Holyfield Has Hands Full Before Stopping Dokes in 10th

In one of the best heavyweight bouts in many years, Evander Holyfield outlasted a courageous Michael Dokes at Caesars Palace Saturday night, stopping him in the 10th round and saving for himself a multimillion-dollar payday with Mike Tyson.

Or he could make nothing.

Afterward, Holyfield’s manager, Ken Sanders, challenged Tyson to a $25-million, winner-take-all match in September.

There were some moments in this one, however, when it seemed as if Dokes’ people, not Holyfield’s, would be challenging the heavyweight champion.

Dokes, the 30-year-old former World Boxing Assn. champion, who lost 33 months of his career to cocaine addiction, fought bravely with great skill and great power, and was by no means out of the fight when Holyfield took him out in the 10th.

Holyfield, who weighed 208 pounds, seemed about to cave in against the swift-handed, powerful Dokes on a number of occasions.

But he extricated himself and saved Tyson-Holyfield. And finally, after 21 rounds against heavyweights, he knocked one down.

He didn’t exactly demonstrate that he has a big punch. He did show, though, that he’s one of boxing’s most accurate punchers and one of the sport’s best-conditioned athletes.

Dokes’ heart never failed him Saturday night. But his legs did. He’d lost the bounce by the middle rounds, and when Holyfield finally battered him to the canvas in the 10th, he could barely rise.

It appeared for an instant that one of Dokes’ cornermen, Sterling McPherson, had cost him the fight. When Dokes went down--from a vicious right hand while he was on the ropes--McPherson leaped through the ropes, bounded across the ring and put his arms around his comrade.

At the time, referee Richard Steele was pulling Holyfield away from Dokes, but it wasn’t clear whether he intended to stop it. Later, he said he was.

Holyfield’s people, as they threw out their challenge to Tyson, praised Dokes, who lost only his second fight in a 41-bout career.

“There should be no question who Mike Tyson’s next opponent should be,” said Dan Duva, Holyfield’s promoter. “And the winner of Tyson-Holyfield should fight Michael Dokes.”

Said Ken Sanders, Holyfield’s Atlanta manager: “What we want now is the greatest sports event ever--a winner-take-all fight with Tyson.”

Coming back from drug addiction problems that date to when he was 11, Dokes put on an inspiring effort for the crowd of 3,497.

Hurt, stung and staggered repeatedly, Dokes’ heart drove him back time after time. The same could be said of Holyfield, of course.

When it ended, the three judges had Holyfield ahead by margins of 87-84, 89-82 and 87-83. The Times had Holyfield ahead, 86-84. But right to the end, the idea that Dokes could at any time knock out Holyfield was not beyond anyone’s imagination.

Dokes lost a point in the sixth round when Steele deducted it for a low blow, one of several that Dokes threw in the fight. He hit Holyfield low three times in the first round.

Holyfield hit Dokes low in the first round, and Steele gave Dokes a minute to recover. Afterward, Holyfield implied it was retaliation. “He had hit me low so many times, I felt I had to.”

Holyfield (21-0) said he knew this one would test his resolve by the fourth round.

“In the third round, I hit him on the chin with a real good left hook, and he came right back at me with some good punches, so I knew after that he could take a good shot and that I’d have to be very careful.”

Holyfield-Dokes brought back memories of 1970s matchups such as Larry Holmes-Ken Norton and Holmes-Earnie Shavers.

Holyfield hit Dokes so hard with a left hook in the third, it knocked his mouthpiece out. Yet he fought back immediately, rocking Holyfield with rights to the head inside and slamming left hooks to the ribs. Dokes’ left hooks to the body hurt Holyfield repeatedly, frequently forcing him to back up.

Both men landed hard head blows after the bell to end the sixth, a round in which Dokes was cut over the left eye.

Thirty seconds into the eighth round, Dokes hammered Holyfield with a half-dozen unanswered punches, but Holyfield then snapped Dokes’ head back with a right uppercut.

The end began about midway through the 10th, at center-ring. Holyfield tagged Dokes with a right to the body and made him stumble backward to the ropes with a left hook to the head. There, a long, powerful right caused Dokes to stumble along the ropes, and fall, as his compassionate cornerman, McPherson, suddenly appeared to save his man.