OLD FAITHFUL

By TIM KAWAKAMI

Nov. 8, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

HOUSTON —

This is the house of “the Holy,” which is the owner’s favorite nickname for himself, and it is not meant ironically.

Listen to him speak (preach?), and you know that Evander Holyfield’s quixotic crusade to fight, and defeat, Mike Tyson on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has nothing to do with irony.

It is about faith, fearlessness and facing down a bully.

And, as he sits at his small kitchen table, eating breakfast at noon because his training sessions begin before dawn’s early light, Holyfield freely tosses out David-and-Goliath references, and does not even try to be coy about predicting a result.

“I will beat Mike Tyson,” Holyfield says, his eyes locked on his interviewer. “There’s no way I cannot, if I just trust in God. God is that good.

“The victory’s already there. I’ve just got to do my work to ensure myself that I really want victory.”

All Holyfield has ever really wanted for almost five years now, since his first match with Tyson was delayed, then scrapped because of Tyson’s rib injury then Tyson’s rape trial and conviction, is to fight Tyson with a heavyweight title on the line. And to beat him.

Saturday, the World Boxing Assn. title is up for grabs, and Holyfield, in all sincerity, says he is sure an angel will be in the ring with him.

On a wall in the house--Holyfield’s home during training, though he spent weekends at his mansion outside Atlanta--there’s a framed print, titled, “The Reasons I’m a winner--Evander Holyfield,” listing 21 of them.

1. I can call on God at any time in or out of the ring. . . .

7. I have overcome many adversities, and as a result I am smarter and closer to God.

“The whole thing is, the Lord has anointed me to do this,” Holyfield says. “And so when you’re anointed, you are not doing this for yourself. You are anointed to carry out the work of God that other people can see, where they can glorify not you but the Lord.”

Holyfield, who will be paid $11 million, is a decided underdog against Tyson--who will be paid $30 million--for all sorts of reasons.

Holyfield has had major physical problems in recent years, from his heart problem after losing to Michael Moorer to repeated shoulder injuries to a virus he says caused his lackluster winning performance last May against Bobby Czyz.

Even at his best, Holyfield was considered too small and not tricky enough to elude Tyson’s power. And at 34, Holyfield has gone through so many wars, his skills seem to have narrowed to one thing: A willingness to take whatever punishment he must to beat his foe.

Only 31 months ago, Holyfield temporarily retired after losing his titles to Moorer when a congenital heart problem was discovered. Since claiming he had been healed by evangelist Benny Hinn, Holyfield’s heart has been checked out and pronounced sound twice by Mayo Clinic doctors. Holyfield was impressive in beating Ray Mercer in May 1995, then knocked down Riddick Bowe before tiring and getting knocked out in November of last year.

Underdog? Holyfield, who beat Bowe in their first rematch in November 1993 to regain his lost title against large odds, can live with that.

“What would the story be if I was supposed to beat Tyson?” Holyfield says. “How powerful would the words and the messages I have to deliver be? How could I show what God has done? It’s just like David and Goliath. The reason why people could believe that God was real is that no one felt they could beat Goliath.”

9. I have the ability to throw more punches in any one round or over an entire fight than any other heavyweight in the world.

10. I have the ability to land a higher percentage of punches than any heavyweight in the world.

The Tyson camp has bubbled over with anger, directed mostly at Holyfield, it appears, because Tyson and his handlers see Holyfield as arrogant. Holyfield has gone out of his way to say he is “the better man” in this fight, fistically and spiritually.

“Evander will not go in there intimidated or beaten before the bell rings,” says Moorer’s trainer--and Tyson’s first trainer--Teddy Atlas. “He may get beaten, he might get destroyed, but he won’t get beaten because he was terrified or crushed by fear.

“But, I fear he probably doesn’t have the wherewithal and the physical sustenance and strength at this point in his life to pull it off, even if he has the spirit to think he can do it and to do it if he had the vehicle to drive.

“You still have to have enough talent to go along with that attitude. Otherwise . . . “

In training, Holyfield built his body up to about 225 pounds, and slowly has been working down to a fighting weight of about 215. He has looked relaxed and smooth, and on this day in Houston is throwing tight, hard inside punches designed to cut through Tyson’s looping charges.

“I think he’s more confident about this fight than any fight that I’ve been with him,” says corner man Tommy Brooks. “He knows within his heart what he has to do, and he’s going to go out there and do it.

“It’s a combination of knowing him so well and his will. He’s going to impose his will on him. I bet there’s a little macho involved in there also.”

This, Holyfield says later, is what’s meant to be.

“Somehow, I just knew it was going to come down to this,” Holyfield says. “It got to the point where I would go back and forth. I wanted to retire, and I wondered why I’m not retiring.

“And when I was thinking about what would make me decide to get out, what would be the burning thing I would want to continue for. . . .

