Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe stood barechested in their undershorts at the Caesars' Sports Pavilion here yesterday, weighing in for what many are calling the people's heavyweight boxing championship of the world. It was quiet and quick. No controversy. No insults. No gimmicks. Just their weights (Holyfield 213, Bowe 240), a few poses for the cameras (they laughed and made fists) and it was over. The rest comes tomorrow night at about 11:30 Philadelphia time, in Caesars' 15,000-seat outdoor arena, when the two friends meet for the third time.

As round after round went by Saturday night at Boardwalk Convention Hall, it became increasingly clear that light-hitting heavyweight Chris Byrd was on the verge of doing what might have once been unthinkable. Byrd, known mainly for his extraordinary defensive skills, was doing what he does best to mystify Evander Holyfield, a four-time world champion and one of boxing's most vaunted aggressors as well as one of its hardest punchers. When the 12th and final round was over and the judges had turned in their scorecards, Byrd had won a unanimous decision - and the International Boxing Federation title.

Lennox Lewis didn't get his knockout as promised, but he captured the world heavyweight championship last night, scoring a unanimous decision over Evander Holyfield, a courageous old warrior who may have fought his last fight. Lewis, the World Boxing Council champion, defeated Holyfield, the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association champion, and became the first unified heavyweight champion since 1992. Lewis, who fell behind on points early in the fight, battled back in the middle and late rounds and was well ahead at the end. The scorecards read 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111.

Michael Moorer trained in Palm Springs, Calif., a quiet, genteel place where raising your pinkie is regarded as an aerobic activity. Moorer is a brutal man inside the ring and he is no kinder or gentler outside. He is rough and crude, a man who punctuates his comments with a stream of profanity that makes Andrew Dice Clay look like Miss Manners. The obscenities are often directed at his own publicists, who once tried to sell him as a sweetheart in short pants. Here is how he describes himself: "I disrespect everybody," Moorer said.

"Toucccchhh," the faith healer yelled, as he laid hands on Evander Holyfield. The former heavyweight champ, who had to retire from the ring because of what doctors described as a stiff heart, closed his eyes and collapsed in the arms of an usher. Then Holyfield, who was wearing an expensive olive suit, was laid out flat on his back on the stage of the Civic Center. "The Lord is telling me right now He is repairing Holyfield's heart completely," faith healer Benny Hinn told 9,000 cheering Christians.

At Con Murphy's bar inside the Windsor Suites, where Joe Frazier lived, bartender Danny Bender just after midnight Tuesday morning poured a drink that Frazier ordered. Courvoiser brandy and ginger ale - on the rocks. He placed it on the bar and said the bar stool by the drink was "for Joe tonight. " "That's just in honor of Joe," Bender said. Bender said Frazier, who died Monday night, would come regularly to the bar at 17th and the Parkway and talk to anyone who approached him. He said Frazier gave the bar a huge autographed photo of himself - the boxer wearing a black cowboy hat, fists in a boxing pose - when Con Murphy's opened in March 2009.

Evander Holyfield will meet the personification of backroom boxing tonight against Vaughn Bean. Bean has been fighting in back rooms and small clubs against guys named Riff and Raff but somehow is ranked No. 1 in the world by the IBF, which, along with the WBA, sanctions tonight's Holyfield homecoming at the Georgia Dome. Bean is not ranked by the WBA or the WBC. But because Bean is the IBF's No. 1 contender, Holyfield would be stripped of that organization's title if he did not take the fight.

Mike Tyson feels champion Evander Holyfield will beat George Foreman in Friday's heavyweight title fight, but the former champ still thinks Foreman packs a punch. "I think Holyfield is going to tire him out and beat him," Tyson said yesterday during a visit here with his promoter, Don King. "Foreman could win . . . if he could hit him and knock him out. " King, meanwhile, calls the Holyfield-Foreman bout a "carnival, a curiosity, rather than a competitive combat. " Dressed in apple-green leather overalls, cut at the knee, without a shirt, Tyson was the center of attention as he toured the city in a stretch limousine.

