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Evander Holyfield Will Fight Sultan Ibragimov for Heavyweight Belt in October

Aug 2, 2007 – 2:22 PM
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Michael David Smith

Michael David Smith %BloggerTitle%

The planned Oct. 13 heavyweight unification bout between Sultan Ibragimov and Ruslan Chagaev has been canceled, and Evander Holyfield will fight Ibragimov that night instead.

That means the fight will get a lot more mainstream media attention in the United States, but it will have a lot less cachet as far as fight fans are concerned. A fight between Ibragimov and Chagaev would have unified the WBA and WBO belts and featured two boxers widely considered among the top heavyweights in the world.

Holyfield has won his last four fights, but he'll turn 45 less than a week after he fights Ibragimov, and he's a far cry from the fighter he was in his 20s and 30s. If boxing were a meritocracy, Holyfield wouldn't get a title shot. The good news is that Ibragimov should make short work of Holyfield, and that might convince him to retire.
Filed under: Sports

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