Evander Holyfield: The Barry Bonds of boxing?
March 14, 2007 at 6:41 pm by Scott Freeman in SportsUh oh. Evander Holyfield is already changing his story. Now, he says, he did take some type of “hormone medication” for fatigue he attributes to contracting hepatitis A.
Holyfield told the AJC’s Jeff Schultz that he thinks he contracted hepatitis A by eating bad shrimp in 1995. He says he took the hormone medication briefly in 2004, but that it didn’t work and he stopped taking it.
Schultz, who has always done a stellar job covering Holyfield and the boxing world in general, also writes in today’s paper that Holyfield said he considered taking steroids back in 1988 when he decided to move up from the cruiserweight division to heavyweight and needed to add poundage. Someone high up in boxing allegedly told him: “Well, [Mike] Tyson is doing it; you should, too.”
Holyfield says he responded, “I don’t care if Tyson is doing it, I’m not.”
This is certainly a retreat from what Holyfield originally said: that he hadn’t ordered the steroids, that he suspected he knew who did and that he was going to launch his own investigation.
Of course, boxing and steroids are no stranger to one another. Heavyweight contender James Toney was suspended last year when he tested positive for steroids following a fight. And Fernando Vargas was suspended after he tested positive following his fight with Oscar De La Hoya a few years ago. Vargas looked huge and bulked-up in that fight, so much so that I thought he was going to slaughter De La Hoya in the first couple of rounds.
As I posted a few days ago, Dr. Margaret Goodman, chairman of the medical advisory board of the Nevada Athletic Commission, says she was concerned Holyfield was taking the human growth hormone back in 1994 when he was having his mysterious heart problems that he eventually said were cured by a faith healer. Goodman said she was concerned because the heart abnormalities could be consistent with HGH use.
It’s no secret that Holyfield significantly bulked up when he moved up to the heavyweight division. What’s in serious doubt now is whether it was by natural or artificial means.
If it turns out Holyfield did use steroids, does it tarnish his legacy as one of the top heavyweights of all time? Will it make him the Barry Bonds of boxing?
Leave a Reply