After unifying the cruiserweight championship with his defeat of Carlos DeLeon in April of 1988, Evander Holyfield decided to move up to the heavyweight division.
His first opponent was James ‘Quick’ Tillis in Lake Tahoe, Nevada on July 16th. Evander had bulked up to a muscular 202 pounds, and used weight lifting to do it. He stopped the ex-contender in five rounds, and had first victory as a heavyweight. I only read about it in the newspapers, and my boxing magazines, because it was on Showtime, and I didn’t know anyone who had that channel.
His next venture into the ring was in December against to worn out Pinklon Thomas in Atlantic City. The ‘Real Deal’ weighed in an impressive 210 pounds, and the fight was stopped after seven rounds. Once again, I read about in the sports page the next day, and months later in the boxing magazines. That’s just the way it was back then.
The fight that really convinced a lot of the public that Evander was a true heavyweight was his next bout. He took on a come-backing Michael Dokes in Las Vegas on March 11th, 1989, another Showtime broadcast. I did see the replay on ABC a few weeks later, and it was a great fight. Dokes was competitive and hurt Holyfield on several occasions, but Evander showed his grit and conditioning, and stopped Michael in the tenth. It certainly left no doubts to me that he was a full-fledged heavyweight, and that his name had to be mentioned soon as a contender for Tyson’s title.
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