Holy Night in Vegas : Boxing: Holyfield upsets Tyson by stopping him 37 seconds into the 11th round and becomes a heavyweight champion for the third time.

Against monumental odds and an apparently invincible foe, Evander Holyfield lifted himself into boxing legend with one of the most dramatic, one-sided upsets in history.

Holyfield was the better man, the baddest man and a battering ram Saturday night before 16,325 at the MGM Grand Garden arena.

And along the way, he beat up Mike Tyson and shocked the world.

Holyfield left Tyson bloodied, dazed and finally, trapped against the top of the ropes, absorbing blast after blast as referee Mitch Halpern leaped in to stop the bout 37 seconds into the 11th round.

It was the fifth fight of Tyson’s comeback from a prison sentence, and only Tyson’s second loss in 47 fights. Perhaps the only upset more earthshaking was Tyson’s 1990 knockout loss to Buster Douglas.

It was, with the roars building and Holyfield’s shots rumbling through the arena, a piece of destiny.

“With God on your side, the things you choose to do, you can do,” said Holyfield, who throughout the weeks before the fight pronounced that his faith in God made him a guaranteed winner over Tyson.

“I hit him with good right-hand shots. He proved his point, he takes a good shot, but I knew I was at my best.”

The 34-year-old Holyfield (33-3, 24 knockouts), whose very presence in the ring was questioned because of past health problems, became a heavyweight champion for the third time, a feat accomplished only by Muhammad Ali.

But Tyson wasn’t worried about that Saturday.

“I’m OK now,” said a still-dazed Tyson, moments after the bout. “Holyfield fought a good fight. I take my hat off to him. I look forward to a rematch.”

Beating Tyson to the punch almost from the outset, Holyfield’s unyielding power game opened a cut over Tyson’s eye in the sixth round, then took the struggling champion apart in the later rounds.

Said Don Turner, Holyfield’s trainer, of the game plan against Tyson: “All you’ve got to do is swing and you beat him.”

Halpern almost stopped the fight in the last seconds of the 10th, as Tyson wobbled against the ropes, before letting the bout go on. But Holyfield charged out of the corner at the 11th-round bell, landed monster shots and, soon enough, got the stoppage.

“The man was out,” Halpern said. “Mike couldn’t make the adjustments. He was about to get knocked down again.”

Holyfield was easily ahead on all three judges’ cards at the time of the stoppage, and never seemed hurt against Tyson’s lunging, looping punches.

“I fought competitively each round, one round at a time,” Holyfield said. “There were times that Mike didn’t want to fight, and he held, and I got a chance to catch my breath.”

Promoter Don King, who has made millions from Tyson, said he would soon be working to try to put together a rematch. King has promotional rights to Holyfield.

“Don’t write Tyson off,” King said. “We’re going to dance again. We’re going to see if we can put together the greatest rematch in the history of boxing.”

Holyfield, who weighed 215 pounds, walked in with “Philippians 4:13” inscribed on his robe and shorts.

During a long rendition of the national anthem, Tyson stalked around the ring with a hard glare. Holyfield stood calmly in his corner, surrounded by his retinue.

But his stolidness ended once the bell sounded.

Holyfield, standing three inches taller than Tyson and looking larger than that, hit Tyson hard and early, and seemed to have the quicker hands. A sizzling Holyfield left hook caught Tyson clean on the chin late in the round, and the two exchanged several punches after the first-round bell.

By the second, Holyfield was dominating the action--Tyson was missing wildly, and Holyfield was pounding away with quick hooks and crosses.

The closest Tyson came to dominating was a solid combination in the fifth round, when Holyfield began to look tired.

“It was about not giving up,” Holyfield said.

The sixth was the pivotal round, and when Holyfield’s shots began to take their obvious toll. Early in the round, Tyson began bleeding heavily from his left eyelid, and looked confused.

The two clashed heads in the round, and Tyson claimed that is what caused his cut, or at least one of them.

Then, with 44 seconds left in the round, Holyfield ended an exchange with a left to Tyson’s chest, and Tyson toppled onto his back. He was up quickly, but, the end game had begun for Holyfield.

It was only the second time Tyson had ever hit the canvas, the first being against Douglas.

“Tyson fights good inside,” Holyfield said. “My advantage is outside.”

Beginning with the seventh, Holyfield blasted away inside of Tyson’s attack, and Tyson was clearly in trouble as the crowd began to chant “HO-LY-FIELD! HO-LY-FIELD.”

Heading into the ninth round, Tyson was exhausted, and already had fought more rounds than he had in the four fights of his comeback since being released from prison.

Tyson trudged back to his corner after the 10th round, in which Holyfield was confident enough to taunt Tyson as he pushed him into a corner for more punishment.

It almost ended at the end of the 10th, as Holyfield picked up the pace, and this time, Tyson, with blood trickling down his cheek, could not fire back.

A huge overhand right staggered Tyson with 11 seconds left in the round, and Holyfield leaped at him with 15 unanswered punches until the bell rang.

Tyson wobbled out of his corner for the 11th with gauze on his left eye and gasping for air. Holyfield opened up with a left hook to start the final flurry, then opened up with Tyson teetering out of control.

Then, this fight that was originally scheduled to take place five years ago, was over.

“My eyes hurt,” Tyson said. “I’m not going to make any excuses.”