Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011.

Evander Holyfield was born on October 19, 1962, in the mill town of Atmore, Alabama.

The youngest of nine children, Holyfield was much younger than his other siblings and was born from a different father.

Holyfield's family later moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he was raised in the crime-ridden Bowen Homes Housing Projects.

He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and is the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the three belt era.

He is also the first boxer to hold world titles in three different decades, in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Holyfield describes himself as a physical "late bloomer": upon graduating from Fulton High School in 1980, he was only 5ft 8in tall and weighed only 147 lb. By age 21, he had grown to 6ft 0in and weighed 178 lb. He grew an additional 2+1/2 in in his early 20s, finally reaching his adult height of 6ft 2+1/2in.

He began boxing at age seven and won the Boys Club boxing tournament.

At 13, he qualified to compete in his first Junior Olympics.

By age 15, Holyfield became the Southeastern Regional Champion, winning this tournament and the Best Boxer Award.

When he was 20 years old, Holyfield represented the U.S. in the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela, where he won a silver medal after losing to Cuban world champion Pablo Romero.

As an amateur, Holyfield represented the United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the light heavyweight division.

By 1984 he had a record of 160 wins and 14 losses, with 76 by knockout.

The following year, he was the National Golden Gloves Champion, and won a bronze medal in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California, after a controversial disqualification in the second round of the semi-final against New Zealand's Kevin Barry.

Holyfield started out professionally as a light heavyweight with a televised win in six rounds over Lionel Byarm at Madison Square Garden on November 15, 1984.

He turned professional at the age of 21, moving up to cruiserweight in 1985 and winning his first world championship the following year, defeating Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the WBA title.

Holyfield then went on to defeat Ricky Parkey and Carlos de León to win the WBC and IBF titles, thus becoming the undisputed cruiserweight champion.

On January 20, 1985, he won another six-round decision over Eric Winbush in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

On March 13, he knocked out Fred Brown in the first round in Norfolk, Virginia, and on April 20, he knocked out Mark Rivera in two rounds in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Both he and his next opponent, Tyrone Booze, moved up to the cruiserweight division for their fight on July 20, 1985, in Norfolk, Virginia.

Holyfield won an eight-round decision over Booze.

He then went on to knock out Rick Myers in the first round on August 29 in his hometown of Atlanta.

He moved up to heavyweight in 1988, later defeating Buster Douglas in 1990 to claim the unified WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight titles and the undisputed heavyweight championship.

Nicknamed "the Real Deal", Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBA, WBC, and IBF titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, the WBA title a third time from 1996 to 1999; the IBF title a third time from 1997 to 1999 and the WBA title for a fourth time from 2000 to 2001.

He successfully defended his titles three times, scoring victories over former champions George Foreman and Larry Holmes, before suffering his first professional loss to Riddick Bowe in 1992.

Holyfield regained the crown in a rematch one year later, defeating Bowe for the WBA and IBF titles (Bowe having relinquished the WBC title beforehand).

Holyfield later lost these titles in an upset against Michael Moorer in 1994.

Holyfield was forced to retire in 1994 upon medical advice, only to return a year later with a clean bill of health.

In 1996 he defeated Mike Tyson and reclaimed the WBA title, in what was named by The Ring magazine as the Fight of the Year and Upset of the Year.

This made Holyfield the first boxer since Muhammad Ali to win a world heavyweight title three times.

Holyfield won a 1997 rematch against Tyson, which saw the latter disqualified in round three for biting off part of Holyfield's ear.

During this reign as champion, he also avenged his loss to Michael Moorer and reclaimed the IBF title.

In 1999 he faced Lennox Lewis in a unification fight for the undisputed WBA, WBC and IBF titles, which ended in a controversial split draw.

Holyfield was defeated in a rematch eight months later.

The following year, he defeated John Ruiz for the vacant WBA title, becoming the first boxer in history to win a version of the heavyweight title four times.

Holyfield lost a rematch against Ruiz seven months later and faced him for the third time in a draw.

Holyfield retired in 2014, and is ranked number 77 on The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time and in 2002 named him the 22nd greatest fighter of the past 80 years.

He currently ranks No.91 in BoxRec's ranking of the greatest pound for pound boxers of all time.

BoxingScene ranked him the greatest cruiserweight of all time.

In 2015, he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.