From contributing writer Kenneth R. Wilson:
For the second month in a row, former boxing champion Evander Holyfield kept the U-Haul trucks away from his 109-room mansion in suburban Atlanta. His agent Jerry Schaffer told WGRZ in Buffalo, New York that foreclosure proceedings on Holyfield’s sprawling home are postponed again until next month. The lien holder, JPMorgan Chase & Co., is delaying the foreclosure to give Holyfield more time to repay the mortgage.
Holyfield is scheduled to fight an exhibition match in Ethiopia on July
26 to raise money for AIDS victims in Africa and hopefully pay his bills
in the process. It is unclear how much the former champ will earn for
pummeling his Ethiopian-born opponent, Sammy Retta. The event’s
promoter, Everton Boland, remains tight-lipped about the purse
specifics. But he did say, “Ain’t no boxer fighting for free.”
Ken Sanders, Holyfield’s manager, told Reuters in May that the four-time world champ plans to fight for a world title before the end of the year.
A title fight could mean a rematch against current WBA world champion
Nikolai Valuev. Holyfield lost amidst controversy to the seven-foot
Russian by decision last December in Switzerland after an uneventful twelve rounds. It’s not likely that a rematch, if it happens, will be the Rocky Balboa/Ivan Drago grudge match everyone hopes for, but maybe the “Real Deal” can pay off his house.
