It appears that Evander Holyfield is the latest athlete to fall on hard times.

It makes sense now why a once proud warrior still has to fight when it appears his best days are long behind him.


The Associated Press

Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield is facing mounting financial and legal woes.

Holyfield's $10 million US estate in suburban Atlanta is under foreclosure, the mother of one of his children is suing for unpaid child support, and a Utah consulting company has gone to court claiming the boxer failed to pay for more than half a million dollars for landscaping.

A legal notice that ran Wednesday in a small newspaper in Georgia said Holyfield's estate will be auctioned off "at public outcry to the highest bidder for cash" at the Fayette County courthouse on July 1.

The 5,000-square-metre home — located on Evander Holyfield Highway — has 109 rooms, including 17 bathrooms, three kitchens and a bowling alley.

Holyfield defaulted on a $10 million loan to Washington Mutual Bank, which will auction off his home on the courthouse steps.

The child support case involves Holyfield's 10-year-old son, whose mother, Toi Irvin, was initially awarded $2,000 a month in support. A flight attendant, she lost her job when airlines downsized in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, prompting her to return to court to ask for an increase.

In 2003, a Fayette County jury increased the payment to $3,000 after hearing evidence that Holyfield's gross monthly income was $604,000, while Irvin was bringing in less than $2,600 a month.

Holyfield's handlers allegedly told her that he will no longer be able to make the support payments. Irvin said he has already missed two payments, so she has gone to court seeking restitution.

"My concern is there may be a lot of other mothers not be getting paid, and I would like my client to be at front of the line," said Randy Kessler, Irvin's lawyer.

Kessler said Thursday evening that he has yet to hear from Holyfield's lawyer and hopes to go before a judge in 30 days. He will request the boxer, who has 11 children, be jailed if he doesn't pay up.

"This is such a small amount given the scope of what he has," Kessler said. "If Evander Holyfield can get away with it, anybody can. There are guys making $15,000 a year who go to jail for missing a $100 payment."

Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit was filed two weeks ago in Utah seeking repayment of $550,000 in loans allegedly made to Holyfield to pay for landscaping on his 95-hectare estate.

Holyfield didn't return a message left on his cellphone. His attorney, Frederick Gardner, did not respond to an e-mail nor a call to his Atlanta office.

Holyfield, 45, fought in October in Moscow, losing a unanimous decision to Sultan Ibragimov for the World Boxing Organization title.

Holyfield has won just six of his last 14 bouts (6-6-2) and was placed on medical suspension by the New York State Athletic Commission after a one-sided loss in 2004.

Despite the loss to Ibragimov, Holyfield said at the time he wasn't considering retirement.

Known as the Real Deal, Holyfield won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympics and dominated as a cruiserweight before making the move up to heavyweight, were he knocked out James (Buster) Douglas in 1990 to win the championship.

He lost his undefeated record and the title in 1993 to Riddick Bowe, but regained it twice more in his career, including with a memorable upset of Mike Tyson in 1996. In the rematch several months later, Tyson was disqualified for biting off a portion of Holyfield's ear, which was later re-attached.

Holyfield has grossed over $200 million US in his career.

I am always shocked at how people with so much money manage to squander it.

Amazing.

+1

Man if I had that money I don't think I could ever go through it that quickly. I guess they've never heard of investments.

My totally unsubstantiated and probably libellous guess is that his manager and promoter introduced him to all kinds of investment opportunities. Most of them involving businesses run by their friends and family.

Heh, just invest in the stock market and get what 8% on your money. 200 million bucks let's say 100 of that's liquid that's 8 a year - taxes, most people even rediculous rich ones can survive on that. If he goes hedging maybe he can get a bunch more, he obviously got suckered, and it's amazing how all these rich guys get done like this.

He totally should have come out with his own grill.

hell even if he gets 0% on his money, and he lives another 45 years, he could have blown through $370k per month and not go broke until he dies.

un****ingreal

yeah it's really insane. I can understand going broke when you're a low 7s figures guy.. cuz a couple mil sounds like an assload but one bad house purchase and your money could dwindle quick. But once you're past 8 figures you should be set for life. So going broke after making $200M is insane.

Was this article written in ancient Rome? Hectares?

Amazed that guys who get punched in the head for a living don't make good financial decisions?

Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Grill

...but how much did he lose?

Serious q: how much of this money do you all think actually made it into (his hands? his accounts) somewhere where he had direct control over it? Boxing in particular seems to be quite vague in terms of how much of the purse a fighter actually receives.

Boxers aren't the only athletes that go broke with alarming regularity.

Good point, let's say he lost 50% to taxes and managers, etc.

So he's only working with 100 mill.

A mere $185,000 per month for 45 years not counting any potential interest or appreciation on assets.

busto

What are his manager and promoter creaming off 10%-20% each?
Then there’s taxes the cost of a trainer and a gym, hotels, flight, basically all living costs for himself and a entourage if boxing is anything like the music industry young guys get great contracts but have to pay for everything they have no experience of handling money and see the money coming in and just cant imagine that its possible to spend it.

yeah, plus evander bought a house with 100+ rooms and fathered 11 illegitimate children.

$$$$$$$$$ imo

That's just sad.

How the **** do you blow 9 figures???!!!!! What an idiot.

Holy sh*t, I said that tongue-in-cheek and totally forgot that he does have a grill. Lol. I self-owned...myself.

Is George Foreman like the only professional boxer in recent history who made a lot off the sport, and continued to live a charmed life after retirement? It's almost impossible to make a good living as a boxer...the top 1% probably earn 99%. But then even the dudes in that top 1% end up with a low quality-of-life after retirement. Ali, Tyson, Frazier, Quarry (lol), Berbick, Bowe, Holyfield, Morrison, etc.

I guess Lennox Lewis is up there with Foreman as being both a) financially secure and b) not brain-damaged.

That sounds like 90% of the pros on the poker circuit.

That was a joke. The real reason, imo, is just that there is no correlation between athletic ability and sound financial decisions. Same reason lotter winners go broke at high rates (worse since lottery players are usually making poor financial decisions), athletes who make tens to hundreds of millions just won a genetic lottery with no experience of how to handle it.

i don't know Holyfield's actual figures but most boxers only make 30-35% of the money they gross, this is usually a pre-determined figure, i would imagine Holyfield made 60 - 80 million before tax