Evander Holyfield's Incredible Combination Against Michael Dokes: GIF Spotlight

It was the eleventh of March, 1989. Evander Holyfield had unified the cruiserweight division and moved up to heavyweight, to prove his case as a challenger to the division's king. He was matched against Michael Dokes, following his win over Pinklon Thomas. The fight was an action-packed Las Vegas night displaying the skills and guts of both fighters. But whoever started it, it got dirty, and Evander Holyfield knew how to win when things got dirty.

Here we have a beautiful, ugly, completely illegal, very damaging combination. It's the dirty 1-2 (headbutt, low blow). Holyfield, later on, with a much more legal maneuver, would score a TKO over Dokes. He'd splatter Buster Douglas for the heavyweight title the following calendar year. Unlike a typical fighter today, he didn't go from Dokes to a title shot. In the brief time between Dokes and Douglas, he'd knockout all three of Adilson Rodrigues, Alex Stewart and Seamus McDonagh. You don't see schedules like this for heavyweight contenders anymore. That was a risky, grueling trip to the top for Evander Holyfield, especially considering most champions from lower divisions can piggyback on their lower division accomplishments when they move up in weight.


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In May of 1986, one-time prospect Terry Mims, well-worn survivor and then journeyman, making ends meet, did his best to stay upright and upset Evander Holyfield. Evander was burning through the ranks to get a title shot against Dwight Muhammad Qawi while still very short on professional experience. Holyfield was 10-0, while Mims was 13-12, according to Boxrec. During the fight, he was announced as 18-11, winning 15 by knockout. Nobody has to be right, but somebody has to be wrong. Holyfield put Mims down with a humdinger of an uppercut while Mims was trying to press ahead and had just landed one of his own to far less effect. Holyfield also goes down at the same time, because an invisible Emanuel Steward is tackling him.

Holyfield KO5 Terry Mims. I believe Mims was hit squarely on the nose by the uppercut and he was bleeding on the canvas from it when he was trying to get back up. Holyfield would get Qawi in his very next match and fight something tantamount to the cruiserweight version of Ali/Frazier with him. He would win the fight also. Mims would go on to lose most of his fights after this, but he would still get the most high profile name under his win column in Leon Spinks, despite that.

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Conan O'Brien hosted Late Night from 1993-2009 and there was a running pugilistic gag. There was also a dark genius who lived in the shadows of Late Night and SNL named Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog). Conan would often have a wide assortment of faked celebrity guests appear on his screen where only the mouths would move in real time on a still photo of the person's face and one of his actors would play their lips. Faux Don King would show up regularly to inflict ebullient verbal torture on Conan, his "potato-eatin', leprechaunical [sic], young friend." One night, he showed up for an interview with Evander Holyfield.

This was after the first Holyfield/Lewis match took place, in the wake of the controversial scoring. Holyfield pretended to do what perhaps every fighter Don King's ever represented has wanted to do. Perhaps they can all watch this GIF as a form of therapy. On Late Night, Robert Smigel also played the lips of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. If you squint, you may see a pattern in it.


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Evander Holyfield steps out of the darkness, into the light, puts up his dukes, gets into his rhythm. This dramatic sequence is the beginning of Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing, on the Sega Genesis video game console, 1992. They have better graphics now, supposedly. But do they capture the intensity? No way. Not in this era. These kids today, they don't have the gaming intensity of the old-timers. More technical graphics, less soul. 'Vander's Real Deal would have too much heart for Fight Night Champion in its prime. Prime for prime. Prime for prime, it's 'Vander time!



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Evander Holyfield, for when you're so into Christmas: Reaction GIF Spotlight

Evander Holyfield, Christmas Day, 2004, courtesy of the clips published on the Holyfield Management Youtube Channel. The man is just getting down with the holiday spirit. That's all you can say.


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"One thing a lot of people don't understand, you know, when a guy is holding, if his tactic is to throw a combination and to hold, that's his fight plan, you know. Providing that he is not holding so much that he is interrupting the other guy, or, you know, making the fight a bad fight, there's not too much you can do. But a lot of people don't understand that, you know, when there is holding, that means that a person is holding, but the other person, most of the time, is allowing him to hold."

~Richard Steele, the fifteenth of May, 1987, discussing the controversial and unsatisfactory match between Ossie Ocasio and Dwight Muhammad Qawi, which he'd refereed. The interview actually took place after both the Ocasio fight and the following match between Evander Holyfield and Ricky Parkey (a significantly more fan-friendly affair), on the Showtime channel.

This match was one of those matches that the commentators want someone to pay for after being forced to watch it. Richard Steele threw up a roadblock for Marv Albert in the post-fight interview, by saying he basically had no problem with the scoring and there wasn't much more to be done about the clinching. It was a funny interview in a way, with Albert clearly and fruitlessly wanting Steele to echo his sentiments, and an interesting take on clinching from a professional referee and former fighter. With regard to Steele's easygoing scoring opinion, basically saying the judges know best, Marv Albert actually said "You're kidding me." Steele gave Albert no quarter in his passivity. He didn't even give him a penny. He rolled right over his prodding in polite and unassuming fashion. He was almost controversial by way of trying not to be controversial.



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Benny Hinn "Heals" Evander Holyfield: GIF Spotlight

Back when Evander Holyfield was diagnosed with a heart malfunction, Benny Hinn, the notorious fundraiser and faith healer, got a shot at some attention. This GIF is from the Fox Sports Behind The Glory documentary on Holyfield, showing Hinn healing Holyfield and some other lucky folks.









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