BOXING : Holyfield Is Unimpressive in Victory

Evander Holyfield came back to boxing early Sunday morning with a victory, but it was anything but triumphant.

The former heavyweight champion scored a unanimous 12-round decision over Alex Stewart in a match that drew loud boos from the crowd at the Convention Center in Atlantic City, N.J.

“I thought I fought a pretty good fight,” said Holyfield, fighting for the first time since he lost the title to Riddick Bowe on Nov. 13.

“He was a game fighter,” Holyfield said. “I know everybody wanted me to take him out in the first or second round.”

Holyfield not only failed to take Stewart out, he never had him in serious trouble and he fought without much fire.

Judge Eugene Grant scored it 119-109. Frank Brunette and Al De Vito each had it 118-110.

Holyfield hopes to get a rematch with Bowe in November.

His rematch with Stewart certainly did not come close to rivaling their first fight, during which Holyfield stopped Stewart on a bad cut over the right eye in the eighth round Nov. 4, 1989.

Holyfield, who weighed 218 pounds, 10 less than Stewart, opened a cut above Stewart’s left eye 42 seconds into the second round. The cut, however, did not trouble Stewart for the rest of the fight.

Holyfield, who at times seemed to be fighting in slow motion, was much more active than Stewart, who often looked tired. The fight ended at 12:45 a.m. EDT.

Holyfield’s best round might have been the 11th, when he hurt Stewart with four or five good shots to the head, wobbled him with a right hand with 50 seconds left in the round and then landed a right-left shortly before the bell.

By then, however, quite a few of the estimated 9,000 fans were already headed for the exits.

Holyfield, who earned at least $2 million, won for the 29th time against one loss.

Stewart, who turned 29 Saturday, got $400,000 in taking his fifth defeat. He has won 32 times, all by knockout.

On the undercard, Vinnie Pazienza defeated Lloyd Honeyghan when Honeyghan’s corner threw in the towel early in the 10th round.

Pazienza knocked down Honeyghan for the second time in the fight in the ninth round. In the 10th, Pazienza hurt Honeyghan with a left hook. Honeyghan shouldered Pazienza, then staggered back as Pazienza pursued him to a neutral corner. Referee Tony Orlando then stopped the fight.

Pazienza, 30, a former lightweight and junior middleweight champion fighting as a middleweight, was in charge most of the way. He also knocked down Honeyghan, a former welterweight champion from Britain, in the third round.

Pazienza, 30, winning for the third time since coming back from a broken neck suffered in a crash on Nov. 12, 1991, improved to 34-5 with 26 knockouts. Honeyghan is 41-4 record with 28 knockouts.

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Nigel Benn knocked down Lou Gent three times in the third round, then knocked him down twice in the fourth round to retain his World Boxing Council super-middleweight title at London.

Benn (37-2) said he wants a title unification fight with World Boxing Organization super-middleweight champion Chris Eubank, also a British fighter, who defeated him three years ago when both were middleweights.

Saturday’s fight was Benn’s seventh world title bout and his third defense of the title.

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Dingaan Thobela used sharp combinations to bloody the face of champion Tony Lopez and won the World Boxing Assn. lightweight title by a unanimous decision at Sun City, South Africa.

Thobela (29-1-1) lost a unanimous decision to Lopez in February, but this time won by scores of 118-112, 116-114 and 116-114.

Lopez (41-4-1), from Sacramento, twice held the International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight title and stopped Joey Gamache to win the WBA lightweight championship.

After Saturday’s fight, Lopez wore a bandage over his left eye. Of Thobela, he said: “He just had a style I couldn’t get used to. There are millions and millions of fighters, and you can’t beat all of them.”

Thobela, 26, said Lopez seemed slower than in their first fight and he advised the American to retire.

After their first fight in Sacramento, Thobela complained the judges were biased in favor of Lopez. No one had any problems with the judging Saturday.

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Corrie Sanders of South Africa stopped Bert Cooper in the third round of a scheduled 10-round heavyweight fight at Merv Griffin’s Resorts and Casino in Atlantic City.

In the co-feature, James (Bonecrusher) Smith stopped Kevin Ford of Long Beach in the ninth round of another heavyweight bout.

Sanders knocked down Cooper in the second round for an eight-count and put him down again early in the third round. The fight was stopped at 1:26 of the third.

Sanders is 19-0 with 12 knockouts. Cooper is 30-11-1 with 25 knockouts.

Smith knocked down Ford in the eighth round and again early in the ninth. The fight was stopped with one minute left in the round.