Boxers Enjoy Calm After the Storm : Heavyweights: Holyfield is unsure of future after incident-marred bout. Bowe finds renewed purpose in defeat.

Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe sat next to each other, rehashing the previous night’s activities as though they were recalling a strange, eventful movie.

Holyfield, the new International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion, sounded calm and completely at peace with himself after winning a majority decision Saturday night and retaking the title he lost to Bowe a year ago.

Holyfield said he was “50-50” on whether to retire or continue fighting, and didn’t know whom he would fight if he stayed active.

Bowe, peering through a badly swollen left eye and with six stitches over his nose, looked relaxed and eager to move his career into a new stage beyond his recent binge-and-diet lifestyle.

And, as the two fighters talked to the media, James Miller, 30, the world’s most famous para-glider and party crasher was out of jail but not available for comment.

Miller circled 800 feet above the Caesars Palace outdoor boxing pavilion for about 20 minutes during the fight, then swooped swiftly into the ring area during the seventh round.

He crashed into the top ropes near Bowe’s corner, got his chute caught in a bank of lights above the ring, and was thrown back by Bowe’s corner into the first rows.

Miller was jostled by several members of Bowe’s camp, and hit at least a few times by someone with a portable telephone, but suffered only minor injuries and was released into police custody after a brief hospital visit.

He was charged with a misdemeanor, dangerous flying, and released when he posted $200 bail. But Miller, from Henderson, Nev., could face felony charges of public endangerment once the district attorney examines the case, a spokesman for the Las Vegas police said Sunday.

Bowe’s wife, Judith, who is three months pregnant, was within feet of where Miller eventually landed, and was taken to a hospital after she nearly fainted. She was released early Sunday morning.

Eddie Futch, Bowe’s 82-year-old trainer, was hospitalized after the fight when he experienced heart palpitations, but he, too, was released Sunday morning.

Bowe said he saw his wife being taken out of the arena on a stretcher during the 21-minute delay, and almost quit the fight then.

“I believe last night was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through in my life,” Bowe said. “I saw my wife, and I thought about leaving with her, but I decided not to because they would’ve said Riddick Bowe quit, Riddick Bowe gave up.”

The two fighters were in a clinch near Holyfield’s corner with about 1:50 left in the round when Holyfield looked up, startled, at the para-glider coming at the ring. Miller’s eyes looked frightened as he neared the ring, perhaps because he almost hit a steel support beam or because he knew he would not make it into the ring.

Holyfield immediately backed up two quick steps, and Bowe stopped, not seeing Miller but realizing something was wrong.

“All of a sudden, Evander started running away from me,” Bowe said. “I didn’t know what he was doing. Then I saw sparks and the guy on the ropes, and the first thing I thought of, ‘Is Judy OK?’ She sort of freaked out.”

Said Holyfield: “I think I saw the guy first. I’m getting ready to run, but I didn’t want Bowe to hit me, so I kind of had to back away slow.”

Both men said they didn’t think the stunt affected the outcome of the fight, and, if anything, it probably helped Bowe--he got a rest and some work done to his cut during the break.

On the judges’ cards, Bowe dominated the early rounds and the last two rounds, but Holyfield took the fight by clearly winning almost all of the middle rounds--including a fifth round during which Bowe acknowledged that he was “shaken.”

“I just want to thank the Lord for giving me the patience against Bowe,” Holyfield said. “It took a lot of courage and a lot of will for me not to engage with Bowe.

“For some reason, when I get hurt in the ring, I want to hurt him right back. But I knew I couldn’t win the fight that way, and I stayed patient.”

Holyfield said he kept Bowe’s sharp jab out of his face by firing right hands at Bowe in response and staying out of range of Bowe’s big right hand.

“He wasn’t using the right hand on me,” Holyfield said. “In the first fight, he must’ve thrown a hundred right hands.”

Sunday, both Bowe and his manager, Rock Newman, sounded conciliatory.

“Certainly, you’d rather win,” Newman said. “But I think Holyfield demonstrated how a loss could be therapeutic and I think Riddick, in his development, will be able to use this experience to better himself as a fighter and as a human being.

“By that, I mean not taking his talent for granted, not taking his position for granted. And by the conversation we had last night, I can tell that’s already happening.”

Newman acknowledged that he covered up the fact that Bowe weighed about 300 pounds when he began training for the fight--not the 271 that was released to the media.

“Part of the fight was against himself because he had to lose so much weight,” Newman said. “He had to work so hard against himself, when he got into the ring, he wasn’t the best he could be.”

Said Bowe of his weight: “It won’t happen any more. I’m not going to let myself go like that again. These things happen for a reason, and maybe it happened to make me a better fighter.”

Bowe teased Holyfield about a third fight, and Holyfield sounded amenable to either that or a fight against World Boxing Council champion Lennox Lewis--”whichever has the best money.”

* MISDEMEANOR: The para-glider was released after posting bail but could face felony charges. C11