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Evander Holyfield was born on October 19, 1962, in the mill town of Atmore, Alabama. The youngest of nine children, Holyfield and his family moved to Atlanta in the summer of 1964, at the age of two. He began boxing at age 12 and won the Boys Club boxing tournament. At 13, he qualified to compete in his first Junior Olympics. By age 15, Holyfield became the Southeastern Regional Champion, winning this tournament and the Best Boxer Award. By 1984 he had a record of 160 wins and 14 losses, with 76 KO.

 Holyfield is a professional boxer from the United States. He is a former World Undisputed Champion in both cruiser-weight and heavyweight divisions, earning him the nickname “The Real Deal”. After winning the bronze medal in the Light Heavyweight division at the 1984 Summer Olympics, he debuted as a professional at the age of 21.

Holyfield moved to the cruiser-weight division in 1985 and won his first title the following year, when he defeated Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the WBA World Cruiser-weight belt. He would then go on to defeat Ricky Parkey and Carlos De Leon to win the IBF and WBC titles, becoming the undisputed cruiser-weight champion. Holyfield moved up to Heavyweight in 1988, defeating Buster Douglas for the WBA, WBC and IBF titles in 1990.

Evander Holyfield holds other notable victories over fighters such as; George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Riddick Bowe, Ray Mercer, Mike Tyson (x2), Michael Moorer, John Ruiz, Michael Dokes and Hasim Rahman. Holyfield is the only 5-time World Heavyweight champion, winning the WBA, WBC and IBF titles in 1990, the WBA and IBF titles in 1993 and the WBA title in 1996 and 2000. In 2010 Holyfield defeated Francois Botha by TKO to capture the “lightly regarded” WBF Heavyweight title.

Holyfield is still an active Boxer as of 2011 and has a professional record of 44 wins, 10 losses, 1 draw and 1 no contest. He is ranked #77 on Ring Magazine’s list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. Evander Holyfield is ranked as the Greatest Cruiser-weight of all time by The Boxing Scene and is considered one of the Greatest Heavyweights of all time by many.

The first professional boxer to become the heavyweight champion of the world four separate times exhibited his footwork in 1995 as a contestant on the inaugural season of T-V’s Dancing with the Stars.

Source: Daily Prep and Wikipedia

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