Loss of Title Weighs Heavily on Holyfield : Boxing: Former champion struggles with coming to terms of his first professional defeat.

Evander Holyfield. Hero. Sportsman. Role model. All-around good guy.

That was the package Dan Duva & Co. spent four years trying to sell along with their undersized heavyweight, and they did a good job with both. Holyfield won the title and grossed an estimated $80 million, probably the most money ever earned by a boxer.

But since Holyfield’s Nov. 13 loss to Riddick Bowe, Duva & Co. may be re-thinking their whole sales campaign. It looks like George Bush swallowed his pasting at the polls better than Holyfield has accepted his first career beating in the ring.

In a telephone interview with Newsday this week, Holyfield expanded on statements he made to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution implying that Duva betrayed him by having a promotional interest in Bowe as well. And he indicated his disenchantment with Duva dates at least to the Oct. 31 Lennox Lewis-Razor Ruddock fight, when he was dismayed to see what he considered “his team” -- Duva and co-managers Shelly Finkel and Lou Duva -- jumping into the ring to congratulate Lewis after his second-round KO of Ruddock.

“To see Dan grab Lennox in the ring and be so happy about the guy, that’s an uneasy thought,” Holyfield said. “I don’t want my people behind some other guy.”

The bad feelings have caused Holyfield to point at Duva & Co. for his loss, implying that if they did not have a piece of Bowe, they would have done more to secure a Holyfield win. “If the other fighter was promoted by Bob Arum or Don King, I feel they would have done everything possible for me,” he said.

Whether that means Holyfield thinks Duva could have arranged for “friendlier” officials is unclear, becuase Holyfield wouldn’t specify. But now, having watched the tape “many times,” Holyfield thinks he should have gotten the decision, or “at least a draw,” even though he gestured an acknowledgement of defeat to Bowe in the ring as the scorecards were read.

“At the end of the fight when I heard the lopsided scoring, I thought he must have beat the tar out of me,” Holyfield said. “But after I saw the tape, I saw the fight could have been mine by a round. I’m not saying I dominated, but being the champion, I think I could have got the decision.”

But Holyfield said that he has reconsidered his statements of last week and will not fight again, even if he could get a rematch with Bowe.

“It’s just time for me to step down,” he said. “Really, ever since Tyson pulled out with the rib injury (Oct. 18, 1991), I’ve just kind of felt out of it. It’s just pressure each and every day. It’s something like being the president; you don’t have any off-day. You’re always the champion, wherever you go. I don’t know if I’ll ever find anything I enjoyed like boxing, but I’m not going to fight again.”

When told of Holyfield’s statements, Duva said, “It’s a shame he wants to make excuses for losing the fight. There’s no question Bowe won the fight fair and square. Evander knows it. I feel terrible that he’s having this much trouble dealing with the loss. We knew what we had, a small heavyweight who at some point was going to have to fight bigger, stronger and younger guys. We knew he wasn’t built to last for five or six years as heavyweight champion. We tried to make him as much money as possible, and I think we did.

“He said all the right things the night of the fight; he came out with such dignity and such class. And now, he just looks like a crybaby.

Bowe has been in New York City this week to do some holiday shopping. Among the things he bought are tombstones for the graves of his late brother Henry and sister Brenda, both of whom died violently in 1988.

“I could never afford them before, so this is my Christmas present to them,” he said.

Bowe also spent $250,000 to buy his mother a house near his in Fort Washington, Md. The last time he moved her there, Mom got bored and moved back to Brooklyn. “After what I paid for this one,” Bowe said, “she better live in it.”