Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 8:51 a.m.
There is no questioning the man's resilience or his ability to rise and meet a challenge.
Evander Holyfield has proven himself many times over.
But the four-time former world champion is only a month removed from his 41st birthday as he heads into an Oct. 4 fight at Mandalay Bay with James Toney. It's a bout Holyfield likes and one he accepted even though he could have made himself available to fight World Boxing Association champion Roy Jones Jr.
Currently training in Houston, Holyfield is, as always, a diligent student, according to his trainer.
"Holyfield is old school," trainer Don Turner said during a conference call. "He is obedient and humble when it comes to authority. He likes to try to do what you tell him and he is easy to get along with.
"I know he can follow the script. Whether he will at an advanced age is a different story."
Turner knows that Holyfield can't fight forever, and that he can't afford to lose this fight.
"I think it's important for him to win impressively," he said. "To be honest with you, his last great fight was the second fight with Lennox Lewis. He did enough to win the (John) Ruiz fights, but they were not performances that he was very pleased with.
"Right now he is doing what he is supposed to in order to put up a sterling performance and get back in the hunt.
"He will attack Toney and I think he will be victorious."
Holyfield is coming off a decision loss last December to current International Boxing Federation champ Chris Byrd. Before that he beat Hasim Rahman in a fight shortened to eight rounds by a head butt, and before that he had a trilogy of fights with Ruiz with the WBA title at stake.
He had a win, a loss and a draw in the fights with Ruiz.
Two fights with Lewis -- one of which was a loss and one of which was a draw -- preceded the series with Ruiz.
Now 38-6-2 with 25 knockouts, Holyfield is only 2-3-2 since 1999.
Nonetheless he's a minus 145 betting favorite for the fight with Toney, who is a plus 125 in the sports book at Mandalay Bay.
Their fight tops a Showtime pay-per-view card that also includes a potentially sizzling lightweight bout between Diego Corrales and Joel Casamayor. It's $45 for the pay-per-view telecast and tickets are priced from $75 to $650.
Toney, 35, is 66-4-2 with 42 KOs and is fighting as a heavyweight for the first time.
"But this is nothing new for me," Toney said from his camp in Hollywood, Calif. "I've sparred with heavyweights. I have been running heavyweights out of gyms as long as I've been running my mouth, and you know how long that has been."
Toney has won 12 consecutive fights and is coming off a win against Vassiliy Jirov with the IBF cruiserweight title on the line. He is also a former world champion at both 160 and 168 pounds.
"We've been trying to get guys (for sparring) that are really slick," Turner said of preparing Holyfield for Toney. "Toney is a well-schooled fighter but I don't think he will pose any problem if Evander fights his fight."
Turner added that he has implored Holyfield to throw his left on a regular basis in camp, even though the fighter has had some reluctance to do it after undergoing shoulder surgery earlier this year.
"Since the operation, I told him he has been a little apprehensive to throw the left hook," Turner said. "However, I told him he has to throw it because he will never know whether it is all right unless he throws it.
"You cannot wait for the fight to throw it -- throw it now."
He said Holyfield has had good days and some that weren't so good, but camp was going well overall.
"He's in good shape," Turner said. "I'm satisfied. He seems to be having fun and he's staying around and talking and laughing after his workouts.
"When you are dealing with fighters, you always try to get into their heads. I try to figure out what he is thinking and what I would do in that situation. Then I put in my ideas to correspond with what he is thinking."
Turner, like most observers, marvels at Holyfield and admires him for what he has achieved.
"He's always rose to the occasion," he said. "He reminds me of Rocky Marciano, who didn't always look good in the gym but when he got in the ring he had a lot of fight in him.
"Holyfield is one of the most intelligent fighters I have ever seen. And if he uses all of his experience and intelligence, he will be hard to beat no matter how long he fights."
As for how long that will be, Turner isn't sure, but he likes Holyfield's credentials.
"There are not any more things he can do other than win the title again," he said. "He has done more for the heavyweight division than anyone in history. He won the title four times and would like to win it a fifth.
"He is capable of doing it."
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