Boxing
HOLYFIELD, TONEY PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

25.06 - Legendary champion Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield will step into the ring against current International Boxing Federation (IBF) Cruiserweight Champion James “Lights Out” Toney in a 10-round heavyweight showdown live on SHOWTIME Pay Per View, Saturday, October 4. The HOLYFIELD - TONEY pay-per-view telecast begins at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, and carries a suggested retail price of $44.95. Goossen Tutor Promotions will present the event.

EVANDER HOLYFIELD (38-6-2, 25 KOs):

“I am honored to have this fight. It is my goal to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. I will be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. It just takes time. I may not get it (undisputed title) when I want to, but I will get it.”

“I am glad to be fighting, and strictly to have another promoter who is willing to promote a good fight, and who is willing to be fair. I have been boxing now for 32 years. I have had my ups, and I have had my downs. I have always been the one who has had to make judgments. For this fight to take place, I had to make another judgment. I want to fight for the title, but I am not going to let someone abuse me. I do not have to be abused. I just have to get back in line and do just like everybody else, but I am not going to sign another contract with Don King. I am not going to give any negotiation rights, so when I win, I can be taken advantage of.”

“I am happy to be able to fight people that want to fight me. I will give a good showing, and I will be at my very best.”

“I thought it (Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko) was a good fight. When heavyweights fight, usually one is running, and the other one cannot catch him. They actually fought in that fight. It (Klitschko’s cut) was a good reason for them to stop the fight. The gash was getting worse and worse. People made a big deal out of whether Klitschko was winning. It did not make a difference. He got stopped. They stopped the fight.”

“Lewis does not give anyone any credit. He has been that way with all of the other fighters too. Lewis is arrogant. People want him to lose, but somebody has got to beat him. I do not think Lewis owes him (Klitschko) a rematch. My fight was more contested than that. If he chooses to fight him, that is fine.”

“It is not about me trying to prove anything to anyone. I have to be the very best that I can be. I do not take anything for granted. I have go out and do my best, and he (Toney) has to do his best. Whether people get the reality of this is on them. If he (Toney) weighed 65 pounds, I would have to win. If he weighed 300 pounds, I would have to win. I am a winner. I do not look at size. I look at the fact that I have to do the things necessary to win.”


JAMES TONEY (66-4-2, 42 KOs):

“It is a pleasure to fight a great champion like Evander Holyfield. I thank him for giving me the opportunity. I want to fight the best opposition. I have always wanted to fight as a heavyweight. I want to fight the best one out there. I did not want to fight no John Ruiz. I do not do that. I feel I am the greatest fighter in the world, pound for pound. My thing is to go out there and fight the best opposition, and that is what I am doing.”

“We (Holyfield and Toney) are both great fighters. We are both great warriors. We do not run from nobody. We are not going to sit there and hug and cry and kiss like you all saw last Saturday (Lewis-Klitschko). Come Oct. 4, I will be ready. It is time to go to war. He is a warrior, and I am a warrior. That is all we know how to do. This is not a game. You do not play boxing. You play football. You play baseball. It is time to go to work.”

“Jim Thomas, let me correct you on one thing. I am the best fighter Evander has ever fought. I am more skilled than anyone he has ever seen before.”

“I am not just a cruiserweight champion. I look at Holyfield and I as a championship fight because we are heavyweights. We fight. We do not hug and kiss each other and to put our heads into each others eyes like some girls did on Saturday (Lewis-Klitschko).”

“On Oct. 4, we are going to war. It is going to be like (Marvin) Hagler - (Tommy) Hearns, Arturo Gatti. We are warriors. That is the way it should be. That is how it is going to be. Holyfield is going to do what he has got to do. I damn sure am going to do what I have to do to win this fight impressively too, not running or shaking my ass around the ring because people do not pay to see that. People pay to see blood and guts. That is what I bring to every fight. It does not matter if they are middleweight or heavyweight. That is what I do best. I bang people up. I hurt people for a living. I am in the hurt business. That is my job.”

“There is no such thing as losing. We have to see (if he stays at heavyweight). We have to see where the road takes us. We are ready for anything. I will fight anybody, anywhere, anytime. It does not matter. Put up, or shut up. I look at this as the only heavyweight fight because Holyfield is the best heavyweight out there. He does not run from anybody. We do not turn down anything but our collars.”

“I might come into this fight at 250 (pounds). I might come in at 220. It depends on how I feel. I will be ready. I will be ready.”


JAY LARKIN (Senior Vice President and Executive Producer for Showtime Sports and Event Programming):

“This really is a thrill for a number of reasons. The fight began with a conversation over a glass of wine with a dear friend, Jim Thomas, at a watering hole we go to in New York. He expressed frustration with trying to move things in the right direction for Evander. This took place all of two weeks ago. Our position was, whatever you need us to do, we are there. We will pull it together. We are not going to push you. You come to us and tell us what you need to get the road started that you wanted to be on. That led to a phone call to another dear friend, Dan Goossen. Dan said, ‘let me talk to James. If he is on board, we love this fight. That is the genesis. It could not have been simpler.”
“These were conversations that took place in less than a half an hour, or an hour. These were not drawn out negotiations. This was not a back-and-forth, difficult process to squeeze every nickel out of the negotiation. These were two guys who really want to fight each other. When you have the two parts of the equation that want to make a deal, the deal surprisingly comes together quite easily. That has been a great pleasure for us.”

“This will be the 18th appearance of Evander Holyfield on SHOWTIME. Evander has fought on SHOWTIME more than any other network. His win record is quite extraordinary.”

“On Oct. 4, you are going to see something wonderful in boxing. You are going to see two guys who only know one direction, and that is forward. Neither one takes a step backward. This fight is going to be fought in the middle of the ring. This fight could be fought in a phone booth. These guys are going to bang away at each other because they both have a great deal to prove. It is going to be an awesome fight.”

“One of the reasons this fight was put together under a cloak of secrecy was that the longer you hang out there, the longer you talk about what you are going to do, the more chance you give people who have their own personal agenda to take apart what they are going to do to fit their own needs. There are a lot of people who did not want to see this fight come together, and are not happy about this fight coming together. It messes up a lot of plans that are being done behind closed doors.”

“If you are pee on somebody’s rug, you do not give them advance notice and let them roll it up.”


JIM THOMAS (Holyfield’s Adviser):

“One of the things that is undisputed here is that Evander Holyfield has consistently throughout his career sought out the toughest opponents available. He fought and defeated 10 different men who have held major heavyweight titles, more than anyone in history.”

“It is no secret that I have been working for three months on trying to put together Holyfield against Roy Jones Jr. Roy Jones’ promoters, whether with or without his knowledge, I do not know, made him unavailable. So, we had to look to the next toughest opponent, and that was James Toney.”

“Evander always goes forward and comes ready to fight. We found a guy that has that reputation on both counts. This fight could be made only if it could be made very quickly. You had two sides that wanted to do something that was fair. I have just finished too many discussions with someone who did not want to be fair. It was just a breath of fresh air to deal with a promoter who wanted to make a fair deal.”

0 comments
 


Bookmark and Share

 

If you detect any issues with the legality of this site, problems are always unintentional and will be corrected with notification.
The views and opinions of all writers expressed on eastsideboxing.com do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Management.
Copyright © 2001- 2015 East Side Boxing.com - Privacy Policy