Holyfield lets the Lord decide when he should quit

Of course, Evander Holyfield is still deeply religious.

But these days as he trains to climb the championship mountain once more against Lennox Lewis in Las Vegas on November 13 for the undisputed crown, Holyfield is quieter about his devotion to Christianity than he has been in recent years.

Gone are the T-shirts and ball caps shouting the praises of Jesus and God that Holyfield went out of his way to wear, especially before his first fight with Mike Tyson.

Then they appeared to be talismans to get the underdog Holyfield past Tyson as well as a bit ofpsychological warfare aimed at Tyson’s Muslim faith, at angering him, throwing him off his game plan. Holyfield seemed to know even before the infamous `ear fight’ that anger doesn’t become Tyson as a boxer. To be sure, the 37-year-old Holyfield defines himself by his religion and always looks for a chance to show it.

For instance, when asked if, considering the millions he has won, whether it still makes sense for him to continue fighting, Holyfield says, “at some point in time I know that I will get the word that this is it, and you’re gonna have to leave right then and then. You’re going to move into something else.

“I know the Lord has plans for me. I go into a difficult match knowing that this is gonna be difficult. But this builds me up in my confidence as the man God calls me to be,” says Holyfield, who despite monumentally meandering answers still manages somehow to come off as thoughtful.

And if nothing else he is dead confident that he has life figured out and that God will protecthim.

But what if God is otherwise occupied when you’re fighting?“God don’t want me to go out on the bottom end. He wants me to go out on the top end. I know that.”

And the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation champion sees absolutely no dichotomy between the love of fighting and the love of God. It’s simple, he says. Being the very best fighter he can be is the way he can best honour God.

It was his strong belief that God has solid gold plans for him, as well as a burst of anger, that led him to predict he would knock out Lewis in the third round of their fight last March which ended in a controversial draw. Most ringsiders believe Lewis won the fight handily.

The prediction may have been Holyfield’s undoing because he spent most of what he claims was sub-par energy that night in Madison Square Garden trying to knock out the bigger, stronger man in that round and didn’t have an alternate strategy when that failed.

Holyfield now dismisses his prediction as wrongheaded in thefirst place because he spouted it in anger after Lewis called him a hypocrite for fathering five of his nine children out of wedlock, including two since he last married in 1996. Eight live in Atlanta, three with him there.

Holyfield admits he has been a sinner, but “I just thought it was a cheap shot that Lennox took. You know, we’re fighters and we all have problems and, shoot, we’re not competing for manhood we’re competing in a sport. You leave families and stuff like that out. That’s a vicious thing.”