 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | 15 August 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Parking de Nouveau Port, Saint-Tropez, France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA and IBF cruiserweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Holyfield defeated Ocasio via 11th round TKO | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Evander Holyfield vs. Ossie Ocasio was a professional boxing match contested on 15 August 1987 for the WBA and IBF cruiserweight title. [1]
In Holyfield's previous fight, he had defeated Rickey Parkey by third round technical knockout to add the IBF cruiserweight title to the WBA version he had captured the previous year. On the undercard of that fight former WBA cruiserweight champions Ossie Ocasio and Dwight Muhammad Qawi would meet to determine who would be the IBF's number 1 contender, with both men having already signed a contract that guaranteed them a title match against the winner of the Holyfield–Parkey fight. Ocasio would earn a controversial majority decision victory despite spending most of the fight on the defensive, having avoided engaging Qawi, constantly backing away and clinching, leading the referee to eventually deduct a point for excessive holding. However, two judges scored the fight in favor of Ocasio with scores of 96–94 and 95–94 while the third had scored it a draw at 95–95. [2] The decision was so controversial that the IBF decided to have Qawi keep their #1 ranking despite the loss. IBF president Robert W. Lee stated that they did so as they deemed the decision "questionable". [3] The IBF eventually allowed Ocasio to keep their number 1 ranking and Qawi instead would meet former IBF cruiserweight Lee Roy Murphy on the undercard with the winner earning a title shot against the winner of the Holyfield–Ocasio fight. [4]
The fight lasted into the 11th round, the longest of Holyfield's cruiserweight title defenses. Like he had in his previous fight with Qawi, Ocasio used a defensive approach while Holyfield served as the aggressor throughout and had won 8 of the 10 rounds on one judge's scorecard (100–92) and taken 9 on the other two scorecards (99–94). Holyfield would finally end the fight early in the 11th round when he dropped Ocasio with a left uppercut followed by a right hand. Ocasio was able to continue but Holyfield would continue to attack Ocasio and after Holyfield landed several unanswered combinations with Ocasio against the ropes, the referee stopped the fight and Holyfield was declared the winner by technical knockout at 1:24 of the round.
Following Qawi's victory on the undercard, a rematch with Holyfield was arranged for December.
Confirmed bouts: [5]
| Weight Class | Weight | vs. | Method | Round | Time | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cruiserweight | 190 lb | Evander Holyfield (c) | def. | Ossie Ocasio | TKO | 11/15 | Note 1 | |
| Cruiserweight | 200 lb | Dwight Muhammad Qawi | def. | Lee Roy Murphy | TKO | 6/10 | ||
| Cruiserweight | 200 lb | Steve Mormino | def. | Angelo Musone | KO | 6/10 | ||
| Super Bantamweight | 122 lb | Fernando Beltran | def | Edgar Roman | PTS | 8/8 |
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | BBC |
 United States | Showtime |
Osvaldo "Ossie" Ocasio is a Puerto Rican former boxer who held the World Cruiserweight Championship from 1982 to 1984. He was also a Top Contender and Heavyweight Challenger in 1979. He scored notable wins against Former Cruiserweight Champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi as well as beating Top Heavyweight Contender Jimmy Young and Heavyweight Contender Pierre Coetzer, as well as drawing with Future Heavyweight Champion Michael Dokes. Nicknamed "Jaws", his peculiar nickname was the result of him accidentally biting another boxer during a sparring session.
Carlos De León, also known as "Sugar" De Leon, was a Puerto Rican boxer who made history by becoming the first cruiserweight to win the world title twice. Subsequently, he kept breaking his own record for the most times as cruiserweight champion by regaining the title on two further occasions.
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.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1978 to 1998. He was a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBC and Ring magazine light heavyweight titles from 1981 to 1983, and the WBA cruiserweight title from 1985 to 1986. Qawi was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004.
Cruiserweight, also referred to as junior heavyweight, is a weight class in professional boxing between light heavyweight and heavyweight. Before the advent of the current cruiserweight class, "light heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably in the United Kingdom.
Jean-Marc Gilbert Mormeck is a French former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2014. He is a two-time unified world cruiserweight champion, having held the WBA, WBC and The Ring world titles twice between 2005 and 2007. He was the first boxer to hold unified cruiserweight title since Evander Holyfield in 1988, and the first fighter to hold The Ring cruiserweight title since Carlos De León in 1987. He was ranked by BoxRec as the world's top 10 cruiserweight from 2001 to 2005 and in 2007, and was ranked No.1 in 2003 and 2004. Mormeck also challenged for the unified world heavyweight title in 2012.
Francois "Frans" Botha is a South African former professional boxer and kickboxer. He competed in boxing from 1990 to 2014, and is perhaps best known for winning the IBF heavyweight title against Axel Schulz in 1995, but was later stripped after failing a drug test. He later challenged twice for world heavyweight titles in 2000 and 2002. Botha has competed against former Heavyweight Champions Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Michael Moorer and Evander Holyfield late in their respective careers. Botha competed once in mixed martial arts in 2004.
Pierre Coetzer is a former heavyweight boxer from Pretoria, South Africa. Coetzer's most notable fights include those against Johnny du Plooy, Riddick Bowe, Frank Bruno, and George Foreman.
Evander Holyfield vs. Michael Moorer II, billed as Return to Glory, was a professional boxing match contested November 8, 1997 for the WBA and IBF heavyweight championships.
Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis, billed as Undisputed, was a professional boxing match contested on March 13, 1999 for the WBA, WBC, and IBF undisputed heavyweight championship.
Chris Byrd vs. Evander Holyfield was a professional boxing match contested on December 14, 2002 for the vacant IBF heavyweight championship.
Nikolai Valuev vs. Evander Holyfield was a professional boxing match contested on 20 December 2008 for the WBA heavyweight championship.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi vs. Evander Holyfield, billed as "Pandemonium" was a professional boxing match contested on July 12, 1986 for the WBA Junior Heavyweight championship.
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.
Evander Holyfield vs. Rickey Parkey was a professional boxing match contested on May 15, 1987 for the WBA and IBF cruiserweight title.
Evander Holyfield vs. Dwight Muhammad Qawi II was a professional boxing match contested on December 5, 1987 for the WBA and IBF cruiserweight titles.
Evander Holyfield vs. Carlos De León was a professional boxing match contested for the undisputed cruiserweight championship. The bout took place on April 9, 1988 at Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada.
Evander Holyfield vs. Pinklon Thomas, billed as "The Countdown Continues...", was a professional boxing match contested on December 9, 1988.
Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney, billed as "The War on October 4", was a professional boxing match contested on October 4, 2003.
Jim Kevin "Jimmy" Ellis is an American former professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) with the Los Angeles Raiders. He is also a former professional boxer who fought in the Heavyweight division.