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A slightly later than usual
April column mainly as a result
of our outstanding fight in Las
Vegas Nevada.
Taking away the hype of their
ages, Evander Holyfield and
Francois Botha produced an
exciting action packed and
thrilling fight which could have
gone either way.
For the first six rounds Botha,
the World Boxing Federation
heavyweight king threw vicious
right hands to the head and body
of Holyfield - many of which
would have stopped lesser
opponents. But Holyfied is
anything but a lesser opponent.
Taking all that Botha could
throw he caught Botha with a
right hook to the head which
floored the big South African.
Gamely Botha got to his feet,
but with Holyfield swarming and
throwing dozens of unanswered
punches, referee Russel Mora
correctly stopped the contest.
Interestingly Botha was ahead on
two of the scorecards at the
time of the stoppage.
While it is not the end of the
road for Botha, and there is
talk of a WBFed international
heavyweight title fight in Vegas
later in the year, Botha will
need to prepare better and train
harder. Botha remains a quality
heavyweight and a fit and
focused Botha will take a lot of
stopping.
But clearly the man of the
moment is Evander Holyfield. A
warrior, a fighter and in
general a class act. All those
in boxing know that Holyfield's
points loss to Valuev last year
was a travesty of justice, and
here, Holyfield got the
opportunity to prove all his
critics wrong. This he did in
complete style. We are indeed
proud to have this 'hero' as our
world champion and look forward
to him defending later in the
year.
Our convention takes place at
the end of the month and I hope
that the Icelandic volcano has
had enough and will allow all
flights back into the air.
Albania is hosting our first
Convention, and I thank our
Honory President Mr Ylli Ndroqi
for his fantastic efforts in
putting our convention
together. He is certainly a
major player in our
organisation. We also look
forward to our Albanian world
middleweight champion, Kreshnik
Qato, defending his world title
on home soil for the first time.
Europe has picked up nicely with
Poland and France being active
recently. Our champions list
continues to grow and our vacant
titles are becoming fewer and
fewer. I am also extremely
excited with our first world
championship in Ghana in May and
certainly intend to be present
at that historic fight.
A very jet lagged president
wishing you all well.
Until next time, keep boxing.
Howard Goldberg
PRESIDENT: World Boxing
Federation
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