ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 11, 1996 TAG: 9611120042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
EVANDER HOLYFIELD surprised Mike Tyson by punching back, leaving the former heavyweight champion battered.
Blood from a fresh cut was flowing into his left eye and a delirious crowd was chanting ``Holyfield, Holyfield.'' Then a right and a left came crashing on Mike Tyson's head, and the heavyweight champion was down and in desperate trouble.
It was only the sixth round of a fight that would go 37 seconds into the 11th. But as Tyson struggled to get to his feet he left on the canvas the seeming invincibility that had made him the most feared fighter of his time.
Evander Holyfield sensed it immediately. By the next round he was talking to Tyson, pushing him into the corner and blasting away with punches to the head. The befuddled Tyson could do little but wing desperate left hooks in hopes of catching Holyfield with one big punch.
The unthinkable was happening to the ferocious fighting machine who had brutalized his four previous comeback opponents. Tyson was reduced now to fighting on instincts, against a former two-time champion and former 22-1 underdog who was now in total command.
``I don't even remember the fight from the third round on,'' Tyson said later, his face a mess of welts and puffy from the beating he took. ``He hit me in the third or fourth round and I just got whacked out. I don't remember being knocked down.''
Before the first punch was thrown, it didn't seem like it would be Tyson's night. Accustomed to being the crowd favorite, he entered the ring clad only in black trunks and a cutout towel to a mixture of cheers and boos from a pro-Holyfield sellout crowd at the MGM Grand Garden arena.
A scowling Tyson stalked across the ring during introductions while Holyfield smiled confidently in the corner. When the bell rang to start the fight, Tyson's first punch, a right hand, glanced off Holyfield with little of the damage inflicted on the likes of Bruce Seldon, Frank Bruno or Peter McNeeley.
Unlike his four previous comeback fights, this time Tyson was getting hit back nearly every time he threw a punch. The puzzled look on his face as Holyfield won the early rounds turned to one of desperation after his left eye was cut in a clash of heads in the sixth round and Holyfield dropped him with a left a minute later.
Between rounds, Tyson's three cornermen all seemed to want to talk at once, trying to find a new fight plan for the one that had gone woefully wrong. The worried looks on the faces of his huge entourage a few rows back grew even deeper.
Tyson, though, couldn't adapt. The style that worked so well against opponents too intimidated to punch back wasn't working against Holyfield. And neither Tyson nor his corner seemed able to change tactics to cope with this different threat.
By the 10th round, Tyson was trailing on all three ringside scorecards. Even in his bloodied daze, he knew he had to do something big to pull the fight out.
Before the bell rang to start the round, Tyson was in the middle of the ring, prepared to take his last shot. He pawed at blood flowing into his left eye after a brief clash, then landed a hard right and left hook that did nothing to keep the advancing Holyfield off him.
With 20 seconds left in the round, Holyfield unleashed a right hand that sent Tyson staggering across the ring into the ropes. A dozen punches later and it appeared referee Mitch Halpern was going to stop the bout but the bell sounded first.
Bleeding and battered, Tyson wobbled back to his cornermen. Again they shouted wild instructions.
By this time, though, the end was both clear and near, and the crowd was in a frenzy of anticipation.
Still, Holyfield was wary, thinking back to the uppercut Tyson threw that knocked Buster Douglas down and almost pulled that fight out.
``I didn't want to get hit with that uppercut Buster got hit with,'' Holyfield said. ``I was still conscious of that.''
Holyfield shouldn't have worried. Tyson was out on his feet, and as the two fighters met in the middle of the ring to start the 11th round, Holyfield jabbed twice, then unleashed a nine-punch flurry that ended with the referee wrapping an arm around Tyson's neck to protect him from even more punishment.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Mike Tyson is knocked to the canvas during hisby CNBheavyweight fight with Evander Holyfield. Holyfield won in the 11th
round. color. 2. Evander Holyfield (right) lands a punch on Mike
Tyson during their heavyweight fight on Saturday night. Tyson said,
``I don't even remember the fight from the third round on.'' KEYWORDS: BOXING