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| Date | February 14, 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Bally's Reno, Reno, Nevada, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA cruiserweight title | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Holyfield defeated Tillman by 7th round TKO | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Evander Holyfield vs. Henry Tillman , billed as "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre", was a professional boxing match contested on February 14, 1987, for the WBA cruiserweight championship. [1]
Evander Holyfield had defeated Dwight Muhammad Qawi via split decision in July 1986 to capture the WBA cruiserweight title, the first world title of his career. The first defense of Holyfield's title was announced to be against his 1984 Olympic teammate and gold medalist Henry Tillman, who like Holyfield, had turned pro in late 1984 and become a top prospect in the cruiserweight division, having already won NABF cruiserweight title and sporting a 14–1 record with the only blemish on his professional record being a close decision loss to Bert Cooper. Before facing Tillman, Holyfield first took a non-title tuneup fight in December 1986 against Mike Brothers (after his previously announced opponent Marcos Geraldo withdrew), [2] easily defeating him by third-round knockout.
The fight would prove to be a mismatch as Holyfield would have little trouble beating Tillman, knocking him down four times during the course of the bout. After a relatively close first round (which one judge had winning, which would prove to be the only round Tillman would win on any of the three scorecards), Holyfield dropped Tillman early in the second with a left hook. After Tillman arose and took the mandatory standing eight count, he charged at Holyfield, attempting to trade punches with him though Holyfield continued to pepper Tillman with powerful body shots throughout the round, though Tillman survived the round. Holyfield would continue to dominate Tillman and in round 7, Holyfield would land an uppercut followed by a left–right uppercut that dropped Tillman to the canvas. Tillman would again arise and continued though Holyfield continued his attack and soon sent Tillman down again with another left–right combination, though Tillman would answer the 10-count at nine. Holyfield quickly attacked Tillman with two left hooks that dropped Tillman for the third time in the round, with the three-knockdown rule in effect, the fight was immediately stopped and Holyfield was named the winner by technical knockout at 1:43 of round 7. [3] [4]
This would be Tillman's only shot at a world title before he retired in 1992.
Confirmed bouts: [5]
| Weight Class | Weight | vs. | Method | Round | Time | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cruiserweight | 190 lb | Evander Holyfield (c) | def. | Henry Tillman | TKO | 7/15 | Note 1 | |
| Cruiserweight | 190 lb | Andre McCall | def. | Jim Ashard | MD | 8/8 | ||
| Lightweight | 135 lb | Mike Grow | def. | Leo Benitez | UD | 6/6 |
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | BBC |
 United States | ABC |
Evander Holyfield is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and was the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the "three belt era", a feat later surpassed by Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk, who became two-weight undisputed champions in the four-belt era. Nicknamed "the Real Deal", Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBA, WBC, and IBF titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, the WBA title a third time from 1996 to 1999; the IBF title a third time from 1997 to 1999 and the WBA title for a fourth time from 2000 to 2001.
Henry Durand Tillman is an American former professional boxer. He won a Gold at the 1984 Olympics as a Heavyweight. He scored notable wins over Cruiserweight Champions Uriah Grant and Tyrone Booze.
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