BOXING : Holyfield Had Accurate Scouting Report

Evander Holyfield didn’t expend much energy in winning the world heavyweight championship Thursday night, so he applied his fuel reserves to a couple of Las Vegas dance floors early Friday morning.

On a night when you could count a lot of winners and losers, the biggest winner of all danced nonstop from midnight to 1 a.m. at his own victory party at Caesars Palace, then switched to a private club in Las Vegas and continued dancing until 2:45.

Boxing’s Mr. Serious would have danced, laughed and giggled until daybreak, his camp people said, if he hadn’t had to face the media at 9 a.m. Friday.

And why shouldn’t he dance? Six years after turning pro, after missing out on a gold-medal opportunity in the Olympics on a disputed disqualification, after all the work and sacrifice, the quiet kid who learned to box at Atlanta’s Warren Boys Club, finally had boxing’s richest prize--the heavyweight title.

Late Thursday night you could have scanned America and found only one other guy as happy as Evander Holyfield--George Foreman.

Foreman, who already had a contract to fight Holyfield, contingent on Holyfield’s beating Douglas, watched Holyfield flatten Douglas from his living room in Houston, with an ESPN crew. Bill Caplan, Foreman’s longtime aide from his championship years in the early 1970s, called him from Las Vegas minutes after Douglas was counted out in the Mirage hotel parking lot.

“Of course he was very happy,” Caplan said. “He said, ‘I’m fired up. We’re on our way now.’ He also told me he was moved by a big crowd of people who gathered in front of his house, chanting ‘George! George!’ ”

So despite yet another expensive and disappointing major fight on pay-per-view television, they will nevertheless crank up another one, in March or April, probably at Caesars Palace. Holyfield-Douglas, for all its buildup, turned out to be as disappointing as Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran III last year, or Mike Tyson’s one-rounder over Michael Spinks in 1988.

Holyfield, who earned $8,025,000 Thursday, will earn $16 million against Foreman, who signed for $12 million. If he beats Foreman, he’ll pick up $20 million-plus against Tyson a few months later, which would put him close to grossing $50 million in a year, dating from Thursday night.

And what of Mike Tyson? He’s second in line, behind Foreman, said Holyfield’s promoter, Dan Duva, who has, at least temporarily, pushed Don King into the background. For the first time in more than a decade, King doesn’t control even a piece of the heavyweight title.

Had Douglas won Thursday, King and Mirage president Steve Wynn would have co-promoted a Douglas-Tyson rematch.

Douglas remained in hiding Friday morning, while Holyfield and his people spoke with the media for more than an hour.

Douglas’ trainers, J. D. McCauley and John Russell, did show up for the news conference and reacted testily to pointed questions about Douglas’ fitness. Those same questions in turn angered Holyfield’s people, who presented the view that their fighter had something to do with Douglas’ performance.

“We didn’t set out to make a fool out of anyone, so if you’re trying to make us feel any worse than we do right now, keep working on it,” said McCauley, in answer to a question related to the overweight Douglas’ fitness.

“Buster had a bad night. I felt in my heart he was mentally ready to fight. His weight wasn’t a factor, not in the third round. He was flat. The kid got hit.”

Added Russell: “We’re here this morning to honor the new champion, not to answer stupid questions like that.”

Then someone asked: “Aren’t you embarrassed that Buster didn’t try to get up? The referee (Mills Lane) said he didn’t try to get up.”

McCauley: “The referee didn’t take that shot.”

Team Duva said this championship was won in part by a computerized study of Douglas’ previous fights.

“That uppercut Buster missed was one of the things we had Evander looking for, because we knew Buster had a tendency to throw the uppercut from a standing position (rather than from a crouch),” Dan Duva said.

“In training, we had Evander looking for Douglas to drop that right shoulder, to then rock back on his right foot, and come in with a right hand aimed at his chest. We also knew that if you put pressure on Douglas with a good jab, he not only stops throwing his jab, but he starts backing up, too.”

Said Dan’s father Lou, Holyfield’s 68-year-old trainer: “This guy is a trainer’s dream. He listens and he executes. He adapts. So if you write it that Douglas looked terrible . . . maybe Evander had something to do with that, OK?”

Of the Foreman fight, the rotund Duva quipped: “It’s great. One of my fighters is going to fight a guy who’s both older and fatter than I am.”

There was a reason Holyfield’s victory party was held next door at Caesars Palace and not at the Mirage, according to Kathy Duva, Dan’s wife.

“Steve Wynn offered us eight tickets to his post-fight party, and Dan said: ‘We have more than eight friends. Let’s go throw our own party.’ ”

Finally, the new champion was contacted early Friday morning about appearing on a late-night network television show Saturday. Holyfield declined, explaining that he had promised his half-brother, Mike Coley, he’d watch him play football. Coley is a defensive back at Alabama A&M.;

More winners from Thursday:

--The cable television industry, which, according to claims made Friday by Holyfield-Douglas pay-per-view sales chiefs Mike Trainer and Rick Kulis, took orders from more than 1 million households for the fight.

--Heavyweight prospect Riddick Bowe (20-0), who was impressive in knocking out Bert Cooper on the undercard, in his first big test.

--Lou Duva and George Benton, who had Holyfield as well prepared as any challenger seen in the last couple of years.

More losers:

--Wynn, who loses out on Douglas-Tyson II at the Mirage because his man, Douglas, lost. Wynn was so miffed at Douglas’ effort that he sent a written statement to the Friday news conference, suggesting that from now on purses in big-money fights be allocated on a winner-take-all formula.

--Tyson, who now looks as if he’ll have to wait nearly another year for an opportunity to win back the championship.

--And the largest group of losers of all, the million or so pay-per-viewers who paid an average of $34.95 to watch a one-punch fight.