Boxing: Holyfield chasing a dream already lived

Evander Holyfield may have ended up in hospital after several savage brawls, suffered a heart attack in the ring and lost a large chunk of an ear in another infamous fight, but he refuses to quit.

At the Thomas and Mack Centre on the outskirts of Las Vegas today, Holyfield fights for the 55th time in a career that started in 1984, when he meets Frans Botha for the World Boxing Federation heavyweight title.

It is the same glorious belt that Joe Bugner won by default at 50 after James "Bonecrusher" Smith, who was 45, damaged his back throwing a jab.

Holyfield is 47 now and looks and moves like an ancient and retired veteran of some of modern boxing's most memorable, brutal and shocking fights.

The problem is that after making over US$200m, he is still alarmingly chasing the dream; a dream that he lived for about a decade when he was a true great of the ring.

"I have my ambitions and winning this title and getting a fight with David Haye is still something that I know I can do," said Holyfield a few days ago when he met Botha - who, by the way, is 41 - at a lunch where they looked like two fit, but old and kindly grandads.

Sadly, and predictably, there are still men and women in the boxing business who are prepared to whisper in Holyfield's ear and turn his head with promises of yet more riches and glory.

Since he turned professional, a lot of people have worked with Holyfield and then moved on when it was their turn to realise what their predecessor had seen; there will, however, always be somebody prepared to pick up the discarded spit bucket of a faded idol such as Holyfield.

"Why is it me that always has to end up in hospital?" Holyfield asked a few nights before he fought Michael Moorer for the first time.

It was 1994 and he would lose to Moorer, suffer a heart attack during the fight, end up in hospital but, sensationally, win the heavyweight title back a couple of years later by stopping Mike Tyson for the first time.

In the Tyson rematch, he made $30m but lost part of his ear in the process.

After the second Tyson fight he knocked out Moorer, fought back-to-back fights with Lennox Lewis, including the controversial draw in New York, and won the world title for the third time in 2000 by beating John Ruiz.

In late 2008 he came close to winning the title for a fourth time when he narrowly lost to Nikolai Valuev, the so-called Beast from the East.

Hopefully, Holyfield will look bad enough today for him finally to call it a day after the Botha fight.