Holyfield in Hurry to Get Tyson in Ring

Evander Holyfield, the former light-heavyweight and cruiserweight champion who fights Michael Dokes tonight in Las Vegas, already is looking ahead to Mike Tyson.

Holyfield believes he has an edge: He knows Tyson can be beaten, having seen the heavyweight champion get knocked out as an amateur by Al (Chico) Evans in 1983.

“I saw him get hit on the chin and fall on his face,” Holyfield told Newsday’s Wallace Matthews. “He was beating the guy from pillar to post and jumped in with a left hook. He got clocked.

“That’s my biggest fear regarding Tyson--that somebody will do that to him before I get the chance.”

Add Holyfield: At the U.S. Olympic team’s training camp in 1984, Holyfield, then a 178-pounder, went two rounds with Tyson, then 201.

“They told him, ‘Use your left hand only,’ but I said, ‘No way, use both hands,’ ” Holyfield recalled. “He hit me with one right hand on the arm and near knocked me across the ring, but every time he stopped punching I’d get my combinations off on him. I know I threw more punches at him than anybody else who sparred with him.”

Trivia Time: Three major league teams once held spring training in Havana. They were?

Ivan the Terrible?Rebuffed in his efforts to play goaltender in practice for the Hartford Whalers, Ivan Lendl turned to the Edmonton Oilers, who were happy to oblige.

Lendl, who seldom puts the ball into the net in his own sport, couldn’t keep the puck out of the net in his adopted one.

“I’m glad he was there,” said Edmonton Co-Coach John Muckler. “He gave us confidence on the power play.”

Add Lendl: Having grown up with the sport in his native Czechoslovakia, Lendl is critical of the increasing violence in the NHL.

“I don’t like the fighting,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mike Perricone. “I don’t like the high-sticking. . . . It takes away from the hockey skills.

“In the English soccer league, for example, there are no nasty fouls but it’s rough. That’s the way hockey should be. I don’t think there is a need to slap somebody over the head with a stick. You can body-check him and pin him on the boards.”

Trivia Answer: The Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants.

Quotebook: From Ivan Lendl, who was playing night matches at a tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week: “I don’t like night matches. I think night is for dinner, bed and watching hockey games.”