The only award missing in Holyfield's career
Evander Holyfield is one of the most decorated boxers in history. The American has twice become the undisputed world champion - in the first heavyweight and super heavyweight divisions. He is the only four-time world champion in heavyweight history.
In addition to all this, Holyfield has received numerous awards from the prestigious magazine The Ring. And in 1996, Evander was named the BBC's Foreign Sportsman of the Year.
The legendary American has an impressive list of achievements. But there is still one award missing in Holyfield's collection - the gold of the Olympic Games.
Holyfield was not the main candidate to participate in the Olympics, but in the qualifying fights, he sensationally defeated the ward of Emanuel Steward.
Evander Holyfield's amateur achievements are much more modest than his professional successes. In the amateurs, the American competed in the 81 kg weight category. Holyfield's main awards are a silver medal at the 1983 Pan American Games and a bronze at the 1984 Olympics.
Moreover, Holyfield had to literally fight his way into the US national team for the home 1984 Olympics, held in Los Angeles. Initially, Evander was not the main candidate to participate in the most prestigious amateur tournament.
The first member of the American national team in the 81 kg weight category was the silver medalist of the World Cup, Rick Womack.
Womack was considered one of the most promising American boxers of the early 80s. He was a representative of the legendary Kronk boxing gym, where he trained under the guidance of Emanuel Steward.
Womack is one of Holyfield's most principled opponents in amateurs. The boxers fought each other six times, with the score being 4-2 in favor of Evander.
Despite the fact that Womack was only a year older than the 21-year-old Holyfield, he was considered a more experienced boxer. He had many performances at various international tournaments under his belt. Moreover, Womack became the champion of the USA in the 91 kg weight category, but before the Olympic Games, he decided to drop to his usual light heavyweight.
In 1983, Holyfield lost to Womack in the semifinals of the US Championship, which in the end became the winner of the tournament. But already a year later, Evander managed to take revenge on Womack in the qualifying fights for the Olympics.
Holyfield twice defeated Womack, depriving him of a trip to the Olympics. This was a real blow for Rick, who after that refused to go to Los Angeles even as a backup boxer. And Holyfield, making a sensation, went to the Olympics, where the biggest disappointment of his amateur career awaited him.
Holyfield was disqualified just before the fight for the gold medal. Scandalous semifinal of the 1984 Olympics
Holyfield got into a team that subsequently became the strongest Olympic team in the history of American boxing.
It is not surprising that having such boxers in its composition as Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, Henry Tillman, Tyrell Biggs, and others, the young Holyfield was not the main favorite of this team. But after the initial fights at the Olympic Games, Evander managed to truly attract attention to himself.
Holyfield finished the first two fights via RSC (referee stops the contest due to clear advantage - ed. Ready to Fight). First, he defeated Ghanaian Taye Akaya this way, then - boxer from Iraq Ismail Kail Salaman. In the quarterfinals, Holyfield knocked out Kenyan boxer Sylvanus Okello in the first round.
Next was the scandalous semifinal against New Zealander Kevin Barry.After confident victories in the previous three fights, Holyfield became the main candidate to win the gold medal in the 81 kg weight category. It seemed that no one could stop the young American. And the semifinal fight confirmed that.
From the very beginning of the fight, Holyfield began to circle his opponent with various combinations, demonstrating a clear advantage in strength and speed. Kevin Barry, considered a strong boxer who had never been knocked out in his career, found himself in a not very favorable position. The only thing he could oppose Holyfield was a multitude of blows to the back of the head and regular holding of Evander in a clinch. Because of this, he received warnings from Yugoslav referee Grigori Novichich during the fight.
It seemed that even despite such a sluggish fight, which Barry managed to impose on Holyfield, nothing could take away the victory from the American. But at the end of the second round, a situation occurred that influenced the final outcome of the fight. In one of the episodes, when the New Zealander was holding Holyfield again, the referee commanded "break", but the American managed to deliver a striking blow as he exited the clinch, sending Barry to the canvas.
The referee decided to disqualify Holyfield for the blow delivered after his command, declaring the New Zealander the winner. When the boxers stood next to the referee, who raised Barry's right hand as the winner, he simultaneously raised Holyfield's hand in the air to show the audience that in his opinion, it was the American who won the fight. It was a kind of fair play on the part of the New Zealand boxer.
However, since Barry was knocked out, according to the regulations, he had no right to enter the ring for 28 days, and for this reason, he could not participate in the final. Thus, the winner of the Olympics in the light heavyweight category without a fight was the representative of Yugoslavia Anton Josipovic, and Kevin Barry received only a silver medal.
By the way, it was the presence of a Yugoslav boxer in the final that led to numerous speculations that Novichich deliberately did not let Holyfield into the final, thereby simplifying the path to gold for his compatriot.
The United States attempted to appeal this referee's decision by filing an appeal, which was rejected. But in a kind of act of sympathy or compromise, the protest committee agreed to award Holyfield a bronze medal, despite his disqualification.
During the award ceremony, after receiving his gold medal, Josipovic did what he thought everyone expected of him. He pulled Holyfield up to the top step of the podium.
Three months later, Holyfield began his professional career, where he was able to achieve much more than in amateurs.