Holyfield Puts on a Floor Show

It was an amazing challenge from a man barely four months from surviving an act of cannibalism, but there it was, as loud as those ringside suits.

Saturday night, Evander Holyfield, charging Michael Moorer with a message.

You wanna piece of me?

After a week of cavorting around Las Vegas holding prayer revivals and entertaining children, Holyfield walked to the center of the ring for his heavyweight title unification bout, took off his robe, and with it his charm.

The Good Samaritan became the Grim Reaper.

Behaving like the heavyweight champion he still is this morning, Holyfield blinked away the blood pouring from his right eye to batter Moorer for eight rounds in a technical knockout.

It was a wonderful display from a splendid winner who is more memorable with each workday.

Can we now stop with the Christian soldier jokes?

Can we finally accept that this country’s greatest fighter can also be a vocally religious man?

The loss does not make a heathen of Moorer, a decent sort who struggled with the nine pounds he gained since he last beat Holyfield more than three years ago.

Nor does the victory make a saint of Holyfield.

What it should make is all of this out-of-ring stuff irrelevant.

That fifth-round right cross that knocked Moorer to his rear, that came from a boxer.

That right uppercut that knocked Moorer to his knees in the seventh, that came from a fighter.

The other right uppercut that knocked Moorer down again moments later, that came from a great athlete.

The right crosses that sent Moorer to the floor twice one round later, that came from the best warrior of our generation.

That’s what Saturday’s fight was all about.

It was no morality play, it was boxing, and it will always be boxing, no matter how much critics are going to try to say that Holyfield is messing it up by being such a nice guy.

The fans at Thomas & Mack Center knew it. Despite the puritan image projected by Holyfield all week, this was as down and dirty as ever.

Long lines at the men’s room. Guys in the cheap seats wearing tails and jeans.

Metal detectors at the entrance to the press center. Old pugs with bandages on their noses and 21-year-olds on their arms.

And of course, cigars everywhere.

It was into this civilized back alley that a morality play threatened to take over.

At 9:48 p.m., through a cloud of smoke in a non-smoking arena, Michael Moorer arrived wearing the most amazing sort of sweatshirt.

A gray one.

The men surrounding him in purple suits and sparkling leather baseball caps, he didn’t see. The boos, apparently, he didn’t hear.

He stood in his corner, staring down, throwing punches into the air, very much alone in this hot crowded, place.

Moments later, the arena was filled with a gospel song.

“Forever, and ever, and ever,” went the words, and here came Holyfield, smiling, shaking his head in time with the music, doing everything but sing.

A Bible verse was on the back of his purple-and-white robe. The word “Warrior” was cheerfully printed--if that is possible--on the front of his trunks.

But off came the garb, and on went the show.

Five times Moorer was knocked down. With the exception of a trademark right hook to Holyfield’s left eye in the first round, and some more jabs in the second, Moorer rarely threatened Holyfield.

The cut eye? Holyfield indicated that it happened because of a head butt.

When Holyfield lost his title to Moorer in 1994, Holyfield later claimed he was suffering from a bad shoulder and heart problems.

Moorer thought he was a sore loser.

Moorer apparently was wrong.

And, now, here comes Lennox Lewis, the World Boxing Council champion and future opponent for Holyfield, who added Moorer’s International Boxing Federation title to his World Boxing Assn. title Saturday.

Lewis, 32-1, said he can’t wait to meet Holyfield early next year.

Funny, but the more Holyfield wins, the more it seems opponents can’t wait to meet him.

“I’d rather fight Evander,” Lewis said before the fight. “[Holyfield] is hard for whoever can’t knock him out. I can knock him out.”

He continued: “Holyfield has never seen nothing like me. Holyfield has boxed [Riddick] Bowe three times, [Mike] Tyson twice, Moorer twice. But Lennox Lewis is still there. He’s never fought Lennox Lewis.”

And then there was this:

“Holyfield has never been in there against a man who can do so many things,” Lewis said. “My strength is superior to him. He had to build up to me. I’m already there.”

And yada-yada-yada.

What Holyfield said Saturday was far more powerful than anything Lewis will say until they meet.