Midnight Mania! Holyfield Decides If Belfort Battle Is Pro Fight Or Exhibition Match

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Generally speaking, there are two types of old people boxing matches. On one hand, there’s the considerably safer exhibition matches, a label which includes rules aimed at safety (i.e. shorter/fewer rounds) and does not necessarily produce a winner — think Mike Tyson’s recent legends bout vs. Roy Jones Jr. Alternatively, it can be a straight up pro fight, and no precautions are taken.

Promoters often like to blur this line to really sell the match up one way or another.

Seeing as Vitor Belfort and Evander Holyfield were matched up rather haphazardly at the final moment, it was not clear exactly what rule set the two would compete under, but it’s been largely assumed to be a full professional contest. However, Triller co-founder Ryan Kavanaugh revealed that the decision is actually up to Holyfield as to whether or not the outcome will go down on his official record.

“If Holyfield doesn’t want this to go on his BoxRec due to his age, we’ll allow him to make the decision and still follow all the other rules,” Kavanaugh told ESPN. “As of now the fighters are comfortable with how it stands and we’re going to revisit this over the next couple of days to decide. We’ve spoken to Holyfield and Vitor and the commission; no matter what, this will be scored as a pro fight, there will be a clear winner and it will be treated with pro rules.”

Ultimately, it sounds as if Holyfield will be trading very real punches with Belfort one way or another … for better or worse.

The Return Of Shameless Self-Promotion

We are less than a week away, and everything is set for the banner. Thank you again to all who donated, sent their support, and complimented the column! At this point, I can no longer guarantee the inclusion of any additional names, but all the previous options (venmo: AndyLRichardson (1572), PayPal, GoFundMe) are still open for anyone who doesn’t care about symbolism, because … why not?

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Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.