It’s A Holy Comeback For Holyfield Boxer Credits Religious Faith For Recovery; Doctors Disagree

Officially, two-time former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfeld has been knocked down twice in his professional boxing career. Bert Cooper and Riddick Bowe have the distinction of dropping one of the more durable and courageous fighters to grace the prize ring.

Cooper and Bowe only had the power of their punches going for them. Their mission was to hurt an opponent, not to heal an ailing member of Jesus’ flock. All of which makes the third knockdown of Holyfield, the one that isn’t recorded in any journal, most notable of all.

Last June, at a prayer service in Philadelphia, faith healer Benny Hinn laid his hands upon Holyfield, who fell backward in a swoon, apparently unconscious. And when the fighter with the damaged heart came to, he announced that any ailments he might have had were gone and he could, in fact, resume his career.

Cynics, of course, dismissed the Hinn/Holyfield spectacle as just another example of outrageous charlatanism on a Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show tour. But anyone who knows Holyfield, a Christian, is certain there is nothing bogus about his belief in the power of God.

George Foreman might be the “Punching Preacher,” but no one in the game marches into a bout with more missionary zeal than Holyfield. And, snicker if you must, but perhaps faith really does move mountains. Thirteen months ago, Holyfield lost his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association titles on a majority decision to Michael Moorer; after that fight, Holyfield was diagnosed as having a “stiff heart,” or noncompliant left ventricle.

But tonight, Holyfield (30-2, 22 KOs) will launch boxing’s most improbable comeback when he takes on Ray Mercer (35-3, 27 KOs) in Atlantic City (N.J.) Convention Hall.

There are sound medical explanations for why Holyfield has been given a clean bill of health after it appeared he had thrown his final punch in the service of the Lord. But Holyfield will tell you the power to heal always was within himself.

Was the thing with Hinn a put-on or, in keeping with Holyfield’s nickname, the real deal?

“It wasn’t that I got hit with this power so much that I had to fall out,” Holyfield, who contributed $250,000 to Hinn’s crusade, said after some deliberation. “It wasn’t like a bolt of lightning hit me. But it’s the spirit that’s in you, connected to the spirit that (Hinn was) talking about, that does it. If you don’t believe in the first place, if you don’t have the expectation of something wonderful happening, it won’t happen.”

Physicians tend not to place much stock in this sort of thing. A battery of doctors at the Emory Clinic, in Holyfield’s hometown of Atlanta, and at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., think they can trace Holyfield’s heart condition and its subsequent clearing to something more substantive than Hinn’s magic.

Holyfield was treated with morphine and 7 liters of fluid for a shoulder injury that nagged him during training for the Moorer bout. But while the shoulder might have begun to feel better in the days before the fight, the huge influx of fluids, combined with the strenuous physical activity attendant to boxing, precipitated the symptoms of stiff heart. It was an uncharacteristically sluggish Holyfield who was gasping for air and experiencing pains unlike anything he had ever felt in the ring from the early rounds on.

A lot of people - including Holyfield’s longtime manager, Shelly Finkel - told him it was time for him to enjoy the fruits of his labors. But Holyfield, after a brief retirement, announced his intention to come back and regain the title.

Even more people wondered why this humble and peaceful man would do such a crazy thing. Was it for the money? The glory? None of the above, said Holyfield, 32, who apparently cares not a whit about material wealth or cheers.

“You have to be your own person,” he said. “You have to do the things you think are right because you’re the only one who’s going to be there at the end. I’ve gotten all the things I can out of boxing. My thing now is to help other people.”

Mercer, presumably, will listen to Holyfield’s message of healing and respond by trying to raise a few lumps on his opponent’s noggin.

“I expect that,” Holyfield said. “I’m one of those guys everybody thinks they can beat.”