Holyfield may be running out of boxing lives

Evander Holyfield, who in his boxing career sometimes seems to have more lives than a cat, may have used up his last one after his performance Saturday night in losing his World Boxing Association (WBA) title to John Ruiz.

For a fighter, especially at his level, the 38-year-old Holyfield looked old and fought old.

And many boxing experts say it's time for the former undisputed champion to quit the ring for good.

"It's sad to watch him," said boxing historian and author Bert Sugar. "His timing was off, he was slow and threw very few combinations."

Holyfield, who still dreams of becoming king of the boxing hill once again, was battered around the ring in the last two rounds by a man whose skills are considered by many people to be merely mediocre.

Yet, the 29-year-old Ruiz knocked down Holyfield in the 11th round and thoroughly beat him up in the final round to earn a unanimous decision in their 12-round rematch.

Ruiz, now 37-4, won by scores of 116-110, 115-111 and 114-111. Ruiz will set his sights now on securing a fight with Briton Lennox Lewis, who holds the World Boxing Council and the International Boxing Federation titles.

Holyfield narrowly won a unanimous decision over Ruiz in their first fight last August. Many ringsiders thought Ruiz had won, prompting the WBA to order the rematch.

This fight was a seesaw affair at times as Holyfield occasionally got the better of Ruiz, whose left eye was nearly swollen shut by the end of the fight.

But Ruiz, who is of Puerto Rican descent, becoming the first Hispanic to win a world heavyweight title, knocked down the champion in the 11th round with a straight right to the head.

DIDN'T SEE IT COMING

"I didn't see it coming," Holyfield said. "John Ruiz is a good fighter."

Many boxing experts would disagree with Holyfield.

Despite his loss and a long haul back to title contention ahead of him, if he makes it back at all, Holyfield, who has made and apparently kept many of the millions of dollars he has won in his 16-1/2-year career, says he will not retire.

"I'd love to fight him again," said Holyfield, who is just 1-2-1 over his last four fights and without a knockout win in more than three years.

"It's not over with me," said the 37-5-1 Holyfield, who first won a heavyweight title in 1990. "I've just got to go back to what I used to do and not leave things to the judges."

But some ringsiders think it's time for Holyfield to leave the fighting to younger men.

"Yes, he should retire," says Steve Farhood, boxing analyst for CNN/SI. "He shows the classic symptoms of a great fighter who has gone on too long, such as the inability to pull the trigger when he sees an opening, especially with the right hand.

"He also has a problem of getting hit flush with punches from a fringe contender like Ruiz, and the inability to accelerate when he has his man in trouble," said Farhood, the former editor of Ring Magazine.

Holyfield's refusal to retire is particularly upsetting, Farhood said, because the former champion "doesn't show even a smidgen of understanding that his skills have deteriorated. It is difficult to envision Holyfield defeating a top five heavyweight at this point."

GETTING OLD QUICKLY

"He just was getting very old very quickly," Sugar said of Holyfield's performance at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino in Las Vegas. "This is a man who always thought old age was 15 years away from where he was. He looked like (he was) getting old before our eyes."

Sugar, who said Holyfield was likely worth more than $100 million and by nature doesn't like to spend much of it, thinks the former champion's decision to retire will be based on money.

"Evander loves money," Sugar said, "and when he finds out that he won't make much to get the bejabbers beaten out of him, he'll finally take stock."