Evander Holyfield did his part in a performance that made him feel young again. Now he’ll go to Memphis to see what his win over Hasim Rahman means in the heavyweight picture.
Holyfield turned back the clock Saturday night with some surprising power and quick combinations before Rahman’s grotesquely swollen head forced the fight to be stopped in the eighth round.
The official verdict was a split technical decision for the former four-time champ.
Just how revived Holyfield is depends largely on the outcome of Mike Tyson’s title fight with Lennox Lewis.
While Holyfield showed glimpses of how good he was in his prime, the hardest of his shots came were head butts in the fourth and seventh rounds that caused a swelling the size of a baseball to form on the top left forehead of Rahman.
“I have a cut in the middle of my forehead and an extra head on my head,” said Rahman, who nursed the growth with an ice bag after the fight.
