Larger-than-life ring legend Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield last night clinged on to his World Boxing Federation heavyweight crown after his fight – Holyfield’s first defence of the WBF title since winning it last year from Francois Botha – with challenger Sherman ‘The Tank’ Williams was declared a No Decision after three rounds.
In the second round, the 48-year-old Holyfield suffered a nasty accidental cut over the left eye and the injury became severe enough by the end of round three for the scheduled 12-rounder to be stopped by American referee Dave Johnson.
Williams was starting to make things interesting, thus Holyfield, now 43-10-2 (28) 1 ND, reflected the feelings of everyone when he said after the fight: “I’m very disappointed.”
The promotion at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia was staged by Rick Lazes of Ark Promotion and had a worldwide television audience. For the record, the judges were Jim Frio, Rick Modesitt and Dale Hardwick. The World Boxing Federation was represented by its Latin American Coordinator Sergio Sotelo.
