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Holyfield stops Moorer
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Evander Holyfield came back from a biting to give Michael Moorer a beating.Holyfield knocked Moorer down five times in a wild heavyweight title fight Saturday night before the fight was finally stopped with a battered Moorer sitting on his stool in the corner after the eighth round.
"He came to win," said Holyfield, who added Moorer's IBF heavyweight title to his WBA belt in one of the fiercest title fights in years. "When a guy comes to win it's always going to be a good fight."
Moorer was valiant under tremendous pressure from Holyfield and held his own until he was put down once in the fifth round. Holyfield knocked him down twice in the seventh round and twice more in the eighth round.
"I was going to keep getting up," Moorer said.
But ring doctor Flip Homansky wouldn't give Moorer a chance to get up again. He looked at Moorer in the corner and told referee Mitch Halpern to wave the fight to a close.
"Every time he got knocked down he got up and answered my questions," Halpern said. "The last time he did not answer my question."
It was a gritty performance for Moorer, often called a reluctant warrior in the ring. And it brought him praise from the ultimate warrior, Holyfield, who was coming off two huge wins over Mike Tyson.
Like the last Tyson fight, Holyfield was bleeding again against Moorer. But this time it wasn't because of a bite to his ear. Rather, it was from a head butt in the third round when Moorer was still very much in the fight and the two heavyweights were going toe-to-toe.
"There was blood in my eye, but I've been there before and I know what to do about it," Holyfield said.
With a crowd of some 10,000 roaring at the nonstop acton, Holyfield unleashed right hand after right hand against Moorer, who kept getting knocked down and kept getting up again.
Even after being knocked down for the fourth time, in the eighth round, Moorer motioned to Holyfield to bring it on. It was in sharp contrast to previous Moorer fights in which he had been roundly criticized for his unwillingness to mix it up.
Moorer was in the fight early, winning the first two rounds on two ringside scorecards and splitting them on a third. He wasn't afraid to exchange punches with Holyfield, and sent the WBA champion staggering across the ring with a right hand late in the first round.
Moorer had been holding his own, rocking Holyfield with right hands and winning some early rounds. Holyfield was cut in the third round over the right eye and didn't seem able to hurt Moorer in the early rounds.
Then the fight suddenly changed -- on a short right hand from Holyfield that caught Moorer directly on the chin.
Moorer crumpled to the canvas, then got to his knees quickly and finally got up at the count of seven. He fought back until the bell sounded to end the round.
But the beating had just begun, and Moorer was to take the brunt of it.
In the seventh round, Holyfield was on the ropes, and appeared to be baiting Moorer when he suddenly unleashed a left-right that sent Moorer across the ring. Holyfield followed him and hit Moorer with a left and right uppercut that put him down for a second time.
Once again Moorer was up, but Holyfield followed him and dropped him again with a left-right 24 seconds later. Moorer got up immediately and again lasted the round.
But the end appeared near, and Holyfield sensed it. With the crowd roaring, he came out in the eighth round determined to end the fight.
After the seventh round, Homansky looked at Moorer and Holyfield gave him another reason to do so in the eighth. He put Moorer down with a left and right at 1:50, and this ime Moorer was slower to get up.
Moorer (39-2) tried desperately to fight back and at one point motioned for Holyfield to bring it on. Then Holyfield (35-3) landed two right uppercuts in a six-punch series that put Moorer down for the final time. He got up and the bell sounded to end the round, but the fight was as good as over.
The fight was in contrast to the first one between the two in April 1994 when both fighters appeared content to trade from the outside and there was only one knockdown.
Moorer said he was ready to go on.
"I'm disappointed that the doctor stopped the fight," he said.
Holyfield, who weighed 214 pounds, nine less than Moorer, went over to Moorer after the fight ended and asked him if he was all right.
"The uppercut was working," Holyfield said. "Mike was sticking the jab and I wanted to stay with my game plan. I couldn't get frustrated."
The win gave Holyfield both the WBA title he brought into the ring and Moorer's IBF title. He now wants to fight WBC champion Lennox Lewis, who was at ringside, in a fight to unify the heavyweight titles for the first time since the early 1990s.
"If Don King can work something out with Lennox Lewis, I'm ready to put it on the line," Holyfield said.
Lewis called Holyfield's performance "mediocre."
"They're not ready for me yet, none of them," Lewis said.
"We'll try to get these two great champions together," King said.
Holyfield was in his dressing room, eyes closed and singing to gospel music, as a long undercard dragged the start of the fight well past its appointed time.
The fight drew a crowd of only about 10,000 at UNLV's campus arena, far less than the 16,000 who packed the MGM Grand Garden arena for Holyfield's two fights with Tyson.
Holyfield earned $20 million for the fight, upping his earnings to $67 million in his last three fights and some $170 million for his career.