Evander Holyfield was given a rude awakening when he sparred a future world heavyweight champion, just a few years before entering his last professional bout.
This was around the time that Holyfield, a shadow of his former self, had suffered back-to-back defeats to Russian operators Sultan Ibragimov and Nikolai Valuev.
He did, of course, later secure an eighth-round stoppage victory over Frans Botha – by this point, an equally faded customer – before ending his glittering career with a 10th-round finish over Brian Nielsen in 2011.
An official announcement regarding his retirement, however, did not arrive for another three years, during which time Holyfield seemed to be angling for another stab at world honours.
But while, at that juncture, the former two-division undisputed champion was well past his best, it was actually several years earlier that he received a rather abrupt wake-up call.
Without having previously been alerted to his dwindling capabilities, it came as a sizable gut-punch when Holyfield discovered that he just simply could not keep up with a 19-year-old Andy Ruiz Jr.
After sharing multiple rounds of sparring with the young prospect, it was his lack of speed, in particular, that forced ‘The Real Deal’ to consider his exit from the sport.
In an interview with Pro Boxing Fans, Holyfield shared the details on when the teenage version of Ruiz gave him more than he could handle.
“When I sparred that guy [Andy] Ruiz – when he was 19 years old was able to tag me – I knew then [that it was over].
I don’t pass my age range where it no longer makes sense to get hit like that by somebody you think you should be able to beat, because experience and all this, but he had speed and I was losing speed.
When we were sparring, every day he did the same thing … He was aggressive then. It kind of embarrassed me a little bit. I thought, ‘I’m a champ and you chasing me like this?’”
Ruiz famously pulled off a monumental upset victory against Anthony Joshua, stopping him in the seventh frame to become the unified world heavyweight champion in 2019.
While Ruiz lost the titles in an immediate rematch six months later, he has since had wins over Chris Arreola, Luis Ortiz along with a draw against Jarrell Miller.
