Photo by Boxing Scene

Sunday, 12 September 2021

Boxing Legend Evander Holyfield faced MMA Legend Victor Belfort in a boxing match this Sunday morning (Saturday night in Miami, where the fight took place).

Belfort won the fight by TKO at 1:49 of the first round.

Cool, but what does it mean?

Belfort was actually set to fight Oscar De La Hoya, but the Golden Boy contracted Covid and had to pull out of the fight.

Holyfield was invited to fill in and took the fight on one week’s notice.

ONE. BLOODY. WEEK.

Holyfield will be 59 next month, and his last professional bout was in 2011.

That was ten years ago.

Belfort is 44, and his last professional fight was in 2018.

At the open training session days before the fight, Holyfield was doing some pad work with his trainer, and it was blatantly evident that age caught up to him: he looked sluggish and powerless. Very different, for instance, from Mike Tyson’s Instagram training sessions from last year.

Anyway, the fight happened, the very first punch that Belfort landed rocked him, Belfort kept the pressure and eventually won by TKO after knocking him down twice in less than 2 minutes.

The verdict:

Kudos to Holyfield for accepting this fight on such short notice, against a much younger opponent who’s still in great shape, and is an MMA legend. He’s got balls of steel for doing that.

As for Victor Belfort: congrats dude, you beat an old man. You shouldn’t even have celebrated your “victory”. You did exactly what you were supposed to, and nothing else.

Someone, please send my congrats to Holyfield, he’s blocked me on Twitter.