Holyfield:

I know how hard it is to give up boxing. I still think that I gave up too early, even today! I am still involved in the sport of course, which helps fill the void, but are you telling me Evander Holyfield couldn't do the same?

Glenn McCrory on Evander Holyfield
Quotes of the week

Glenn's previous blogs

One Kelly Pavlik - Read here
Taylor to Tyson - Read here
Homeboy from home - Read here
Baby-Faced BrillianceRead here

In case you didn't know, Evander Holyfield is two years older than me. I am sure you know that even after losing at the weekend, he still wants to fight on.

What does it take? What do we have to tell him to make him stop? I am lost for words, I really am. There's no doubt that Holyfield was a great, great fighter. But there is a time for these older guys to come clean and face the music.

Evander made a comeback and beat a handful of average old boys and got his chance of fighting for the world title again. But let's be honest he lost to a champion who is far from great, in a laborious fight, yet he is still sounding like he wants to box on.

I don't think for a minute Evander is reading this, but when someone like Freddie Roach makes it clear that it is time to call it day and makes it public, then he's got to listen. I think Roach was right as well, sometimes boxing needs to take some responsibility for its own and although we have all loved watching Holyfield down the years, someone really needs to step in and say enough is enough.

Here in Britain the Board of Control would do that, but the problem is over in America, if he gets turned down by Nevada, he just goes somewhere else to get his licence. That means another 51 possibilities! And if you get yourself down to Oaklahoma, you'll get anything!

We had all written Holyfield off many years ago and he proved us wrong. He is a true, true warrior in every sense, we know that. So what does he have to prove now? Nothing. He has enough money to air condition hell, his house is probably half the size of Atlanta and even if it's not about the cash, he has been at the very top, not once, not twice, not three, but four times!

Inspiration

I know how hard it is to give up boxing. I still think that I gave up too early, even today! I am still involved in the sport of course, which helps fill the void, but are you telling me Evander Holyfield couldn't do the same? We had him over to Newcastle a few years ago to talk to the kids and he was a real inspiration. He has a great story to tell and could always use his religion and belief to work with under-priveleged kids in the States.

But what worried me is that he still thinks he can be undisputed champion of the world. That is the scary thing. When I won my world title back in 1989, it was the best night of my life. People had always told me that a lad from the north east couldn't do it, so I was delighted to prove them wrong. But the next day, I woke up to the worst morning of my life: I had not even thought about defending it, or the next step.

That for me, was the first day of the downward slope. I had climbed my mountain and I just can't for the life of me understand why Evander still thinks he has to keep doing it. Four-time heavyweight champion of the world, cruiserweight champion, Olympic bronze... what more does he want?

Physically, it's obvious it can't be any good. As I say, I am younger than Evander and I can tell you that having played 12 minutes of football the other day, it hurts!

I was supposed to come on for Alan Shearer, which was slightly surreal, but they switched me to centre-half. I barely touched the ball but still came off in agony. And that was kicking a ball, not trying to hit someone and get hit back!

Disappointing

It rounded off a pretty painful weekend all round following Argie Ward's defeat on Friday Fight Night. It was so disappointing for everyone in the north east.

Headlining on Sky Sports in this country is a big deal to make a name for yourself in the domestic game, but for some reason Argie just didn't take it. At all. I popped into his dressing room beforehand and everything appeared OK, but for some reason he went out there, got the tactics all wrong, tried to throw huge shots and was beaten.

Maybe we all have our level - I know I found mine and never had any hope of getting back up there - and maybe this was one step too far for Argie. But what was worrying was the news that he had an elbow problem going into the fight. It has since forced him to retire (Evander take note!) but why was he fighting with it in the first place? He was the Commonwealth champion, he should have been calling the shots.

Still, it is a shame that he has bowed out, leaving the north east still looking for a boxing hero.

The undercard threw up a few local, likely lads though. I liked the look of Paul Truscott from Middlesbrough and James McElvaney, although I do wish these youngsters would get their hands up and stop thinking they are Naseem Hamed.

McElvany was messing about just that way and was nearly put down. I don't know whether these kids think they have to do something different to get noticed, but all this showboating, hands-down prancing about is only going to end in one way.

Paul Appleby was another one who caught me eye, although he too needs to work on his defence. He was probably the best of the bunch, but again, was perhaps trying to be too flashy. We all love to be entertained and we all like character and personality but the start of your career is not the time to do it.

If they want to make it big and want to do well, they should take a look at someone like Marco Antonio Barrera, who we were talking about last week. What he did was box fantastically well. He just got the job done as effectively and quickly as possible.

Fundamentals

Ditto Don 'The Cobra' Curry, who had some style but when he began just focussed on the fundamentals and boxing properly. And there was no-one more exciting than young Mike Tyson, but you didn't see him doing the Ali shuffle or dropping his hands. No thrills, no fuss, just good boxing - that's what people want to see.

It is something you won't see in the amatuer game, which is coming to a critical stage very soon. It's the World Championships in Chicago and we are sending a team of boys out there, including Tony Jeffries and Bradley Saunders from the north east.

The lads have to reach the quarter-finals to be sure of a berth at the Beijing Olympics. When I tell you that since they changed the qualification system 11 years ago we have only had five representatives, never mind medallists at the Olympics, it really is time to step up. Paul King and the ABA have been working hard, but with 2012 on the horizon we really do have to establish ourselves now. I'll talk more about it over the coming weeks, but in the meantime check out what we are doing in Northumbria at www.glennmccrory.com.