JRE MMA Show #80 with Evander Holyfield

I'm great. How you doing?

I'm great, man. It's a pleasure to meet you. I've been a fan forever.

Oh, good.

I've seen every single fight you've ever had. So for me, it's an honor to have you in here, man, as a giant boxing fan all the way back to Dwight Kawi. Saw you fight in the Olympics. Saw everything. Everything, man. Yeah. For real. And I understand you're going to do an exhibition now.

Well, yeah, I'm preparing for one. Me going over to Japan and being able to go over there and see the Tahoe, whatever, that tsunami. Tsunami, yeah. And the point of seeing the tsunami going over there and helping people, and I figured, why not do an exhibition, right.

So it's like a benefit for the tsunami victims?

Yes.

You look great. You're in great shape still.

Well, thank you.

You never got out of shape.

Well, art of the game.

Yeah.

Easy to maintain and rebuild.

Easier to maintain than rebuild, yeah. But now at your age, when's the last time you had a fight was like 2011? Is that what it was?

Yeah, 2011.

So it's been like eight years, which is. You were thinking of competing like deep in your 50s, though.

Well, yeah. The thing is that I'm always trying to stay in shape, but really didn't want to get hit again.

Right.

Like that. But exhibition. I could do an exhibition.

Who is the exhibition against?

I don't know yet. I'm thinking about. I wanted to be Reddit bought me and him buddies. Now, you could do it with somebody you're friends with, right. They know that they're not going to hit you too hard if you don't hit them too hard.

Right. So it'd be more of a sparring deal.

Yes.

Now, how often are you training now?

Well, I'm always trained. I shadow box. I don't hit the bag. But I'm ready to do it now because I'm actually going to be performing. I want to look good, but I don't want to get in a doggy doggy fight.

Right. You don't want to get into a war, right. You just want to have like a little exhibition sparring match. Just a little. Just combinations. Not hit each other too hard, that kind of deal.

Well, yeah, we can hit hard to the body, but not the head.

Right. Now, at this stage of your life, it's been a while since you competed. Are you worried that those competitive juices might get fired up again and you might want to actually fight again?

No, I don't think I will ever go back in because I did everything I wanted to do.

Right.

I feel that I got as far as I wanted to get, and I'm only full time heavyweight champ of the world ever. But I ain't got no reason to be mad with nobody about anything. I can think I had a great career.

You had an unbelievable career. Only four time heavyweight champion of the world ever. I can remember way back in the day when you were moving up from cruiserweight to know, and it was one of the rare times where we were watching back in those days, folks who don't know, it was kind of taboo for boxers to lift weights.

Yeah, it was.

And it was Mackie Chillstone that got you ready for.

No, no. Tim Hallmark. Tim Hallmark.

Matthew Chillstone got spinks ready.

Yeah. Spinks ready. Yeah. And I came after that. And the point of coming out to Maggie Shieldstone, everybody thought about the weight, but Tim Hallmark would talk about flexibility. All the things you had to do when you lift weights, right?

Yeah. Because everybody used to think before that that if you lifted weights, it made you stiff.

Yeah. And Tim was able to. He did everything with me to show me that just a myth condition is about heart rate and all this. And then when you lift weight, you just got to do more.

Right. It seemed like back then, the problem was when people would lift weights, they would get sore, and then they would go to the gym and they wouldn't perform as well. And so everybody would say, our weights are making you stiff. They didn't allow themselves to get through a full program with a real strength and conditioning guy like Tim Hallmark or Mackie Shillstone. They were the first guys, really, to bulk guys up.

It's all about confidence and someone taking to another know. And I think that at that time, people just kind of in this level, this is all we know and this only far we can go because you have to work harder. If you lift weight, you're going to have to work harder. With me. I was able to bring a ballet teacher in there. I did ballet, too.

Did you really?

Yeah. That's the reason why I was able to still be flexible and being able to be quick and all that. And I did all that, but I ain't let nobody know I was doing ballet.

I'd like to see some video. You doing ballet? Was there any out there?

No, we did not know.

Did you wear a.

You know, I got stressed. A Miss Kenneth, that's her name, and so I kept her to the day she ended up slipping, breaking her hip, because she was like 70 years old when she was stretching me and had me doing all the splits and all this. But it worked.

Yeah. Well, you were one of the first supremely conditioned heavyweight boxers. When you'd see you, you were sculpted and you would be able to put that output out for the entire twelve rounds. I mean, you had those incredible fights at Riddick Bow. I know you guys are friends now, but God damn, did you guys have some wars.

We had battles. I think the big thing, because he kind of bully, he a big guy, and he used to always look at me and say, a good big guy beat a good little guy anytime. And every time we go in and practice, I bust him up. But I'm four years older than him, but he was bigger. But I was always getting.

Yeah, well, you guys had some crazy fights, but the craziest one was probably the one where the guy landed in the middle of the ring, the guy with the parachute. What was that guy's. What did he call himself?

The fan man.

That's right. He had a fan that was powering his parachute, and he literally landed in the ring. That was an outdoor arena in Vegas. Is that what it was?

It sure was. And held the fight up about 30 minutes. That was crazy, because at that time, I had him hurt.

Yes.

And like that. And it saved him.

Yeah. Well, you had him hurt, and then everybody got cold. I mean, you cooled off. I mean, it almost seems like they should have canceled the fight.

Well, it was half of the fight. If they canceled the fight, then we had to pay us again.

There's a picture up there. Look at that. What was going through your mind when you saw that guy land on the ropes like that?

Well, it shocked me because when he did, the light started like this and Curtis Mayfield had just got paralyzed. Same thing. The thing fell down.

Oh, lights fell on.

Yeah.

Curtis Mayfield, he got paralyzed that way.

Yes. Oh, wow.

So you thought maybe the lights were about to fall.

Well, yeah. And I was trying to make sure that I could make that quick step. Get in or get. Yeah, yeah.

So this guy, once you finally realized that it was a guy on a parachute with a fan behind him, how mad were you?

I can keep my mind on him. I got to keep my mind on Reddit. Bo, that's enough. Everybody asked me that, and I'm like, my mind. You have to have a one track mind, is you're going to be real good. You're going to be the best. You have to have that one track mind.

Yeah. It's not something you could pay attention to. But was it hard to get your mind back into it after the settle and they had to clear the guy out and arrest him and clean the ring out and everything?

No, I stayed focused. My whole thing is that I felt that I won the first half. Right now I got this next half.

Why did it take a half hour to get that guy out of there?

Rid of both wife were there, she was pregnant, she had to leave and all this. So many things happened because the guy happened to come over. Farrakhan, all these people, they don't beat the poor man in the head on, knocked him out like this. He got a really good beating for coming in.

I hope he did.

He did, yeah.

Is he still in?

No, he passed now.

Oh, he's gone? Yeah. Well. Oh, well. I guess that's his, you know, he fucked up your fight. That's his legacy.

You're right. But I won. Yes.

You, yeah. I mean, look, man, you had some incredible fights, but to me one of my fondest memories is you know who Kevin James is from the king of Queens tv show. Me and Kevin James were at my house in Encino the night you fought Tyson. The first one. The first fight when you dropped Tyson, I'll never forget it because back mean, we knew that Buster Douglas had beaten Tyson, but we kind of almost thought it was like a fluke. But when you were battering Tyson and then you put him down and stopped him, I'll never forget Kevin James jumping off the couch. Just jumping. Oh my God, we're throwing our