Evander Holyfield Will Get Title Fight This September Says His Manager

by James Slater – Though things have been pretty quiet on the Evander Holyfield front since his closer than expected loss to WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev last December, don’t anyone go thinking that “The Real Deal” has decided to hang up the gloves. The legendary 46-year-old is currently in Addis Ababa, preparing for a July 26th exhibition bout he will box against Ethiopian-born American Sammy Retta.. This exhibition will help to raise money for AIDS and it will the first major boxing bout to be staged in this part of the world.

Keeping busy doing this, Holyfield will then, according to his manager Ken Sanders talking to AFP, get yet another shot at a world title in September. Sanders is also in Addis Ababa, and it was from there that he revealed the news regarding his fighter.

“The September bout could either be against Nikolai Valuev or some other fighter, but it will definitely be against a world champion,” Sanders said Tuesday.

As fans know, the colossal Valuev meets Ruslan Chagaev, the only man to have ever beaten him, on May 30th in a rematch. Should the huge Russian win it’s possible he could wind up boxing Evander in a part-two of that rivalry in September. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but Sanders is sure Holyfield will be in with a reigning world champion next time out. And though most fans wish Holyfield would call it quits on a truly great career – the close loss he suffered at the hands of Valuev late last year aside – this is not going to happen.

Speaking of retirement, Holyfield said he hasn’t even been thinking about hanging up his gloves, at all.

“It [retirement] never even crossed my mind,” Holyfield said recently. “In fact, it [calls for his retirement] reminded me of 1992 when I lost a title and came back to reclaim it. I’ll show the world how to be a champion at this age.”

Due to the way he pushed Valuev all the way last December (in what was a dreadfully dull fight with little real action, the truth be known), it’s easy to understand why Holyfield is not thinking about walking into the sunset. We all know how stubborn “The Warrior” is, and that had he been beaten up convincingly against Valuev he still would have likely fought on.

Coming within a whisker of making history as the oldest heavyweight champion of all-time as he did instead, of course the 42-10(27) legend is going to try again. And it seems he will get his chance in September!

As for the July exhibition against Retta, Evander will be the much bigger and older guy – Retta being a natural super-middleweight. The 35-year-old has a reported record of 18-3 in the weight class.