IT’S THE NEW DEAL : Still Recovering From Olympic Disappointment, Holyfield Has His Sights Set on Tyson

It’s a flashback that won’t go away:

It’s the semifinals of the 1984 Olympic Games boxing tournament. A light-heavyweight from New Zealand, Kevin Barry, is on the floor, apparently knocked out by an Evander Holyfield left hook.

But why is the Yugoslav referee, Gligoraje Novicic, pointing his finger in Holyfield’s face? And why is Pat Nappi, the U.S. coach, on the ring apron, screaming and shaking a fist at the referee? What is that expression of shock doing on Holyfield’s face?

Novicic ruled that Holyfield had hit Barry a split-second after his “stop” command. Holyfield, who at the time was on his way to not only a gold medal but the tournament’s “most outstanding boxer” award, was disqualified.

Two days later, when they gave Holyfield a bronze medal, boos, not cheers, erupted from a crowd of 16,000 at the Sports Arena.

At the time, some referred to it as The Raw Deal. But these days, Evander Holyfield T-shirts proclaim: “The Real Deal.”

“Yeah, it still hurts,” Holyfield said the other day.

“I still feel like that gold medal (awarded to Yugoslavia’s Anton Josipovic) belongs to me, but that’s just how it goes. It taught me one thing--never take anything for granted in boxing.”

Nearly four years after his Olympic heartache, Holyfield, 25, has progressed as rapidly as a professional as he did as an amateur, when he came out of nowhere in mid-1984 to make the Olympic team.

Some boxing people believe Holyfield may be the only guy left out there capable of a competitive showing with Mike Tyson, the undefeated heavyweight champion. This view is held by the Holyfield people, of course, and they seem to be looking way past his appointment with Puerto Rican Carlos DeLeon at Caesars Palace tonight.

They’re looking ahead to early or mid-1989, to the big guy with the gold teeth.

In what his trainer, Lou Duva, says is Holyfield’s farewell to the cruiserweight division (or junior-heavyweight, as the division is also known), Holyfield is a lopsided favorite tonight to unify the championship.

DeLeon is the World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion. Holyfield is the World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion.

“We’re going to move Evander up to heavyweight, and I want him to fight three or four heavyweights before we sign for Tyson,” Duva said Thursday. “We’re thinking of guys like Trevor Berbick, Pinklon Thomas, Orlin Norris, Carl Williams, James Douglas. . . . We’ll put Evander on a high-tech strength program after this fight, and he’ll be ready to take on those guys.”

Tonight’s unification bout is at 190 pounds. Holyfield said his “walking around weight” was 202 when he went into training for DeLeon. Is that big enough to fight Tyson, who goes 215-218?

Said Holyfield’s manager, Ken Sanders: “We’ll start out by getting Evander up to 210-215. If he thinks he’s too slow or sluggish at that weight, then we’ll bring him back down to 205.”

Sanders, who owns several auto dealerships and who employs an executive trainee named Evander Holyfield, says Tyson’s biggest paydays will come when he meets The Real Deal.

“If both guys continue unbeaten, then for the first Tyson fight, in early ‘89, we’re looking at $22 to $23 million for Tyson, $10 to $12 million for Evander. But after Evander beats him and we sign for the rematch, that’s when you’ll see numbers that will really blow people away.”

Question: What does Carlos DeLeon have to say about all this? And why is this man a 10-1 underdog?

“He talks like he’s already beaten me,” DeLeon said Thursday, through an interpreter. “After this fight, it’s going to be me moving up to fight Tyson, not him.”

DeLeon has credentials worthy enough to suggest 10-1 odds are a little too long. For one thing, DeLeon, 28, was a professional boxer a full decade before Holyfield turned pro. He has 43-3-1 record and has been in 13 world title fights. No one has ever called him a big puncher, but he’s ring-smart and is quick afoot.

Holyfield, 25, is 17-0. If you’re looking for a soft spot in the Holyfield dossier, look at the first Dwight Muhammad Qawi fight, in 1986, when Holyfield won the WBA cruiserweight title on a decision.

Qawi, on the downhill side of his career at the time, had Holyfield out on his feet twice in the 15th round. In a rematch last December, Holyfield knocked out Qawi in the fourth round.

Some boxing experts say that Holyfield, largely through devotion to the work ethic, is much the better fighter than he was the first time he fought Qawi.

“When you work as hard as this kid does, you have to get better,” Duva said. “From day one, on the day I got him after the Olympics, he’s the hardest working kid I’ve ever had.”

Said Sanders: “Evander is great fighter, but to me he’s a better person than he is a fighter. He works for my auto dealership business, and if I ask him to be someplace at 9, he’s not there at 9:01, he’s there at 9. He’s a very hard-working, loyal, honest, Christian type of guy. He’s got great work habits.”

To Holyfield, being good isn’t good enough.

“When I retire from boxing, I want to go to college and get a degree in business,” he said. “And I don’t want to just pass. I don’t want to have to say, ‘well, I passed.’ That’s not good enough. I want to be at the top of my class.

“And that’s how I fight. Looking good isn’t enough. I want to be superb, every time.”

Holyfield bears a strong resemblance to the 1940s and 1950s light-heavyweight and heavyweight, Ezzard Charles.

“I’ve watched films of Charles, and I do carry my hands like he did,” Holyfield said. “But I think I’m busier than he was. I never tried to pattern myself after him. Actually, I try to box like smaller-weight boxers. I’m always thinking about being busy.”

Holyfield talked animatedly about the big guy, at the end of the trail.

“Tyson is a devastating puncher, and he’s got the perfect kind of body for it--short and powerful. He’s got great hand speed and throws great combinations--boom-boom-boom-boom--and it seems like he always gets you with at least one of them.

“But I’ve got good hand speed, too, so it’ll be a good matchup when we meet.

“Also, remember this about Tyson--so far he hasn’t had to defend himself against anyone. He intimidates everyone so bad, they’re all backin’ up against him and fighting strictly a defensive fight. So no one’s ever seen if he can box defensively. No one’s ever thrown punches at him. I’ll make him defend himself.”

In the summer of ‘84, Tyson was on the outside looking in. Beaten twice by heavyweight Henry Tillman in the Olympic trials, Tyson made the trip to Los Angeles anyway and worked out with the Olympic team.

“We were friends, he was a nice guy,” Holyfield said. “He wanted to fit in with the group, but he couldn’t. We were on the team and he wasn’t.”

Boxing Notes

One of Holyfield’s Olympic teammates, Meldrick Taylor, fights on the undercard at Caesars tonight. Taylor was the gold medalist in the 125s at Los Angeles. He’ll be at about 140 tonight when he meets Ivan Gonzalez of Miami, 14-1 with 9 knockouts. . . . Taylor is 17-0-1 with 9 knockouts.