WBA heavyweight title fight called off after Holyfield injured

Tim Dahlberg

Thursday, June 1, 2000 | 8:54 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - Evander Holyfield will have to wait longer to try to regain a piece of the heavyweight title.

Holyfield's June 10 fight with John Ruiz for the vacant WBA heavyweight title was called off Wednesday after the former champion was injured in training.

Holyfield was scheduled to fight Ruiz at Caesars Palace for the piece of the title taken from Lennox Lewis by a judge for not defending it against the top-ranked contender.

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said he was told Wednesday that Holyfield was injured while training in Houston and that the card was canceled.

A spokesman for promoter Don King said he believed Holyfield injured a rib, but that specifics would be discussed at a news conference today with King, Holyfield and Holyfield's doctor.

Spokesman Greg Fritz said it was possible a new date could be announced for the fight at that time.

Caesars Palace spokeswoman Debbie Munch said the hotel already has started refunding tickets bought for the bout.

Holyfield's manager, Jim Thomas, was not available for comment.

Norman Stone, the manager for Ruiz, said his fighter was bitterly disappointed about the postponement. Stone said several hundred of Ruiz's supporters bought nonrefundable plane tickets to fly from the Boston area to Las Vegas for the fight.

"You can't say he's faking because he's never pulled out of a fight before that I know of," Stone said of Holyfield.

Holyfield hopes to win the heavyweight championship for the fourth time in a bout that attracted little interest because of the way the title was declared vacant.

Lewis holds the other two major portions of the title and beat Holyfield last November when they met for the undisputed title.

But when he decided to defend against Michael Grant instead of the top-ranked Ruiz, a judge ruled that Lewis was contractually obligated to fight Ruiz or be stripped of the WBA version of the title.