Holyfield Puts on a Floor Show

Losing part of his right ear didn’t stop Evander Holyfield. So he certainly wasn’t going to let a little blood deter him.

Shaking off the effects of cut above the right eye in the third round, Holyfield proceeded to demolish Michael Moorer on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 13,200 at the Thomas & Mack Center, winning on an eighth-round TKO after knocking Moorer down five times to secure two-thirds of the bona fide heavyweight titles.

Adding Moorer’s International Boxing Federation heavyweight crown to his own World Boxing Assn. title, Holyfield avenged a 1994 defeat to Moorer by putting the southpaw down once in the fifth round, twice in the seventh and twice more in the eighth.

After Moorer had already been down once in the eighth, Holyfield pummeled an opponent on shaky legs, Moorer’s resolute will seemingly the only thing holding him up.

But even that will couldn’t sustain a pair of bone-jarring, body-rattling right uppercuts that sent Moorer down and partially through the ropes.

He appeared done at that point.

But somehow, with the bell having already rung to end the round, Moorer pulled himself to his feet and headed to his corner.

It is there that the end finally came. After examining Moorer, referee Mitch Halpern, after conferring with physician Flip Homansky, ruled that Moorer was finished.

Holyfield is now 35-3 with 25 knockouts, Moorer 39-1 with 31 knockouts. “I was disappointed the doctor stopped it,” Moorer said. “I was going to keep on getting up.”

It was assumed that any chance Moorer had lay in his ability to use his jab, to wear down Holyfield with a series of well-timed pokes in the face.

Moorer used his right hand all right, but the first telling punch of the fight was a right hook delivered with around 15 seconds to go in the first round, a punch that wobbled Holyfield and sent him against the ropes.

He had fought his way off the ropes by the end of the round, but it was clear that this was going to be a difficult evening for Holyfield, who entered the ring as a 3-1 favorite.

In the second round, Holyfield seemed totally befuddled by Moorer’s southpaw style. Holyfield had bragged in the days before the fight that he had learned from his mistakes in his defeat to Moorer, that this time he would adapt to the left-hander.

But in the second round, it looked as if he hadn’t learned a thing.

Holyfield finally broke through in the third round, Moorer no longer able to hold Holyfield off, his jab nonexistent.

But just when it seemed Holyfield was about to turn the fight around, he and Moorer banged heads and a cut appeared above Holyfield’s right eye.

The fight was briefly stopped for a doctor’s examination, but it was determined that Holyfield could continue.

At first, the cut seemed to bother Holyfield. He brushed at it constantly, blinking to see.

Suddenly, it seemed like a replay of their first meeting, when Holyfield had to battle not only Moorer, but a shoulder injury suffered in the second round and a heart problem that appeared to sap his strength.

But after a quick patch job at the end of the round, Holyfield no longer seemed concerned. He went back to breaking down Moorer’s defense, the southpaw’s jab no longer a factor.

In the fifth round, Holyfield dropped Moorer with a solid right hand. The blow sent Moorer staggering back two steps before he tumbled to the canvas.

He took the full amount of time allowed, arising just before Halpern counted 10.

Moorer rallied to win the sixth round, but in the seventh, Holyfield nearly ended it, sending Moorer crashing on two separate occasions, each time with thundering uppercuts.

*

With several seconds still remaining in the semi-main event, Fabrice Tiozzo, locked in a clinch with WBA cruiserweight champion Nate Miller, raised his right arm in an expression of triumph.

That drew a cheer from the crowd.

Because of elation over the apparent victory of Tiozzo, the former World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion from France?

Perhaps. Or perhaps the crowd was simply cheering the fact that after spending 3 1/2 hours sitting through three dull preliminary matches, they were finally about to get the main event they had come for.

Tiozzo wasn’t bored. Or wrong about the outcome.

He indeed was the victor, scoring a unanimous decision to give him Miller’s title and improve his record to 37-1 with 23 knockouts. Miller dropped to 30-5 with 26 knockouts.

Miller spent the final rounds of the bout trying to survive despite a deep cut around his left eye.

A title also changed hands in the night’s first preliminary bout.

Imamu Mayfield (17-1, 13 knockouts) took the IBF cruiserweight title away from Uriah Grant (26-13, 24 knockouts) by winning a unanimous decision.

Mayfield had the only knockdown of the fight, putting Grant down with a left hook in the fifth round.

“It was no surprise,” Mayfield, the No. 9 contender, said of his victory. “It was manifest destiny.”

The champion prevailed in the second bout, Wilfredo Vazquez (50-7-3, 37 knockouts) winning a unanimous decision over Genaro Rios (16-4, seven knockouts) to retain his WBA featherweight title.

Vazquez may have won over the judges, but not the crowd. The announcement of the decision drew boos from the crowd because of Vazquez’s lackluster performance.