“When you look at it, I have a lot of things going for me. I have my health, I have God with me, and I have money, I have my family. And I would ask myself, why am I in this?

“I’m in here for a lot of reasons. Everything I do is to glorify the Lord. This is what the Lord called me to do. This is what I will do.”

15. I have friends and fans who love me because I am the Holy, not because I am the heavyweight champion of the world.

17. I have a commitment to help make boxing a good clean sport because I love the sport so much.

“Holyfield’s my name and Tim [Hallmark, Holyfield’s longtime conditioning trainer] calls me ‘the Holy’--at this point in time of my life, it’s almost like it should be,” Holyfield says. “Holy is the spirit. It’s like this is what God intended it to be.”

So, with everything that is going on in the world, with all the fighters who step into the ring every day, God is especially worried about Holyfield vs. Tyson?

“At no point in time are we trying to say we’ve got a corner market on God,” Hallmark says. “We don’t get into, ‘Mike’s a bad guy, we’re a good guy. Mike went to jail, Evander hasn’t . . . ‘

“Really, deep down in our hearts, if we’re truly Christian, we should hope that Mike Tyson has the same God that we have. But your belief system is proven by actions--that’s the acid test of faith.

“If they think we’re holier than thou, then we’ve just got to keep being who we are. We know who we are in Christ, and we’re not going to say we’re better. We believe very, very strongly in what we’ve got to hope is the way and the only way.”

Holyfield and his handlers explain his knockout loss to Bowe as a crisis of confidence for Holyfield, who has never appeared to lack it before.

Just when he had Bowe nearly finished in the sixth round, wounded and exhausted, Holyfield held up, doubting his own ability to keep punching.

“He started questioning his own ability,” Brooks says. “He was in shape to go the distance, and after he hurt him, all he really had to do is go out and throw punches. The referee would’ve stopped the fight. But, he started thinking, ‘What if he had to go another six rounds?’ And that’s what cost him that fight.”

Says Holyfield: “You look at a situation like that, the only reason I even went into the fight, I knew that God would provide the way for me to win. Did God provide a way for me to win? Yes, he did. But, when he devised a way, I took my eyes off of him and put my eyes back on myself. I said, ‘I just can’t go through it.’

“God did everything he said he was going to do. Except once you take your mind off of him and get your mind on yourself. . . . Going into the fight, I knew what I was overcoming, but I kept my eye on the Lord all that time. Then, once I dropped him, I kind of fell back and said, ‘This should be it. I shouldn’t be tested anymore.’

“I got wavering in my mind, I started thinking, ‘I’m going to run out of gas,’ instead of just using whatever I had at that time. I just made a wrong decision.

“But you know what? I asked his forgiveness for allowing myself to do that, and he forgave. He gave me another opportunity. The Lord wants you to win. He doesn’t look at a situation and hold it against you.”

18. I have strong heart, lungs and body because I pay the price of preparation and have never abused my body.

21. I will be victorious and thank God in advance for all my blessings.

Evander Holyfield does not fear for his life in the ring against Tyson, which is something Bruce Seldon and Frank Bruno probably could not say.

Holyfield has four children, and just last month, in the midst of training, got married for the second time--complete with a honeymoon dinner at Shoney’s restaurant before flying back to Houston--to Janice Itson, also a follower of Benny Hinn.

But he will not start being cautious now.

“You know, I understand that people are worried for me, but that doesn’t mean that I agree,” Holyfield says. “I understand why God makes people the way that they feel.

“Boxing is something that I do well. It just so happens, I’m good at this, and what God calls me to do next, I will be good in that too. Until you get that calling to do what God calls you to do, then you do what you’re good at.

“Why would I quit boxing and start doing something I’m not good at and ask myself, ‘Why am I doing it?’ Whatever God calls me to do, I will be good at too. Matter of fact, I will be even better than what I’m doing now.

“But right now, I’m at this. And God means for me to be the very best at this.”

Holyfield stops for a second when he’s asked if he would ever knowingly jeopardize his health for or during a fight.

“No. . . . I don’t think it would be possible to jeopardize it doing it for the Lord,” Holyfield says. “Everything I have is in God’s hands.

“Life and death is in his hands, and if he chooses to take me to a better place, which is heaven, I haven’t lost anything. I’m in a better place.”

What about being permanently injured by boxing? What about having to spend the rest of your life like Muhammad Ali or Jerry Quarry, heavyweights who absorbed too much punishment in the ring?

“Ali himself is a Muslim, and this is the faith that he chooses,” Holyfield says. “I don’t choose that faith. And I know that my God in heaven will protect me from anything.

“I don’t ever fear what [Ali] has could ever happen to me. I know that things like that don’t happen to a person who truly believes.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Fight

TYSON vs. HOLYFIELD

WHEN

* Saturday

WHERE

* MGM Grand, Las Vegas

AT STAKE

* World Boxing Assn. heavyweight title

RECORDS

* Tyson 45-1