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 a 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 technical knockout 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.

Holyfield is 35-3 with 25 knockouts, Moorer 39-2.

The last time Holyfield fought, he won by disqualification after Mike Tyson bit him on both ears, chewing off part of the right. The last time Holyfield fought Moorer, Holyfield injured his shoulder in the second round and was suffering throughout from fatigue, believed to be caused by a heart problem.

But Saturday night, it was Moorer who was hurting.

After he had already been down once in the eighth, Moorer was on shaky legs, his resolute will seemingly the only thing holding him up as Holyfield pummeled him at will.

But even that will couldn’t sustain a pair of bone-jarring, body-rattling right uppercuts that finally 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, conferring with physician Flip Homansky, ruled that Moorer was done.

“I was disappointed the doctor stopped it,” Moorer said. “I was going to keep on getting up. I looked [Halpern] straight in the eye and said I could go on. He stopped the fight.”

Homansky, of course, saw it a little differently.

“He wasn’t giving me enough reaction,” Homansky said. “I called over the ref and he agreed.”

Halpern said he didn’t stop it earlier, despite the knockdowns, because Moorer appeared able to go on.

“Every time he got knocked down,” Halpern said, “he got up and answered my questions. The last time, he did not answer my question.”

At that point, however, the round was over, so Halpern decided to wait until Moorer got back to his corner before making a decision on whether to continue the bout.

Moorer had the edge at the start of the bout. He rocked Holyfield with a right hook in the first round and seemed to befuddle the three-time heavyweight champion in the first two rounds with his 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. In the first two rounds, it looked as if Holyfield hadn’t learned a thing.

“Michael was sticking that jab and I wanted to stick with my game plan,” Holyfield said. “I couldn’t get frustrated.”

Holyfield’s patience appeared to pay off in the third when he broke through against Moorer’s defense. 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.

Halpern ruled it an accidental butt. The fight was briefly stopped for a doctor’s examination, but it was determined that Holyfield could go on.

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

“I knew I got hit in the eye,” Holyfield said, “but I’ve been there before and I know how to deal with it.”

Now, Holyfield must deal with Lennox Lewis, owner of the World Boxing Council title, if he wishes to become the undisputed champion.

“I want to fight Lewis,” Holyfield declared after the fight. “I’ll put it all on the line.”

That’s fine with Lewis, who was sitting ringside for the fight, doing television commentary.

“He’s a man of his word,” Lewis said. “I’m sure he’ll fight me. I think I can beat both of them [Holyfield and Moorer].”

Based on how Holyfield looked Saturday night, beating him alone is a task no heavyweight currently on the scene seems capable of accomplishing.

With several seconds 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 WBC 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.