Friday, Oct. 3, 2003 | 10:13 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
James Toney weighs about 10 pounds more than he said he would and Evander Holyfield has noticeably slowed.
Is it any wonder the participants in Saturday's 12-round heavyweight fight at Mandalay Bay might wish the bout was scheduled for something a little less grueling, something a little closer to six or eight rounds?
The potential is there for this to dissolve into a dull fight.
Yet, conversely, it could materialize into a quick little slugfest in which the winner will be determined in three or four rounds.
Toney says he wants to force the action and Holyfield says that's fine by him. If they stick to the stated goals, and power -- as opposed to attrition -- decides the matter, one or the other will win by knockout within a very few rounds.
But I'm going to be cautious because I think the fighters are going to be more cautious than they've advertised, and I see the fight going the distance. If it does, Holyfield may have the advantage in that he -- and he alone -- is not carrying any excess weight.
Toney is a little plump. And Holyfield is a little old.
Those negatives may or may not detract from a fight in which one or the other will lose and be forced to ride off into the sunset. Only the winner will have the marketability to prosper by fighting another day.
The calendar is on Toney's side in that he's almost six years younger than the soon-to-be 41 Holyfield, yet youth isn't necessarily in his corner. An occasional glutton at the dinner table and always a glutton for a fight, Toney has been involved in 72 previous fights and answered the bell an almost unbelievable 521 times.
Holyfield has 46 fights and 348 rounds under his well-worn belt. So he's older than Toney without having quite as much mileage.
But Holyfield has also had shoulder surgery and has clearly diminished power. The last time he knocked out an opponent was six years ago when Michael Moorer took one on the chin.
Toney has a better ratio of knockouts in recent years, but he has been fighting lesser-caliber guys. He hasn't been fighting heavyweights, let alone heavyweights with Holyfield's credentials.
Holyfield will also roughhouse Toney, as he does all fighters, and belt him with his forearms and forehead whenever circumstances allow. Holyfield isn't a dirty fighter per se, but he cuts it close -- which is why Mike Tyson blew his stack and bit Holyfield's ear in their 1997 fight that ended in disqualification.
Holyfield has the ability to frustrate the man across from him, if not the fans in the crowd. His series of fights with John Ruiz two and three years ago seemed to signal his decline.
Yet he bounced back from those awful bouts to gain an unexpected, technical win against Hasim Rahman before an excusable loss to wily Chris Byrd.
A father of nine children (via six women), Holyfield has lived a full life. He also has something Toney wants, and that's the reputation as a man who stands and delivers on call.
This is not a fight where you instinctively know what's going to happen or who is going to win, which is part of its appeal. Only the fighters have anything more than guarded opinions on how it will go.
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