When 58-year-old Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield, the only person ever to win the world heavyweight title four times, returns to the ring to fight 47-year-old Kevin McBride on June 5, it will be in a real six-round fight, not an exhibition like the recent Tyson-Jones Jr PPV. All professional boxing rules will apply. Holyfield and McBride will be fighting for the Triller Fight Club Legends Champion Gold Belt, the first of Fight Club’s championship belts.
Holyfield-McBride will join a card that already has the undisputed lightweight title fight between Teófimo López and George Kambosos Jr. The location and times for Triller Fight Club on June 5 will be announced officially in the coming days.
This is truly sad
I am not going to tell the real deal what to do, but I fear for his health long term.
I pray that both fighters come away from the fight in good health
I’d don’t think they’re going into it in good health.
He doesn’t fear why should you?
Long term? Dude he’s already 58 lol. He’s already in his long term.
Stupid. Who would pay these guys to fight anything but an exhibition???
whoever is licensing this needs to lose their license.
I’m afraid that whoever wins is gonna think that they’re good enough to beat the young ones.
Yep! That’s my concern as well. I have no problem with these old guys coming back and fighting other old guys and mma fighters or kickboxers or youtube guys or whoever. But I think that if one of them manages to string together a few wins over that type of opposition, that the old feeling might come back, a promoter might come calling with a payday and they’ll think they still have it — that I do not want to see.
sigh
Oldest fighter to ever appear in an officially sanctioned bout: Saoul Mamby at the age of 60. Took place in the Cayman Islands, and Mamby lost a 4 round decision. Holyfield will be flirting with that record if he fights again after this one. Maybe Orlin Norris or Joe Hipp would be interested in fighting the winner here.
I fully expect the winner of this fight to end up fighting Danny Williams.
I understand that the oldest boxer to ever compete in a sanctioned bout was Walter Edgerton who beat John Henry Johnson in Philadelphia 8-23-1916. Edgerton fought greats like Joe Gans, George Dixon and Young Griffo during his career and was believed to be clearly over 60 when he fought Johnson.
Hmmm….just looked that up. Edgerton’s exact birthdate was unknown, but it looks like there were claims of anywhere from 61 to 64 years old. I guess the unknown birthdate of Edgerton is why Mamby holds that distinction. Edgerton is actually mentioned on the Saoul Mamby-Anthony Osbourne Boxrec page. Mamby’s fight was originally scheduled to be an unsanctioned fight on an Indian reservation in Lapwai, Idaho, but he failed a pre-fight physical, so they moved it to the Cayman Islands, and it became an officially sanctioned fight somehow. He was outpointed by 6-27 Anthony Osbourne. Mamby had 34 losses, but was only stopped once, TKO 1 to Derrell Coley.
Joe Hipp! Blast from the past tough guy!!
I don’t like exhibition fights, but I do wish this would rather be an exhibition fight. This is not good and licensing either of these fighters is ridicules.
Now we are talking!!
Winner fights Damon Reed.
It certainly wiil be an exhibition! An exhibition of greatness! Winner takes on the winner of the clash between Tony Tucker and Bert Cooper…oh wait, my bad, Bert Cooper is dead!
Look for this to land in some third-tier state.
bruce, maybe Mars. because what we really need to see is a 58/59 year old Holyfield in a real fight…..
You keep throwing names out there, you’re gonna mess around and start an eight man Heavyweight tournament. Alright, I’ll go ahead and complete the list. It’s all fun and games until the Atomic Bull comes back.
1) The Brixton Bomber
2) Dangerous Damon
3) TNT
4) The Night Train
5) The Boss
6) The Real Deal
7) The Atomic Bull
8) The Prince (Yep, Hamed’s a Heavyweight now)
No offense to the Clones Colossus here, but I’m assuming he doesn’t get the W. FWIW, I like the Atomic Bull here. He was competitive against decent opposition in most of his last ten fights, and actually has a win against a 21-13 fighter back in 2019.
Holyfield is unable to fight anymore and McBride never could. Holyfield has enough skill to outbox McBride but no longer has power or speed. McBride will be girthy enough to not actually get hurt and of course mcbride is unable to hurt Holyfield. This fight will be awful. Boring, sloppy, slow. McBride may quit due to exhaustion or Holyfield might injure himself (roll an ankle, throw out shoulder , break hand) and have to quit. Baring any injuries Holyfield wud6. Fortunately neither one is capable of hurting the other.
How a man looks on the bag and how he fights in the ring are often times two completely different things. A few months back, I saw footage of Holyfield on the heavybag and he looked very slow, like he cleary should never get in the ring again. Maybe he was just warming up, who knows? But you watch Tyson and roy Jones training clips, they still looked as fast as ever. In the ring though, entirely different story.
Holyfield will beat the shit out of him
Professional boxing needs a mandatory pension fund to prevent this stuff from happening.
Evander Holyfield was an absolute champion – a truly rare and incredible fighter on the inside and outside.
He should not be doing this. It tarnishes what he’s done. If it is because he needs money that would be even more sad.
Maybe this shouldnt be a real fight but maybe an “exhibition” with real real rules. I think people would rather watch old timers fight with normal rules than the BS Tyson/Jones Jr put on. I mean if someone is going to pay Tyson 25 mil to fight Holyfield at this point, why not jump on it.
Probably a sparring session with both agreeing before the fight to make it look real. Not too far from pro wrestling these days.
If McBride somehow wins, can we see McBride v Peter McNeeley that would be a classic. A war between too all time great Heavyweights. And the winner gets Tyson.
Holyfield blew it and could have fought an exhibition with Tyson for way more money and way less health damage and risk.
Triller is throwing a lot of money around that is why this is being sanction. Money talks.
All of you who bitch and whine will watch so that makes you hypocrites.
should be a good bout. If I can watch it, I will. Would love to see Holyfield go back to cruiserweight in the future- no one could handle him at that weight.