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No Holyfield-Moorer electricity
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- There's something missing as Evander Holyfield prepares for his first fight since his two showdown bouts with Mike Tyson. And it's not just part of his ear.Forget, for a moment, that Saturday night's fight with Michael Moorer will unify two parts of the heavyweight title. Forget that Holyfield is seeking revenge against one of the two fighters ever to beat him.
Holyfield and Moorer simply have a tough act to follow in the wake of two of the biggest heavyweight title fights of all time.
"It makes this fight seem dead a little," Holyfield said.
With the volatile and fearsome Tyson replaced with the introspective and cautious Moorer, it has been left mainly up to Holyfield to carry the promotion for the fight that will unify the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles.
Though he's being paid well to do so -- $20 million for the scheduled 12-round fight -- even Holyfield has seemed to have trouble trying to raise Saturday's fight to the level of his two fights with Tyson.
At Wednesday's final prefight press conference, Holyfield left it up to his attorney, Jim Thomas to try and add some excitement to the fight.
"This is the kind of fight all of you say we need in boxing," Thomas said. "For once, all the action will be inside the ring."
Showtime executive Jay Larkin, whose company is televising the fight via pay-per-view, took to berating the assembled media for not taking the fight as seriously as Holyfield's fights with Tyson.
"What we don't have is a car crash and because we don't have a car crash, reporters come up to me and ask what's wrong with this fight," Larkin said.
The stakes are still big for both Holyfield and Moorer, but the absence of Tyson and his entourage has quieted the buzz that normally is associated with a big heavyweight fight.
At Wednesday's press conference, there was no camp member like Mike Tyson's Crocodile ranting and raving for hours about how his man would win. Both fighters were businesslike, with Moorer expressing hope that no fighter on the card would be hurt.
Holyfield even has a religious rally scheduled for Thursday night, two nights before the fight, where thousands are expected at a minor league baseball stadium to hear a night of preaching and singing.
"The difference in this fight is there won't be the tension on fight night that there was before," said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. "It will be a different atmosphere."
About the only tension present at the press conference was when Moorer's manager, John Davimos, changed Holyfield's grin to a scowl when he complained about Holyfield making excuses for his April 22, 1994, loss to Moorer that cost him the WBA and IBF titles.
Holyfield blamed a bad left shoulder for his performance in losing a 12-round majority decision, and two days later was hospitalized for what was then diagnosed as a heart problem.
"Evander's a great fighter, but he's the worst loser I've ever seen in my life," Davimos said. "He's gone from cardiac arrest in the ring and heart problems to shoulder problems to being poisoned in the corner."
Holyfield waited to respond, then defended himself.
"I'm here to say I didn't make up any excuses," Holyfield said. "I said Michael Moorer beat me, but I did realize I had a hurt shoulder. I did feel sorry for myself because I had an injury and I didn't put out my best."
Fight promoters say they expect to sell about 12,000 tickets for the fight, to be held at the 19,000-seat UNLV campus arena.
Three other title fights are on the card, with Ante Miller defending the WBA cruiserweight title against France's Fabrice Tiozzo; Wilfredo Vazquez defending the WBA featherweight title against Genaro Rios, and IBF cruiserweight champion Uriah Grant defending his title against Imamu Mayfield.