Date | May 15, 1987 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Venue | Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Title(s) on the line | WBA/IBF cruiserweight titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Evander Holyfield vs. Rickey Parkey was a professional boxing match contested on May 15, 1987 for the WBA and IBF cruiserweight title.
After defeating his friend and former Olympic teammate Henry Tillman in his first successful title defense of his WBA cruiserweight title, Evander Holyfield next agreed to a unification bout with IBF cruiserweight champion Rickey Parkey. At first, only the IBF agreed to sanction the fight, while the WBA was initially reluctant. [1] The Nevada Athletic Commission had withdrawn its membership from the WBA due to a dispute over two judges the WBA had chosen to score the Holyfield–Tillman fight and also because the WBA continued to recognize fighters from South Africa, a country the commission did not recognize. [2] As a result, the WBA not only threatened to withdraw its sanctioning of both the Holyfield–Parkey cruiserweight title fight and the Mike Tyson–Pinklon Thomas heavyweight title fight, but to strip any of its champions should they chose to fight in Nevada. [3] On the day of the fight, the WBA announced it would not sanction the fight, but would not strip Holyfield of the title though the title would be declared vacant should Parkey win. The following day the WBA and Nevada Athletic Commission would end their dispute after the WBA agreed to correct the issues that the commission had, this led the WBA to retroactively sanction the Holyfield–Parkey bout.
After sweeping all three of the judge's scorecards in rounds one and two, Holyfield would bring an end to the fight in the third. Midway through the round, Holyfield stunned Parkey with consecutive right hands and then swarmed in with a combination that dropped Parkey to the canvas. After taking a knee, Parkey rose to his feet and continued the fight but Holyfield quickly sent him down again. Parkey again beat the referee's count and was allowed to continue. Holyfield again went on the attack and landed a barrage of unanswered punches, with Parkey offering no offense, the referee called the fight just as Holyfield landed another right hand that sent Parkey down one last time. Holyfield was named the winner by technical knockout at 2:44 of the round. [4]
Weight Class | Weight | vs. | Method | Round | Time | Notes | ||
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Cruiserweight | 190 lb | Evander Holyfield (c) | def. | Rickey Parkey (c) | TKO | 3/15 | Note 1 | |
Cruiserweight | 190 lb | Ossie Ocasio | def. | Dwight Muhammad Qawi | SD | 10/10 | ||
Cruiserweight | 190 lb | Anthony Witherspoon | def. | Ricardo Spain | UD | 8/8 | ||
Heavyweight | 200+ lb | James Hoover | vs. | Hector Fernandez | D | 8/8 |
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 is the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the three 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.
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