout, late-afternoon conditioning sessions three times a week. But Hallmark adjusted them to give Holyfield a heavyweight's bulk. That meant, for instance, using heavier weights and resting more between each set of exercises.

There are those, however, who view Holyfield's regimen as irrelevant to what goes on in the prize ring. Those doubters see Holyfield's masterwork body as offering a false promise. "A built-up light heavyweight," these critics sneer, as though the fighter had rolled off Dr. Frankenstein's table.

Yet Holyfield's fight plan is based on the conditioning edge that all those rigorous workouts are meant to impart. Holyfield, who is the betting favorite in the match, and his handlers have not been coy about the challenger's strategy. Holyfield's aim, they say, is to impose a pace that will force Douglas to work beyond his physical means, leaving him too weary, eventually, to defend himself.

There are nuances to this battle plan. For instance, Holyfield must work at close quarters to blunt the effectiveness of Douglas's ramrod jab. But the key to a Holyfield victory, his handlers say, is an accelerated tempo that only an athlete like Holyfield can dictate.

As the Douglas camp says, however, boxing is not an aerobics class, it is a nastier piece of business. And their thrust is that Holyfield hasn't the means to cope with it.

But so far Holyfield, undefeated in 24 fights, 20 of which he has won by knockout, has shown an ability to operate under adversity. In his toughest bouts -- against Dwight Muhammad Qawi as a cruiserweight and against Michael Dokes and Alex Stewart as a heavyweight -- Holyfield absorbed punishment yet managed to outlast the opponent as he stood and fought, steadily, resolutely, with an expression as deadpan as Buster Keaton's.

In his rise to Thursday's $8.1 million payday against Douglas, Holyfield has surprised even his own camp. When he first turned pro, he was not regarded as a surefire success. He hadn't the flashy moves of stablemates like Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, and Tyrell Biggs, or the international reputation of Mark Breland, all of whom were, like him, 1984 Olympic medalists. But Holyfield quickly enough won over people.

"We saw," said Duva, "that this guy was strong and tough, and just wouldn't let himself be beat."

According to Holyfield, though, his early victories had a nightmarish quality because of the extreme measures he was forced to adapt to make the 175-pound light-heavyweight limit.

"After road work, I'd skip breakfast," he said. "I'd go back to the room, drink water and sleep until it was time to train. After training , I'd have a turkey sandwich. For dinner, I'd have apple pie a la mode to kill my appetite for the rest of my dinner."

In his fourth fight, on April 20, 1985, against Mark Rivera, Holyfield experienced difficulties because of mealtime deprivation.

"When I reached the ring," he said, "I was dizzy. Then the lights hit me in the eyes and my vision blurred. I panicked. I was scared. I knew I was not strong and that if I didn't knock him out quickly, I'd be in trouble."

Holyfield knocked out Rivera in two rounds. But that wasn't the end of his troubles.

"In my fifth fight, I fought Tyrone Booze in Virginia," said Holyfield. "I remember I was trying too hard to keep my weight down. The night before the fight, I got up at 3 in the morning. Everybody was asleep. I put on a plastic sweatsuit and ran five miles on the highway to be on weight. And I was still half a pound over when Lou weighed me in the morning."

On July 20, 1985, fighting "in spurts," as he put it, Holyfield won an eight-round decision over Booze, and immediately afterward decided he would move up to the cruiserweight (190-pound limit) division.

That meant that at his walk-around weight of 182 pounds, Holyfield was now obliged to fight bigger men. But once again, he did what he had to, and won.

On Dec. 21, 1985, in Virginia Beach, Va., against his first ranked opponent, Anthony Davis, Holyfield, now weighing 186 pounds, briefly feared he had made a grievous mistake by stepping up in class.

"When I got in the ring," he said, "I looked over at him and thought: 'He looks twice my size. How can he weigh just two pounds more and look twice my size?' I could feel his strength. For the first time I was shaken up by punches. I remember one time I had my hands up and the punch came through the gloves and spun me around."

Holyfield fired back his own punches, broke Davis's nose and scored an impressive fifth-round knockout. As a cruiserweight, Holyfield continued to demolish opponents, persuading his handlers that a match against Qawi, the World Boxing Association cruiserweight champion, was feasible in spite of their fighter's limited experience.

But when Holyfield first learned of that possibility, he was taken aback.

"It was after a fight on the USA Network," said Holyfield. "The man asked Lou what would I do to Qawi if I fought him. In my mind, I said, 'Nothin'.' Well, then Qawi comes on camera and says, 'I'm going to hurt this young boy.' I'm thinking: 'What? I ain't doing nothing to him.' "

At the time the Qawi bout was scheduled, for July 29, 1986, W.B.A. championship bouts were 15 rounds, since shortened to 12 rounds. Holyfield's longest match at that point was eight rounds. Enter the Houston fitness specialist, Hallmark, who employed treadmills, stationary bicycles and equipment that simulated the act of climbing to build Holyfield's endurance.

Holyfield said that Hallmark's sessions were so arduous that for the first two days he considered quitting. "Then I thought, 'If I can master this, then I can get in there and tear Qawi apart,' " he said.

The fight against Qawi was brutal. A computer punch count revealed that both fighters averaged a total of 154 punches a round for 15 rounds. Consider that Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns threw 165 punches in the first three minutes of their ferocious bout, and the intensity of the match becomes evident.

"After the fourth round, I prayed, 'Lord, just help me get through, I want to finish the fight,' " Holyfield said.

Holyfield did more than just finish. He won by decision to become world champion, but was so dehydrated afterward that he had to be hospitalized.

"I remember thinking, 'If I have to go through this, I don't know if I want to fight for the championship again,' " Holyfield said. "I thought about what Muhammad Ali had said after fighting Joe Frazier, how it was like death. I understood what he was saying."

Years in the ring have accustomed Holyfield to rubbing up against pain, and now he is used to it and expects it. And in the days before his biggest fight he exuded a confidence that seemed to say pain is merely an accessory to fame, and victory.

"I don't go looking for punishment," he said, "but if punishment comes my way, I try to absorb it and give punishment back."

Photos: Evander Holyfield is undefeated in 24 fights, winning 20 by knockout. (Ken Levine/Allsport) (pg. C1); Evander Holyfield (Ken Levine/Allsport) (pg. C7)

 

Yeah, great catch—I was puzzled by that too.