MAIN EVENTS president Kathy Duva and matchmaker J Russell Peltz have come up with late substitutions for Saturday night's featured bout at the Asylum Arena, which was to have paired heavyweight contenders Eddie Chambers (36-2, 18 KOs) and Sergei Liakhovich (25-4, 16 KOs). That fight went by the boards when Chambers suffered cracked ribs in training last week and was forced to withdraw. The new 10-round main event for the debut event of four 2012 cards to be televised by the NBC Sports Network pits Maurice "Freight Train" Byarm (13-0-1, 9 KOs)

The Duva family's reputation for pugnaciousness was embellished during a press conference to hype former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield's comeback bout against Ray Mercer. Brothers Dan and Dino Duva went after rivals with words and fists yesterday at the Trump Regency, making for the liveliest such gathering ever involving the normally low-keyed Holyfield (30-2, 22 knockouts). Holyfield, who takes on Mercer (23-2-1, 16 KOs) in a scheduled 10-rounder Saturday night in Atlantic City Convention Hall, will be fighting for the first time since being diagnosed as having a "stiff heart," or noncompliant left ventricle, following the loss of his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association titles to Michael Moorer on April 22, 1994.

STEVE CUNNINGHAM realizes he and Tomasz Adamek made magic once, or whatever it is that passes for magic in the boxing ring. What remains to be seen is whether the would-be magicians can conjure more of the same stuff that made their first meeting, on Dec. 11, 2008, so special. That particular task is especially daunting to Cunningham, who came out on the wrong end of a split decision, the victim of three knockdowns and bereft of his IBF cruiserweight championship. A magical fight is always savored so much more when it's you who gets to smile and raise your gloved hands in exultation while the other guy grimaces in the frustration of defeat.

Like all athletes, 16-year-old swimmer Ye Shiwen of China was hoping to have the time of her life at the London Games. When she did, people started asking questions. Ye shattered Stephanie Rice's world record in the 400-meter individual medley on Saturday, finishing in 4:23.43. She swam the final 50-meter split in an astoundingly quick 28.93 seconds. To put that in perspective, that's faster than the 50-meter split time turned in by Ryan Lochte (29.10) in the men's 400 IM. Not surprisingly, rumors of doping quickly spread.

LOOKS LIKE new Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning is putting down roots. TMZ reported that Manning, who signed with Denver in March after being released by the Colts, purchased a 16,000 square foot mansion in a suburb of the Mile High City. The home, which has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, an elevator, and a seven-car garage, cost a little over $4.5 million. A pittance to Manning who signed a 5-year deal worth $96 million. Diss Bud for Rays Before attending Tuesday's All-Star game, baseball commissioner Bud Selig took a shot at the Tampa Bay Rays' low attendance total for the season.

IT ISN'T OFTEN that, in speaking about a 90-year-old man, you can say he left this world far too soon. But it isn't often that someone like Angelo Dundee comes along. Dundee, the celebrated trainer of 15 world boxing champions, most notably Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, passed away in his Oldsmar, Fla., apartment on Wednesday, surrounded by his family. He had been hospitalized by a blood clot last week and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning home to say his final goodbyes to his loved ones.

A former bingo hall tucked underneath a rumbling I-95 overpass and located just a short walk from the city's shipping docks might be where boxing receives a needed jolt of rejuvenation. Known infamously for its role in the rise of "extreme" professional wrestling more than a decade ago, the small, gritty Asylum Arena in South Philadelphia aims to fill the city's boxing void created by the shuttering of the legendary Blue Horizon on North Broad Street. And on Saturday, live on the newly minted NBC Sports Network, the arena will be displayed as a stepping-stone for a sport in need of a comeback.

MAIN EVENTS president Kathy Duva and matchmaker J Russell Peltz have come up with late substitutions for Saturday night's featured bout at the Asylum Arena, which was to have paired heavyweight contenders Eddie Chambers (36-2, 18 KOs) and Sergei Liakhovich (25-4, 16 KOs). That fight went by the boards when Chambers suffered cracked ribs in training last week and was forced to withdraw. The new 10-round main event for the debut event of four 2012 cards to be televised by the NBC Sports Network pits Maurice "Freight Train" Byarm (13-0-1, 9 KOs)

At Con Murphy's bar inside the Windsor Suites, where Joe Frazier lived, bartender Danny Bender just after midnight Tuesday morning poured a drink that Frazier ordered. Courvoiser brandy and ginger ale - on the rocks. He placed it on the bar and said the bar stool by the drink was "for Joe tonight. " "That's just in honor of Joe," Bender said. Bender said Frazier, who died Monday night, would come regularly to the bar at 17th and the Parkway and talk to anyone who approached him. He said Frazier gave the bar a huge autographed photo of himself - the boxer wearing a black cowboy hat, fists in a boxing pose - when Con Murphy's opened in March 2009.

During his boxing career, Leslie Wolff said Joe Frazier never stopped fighting. And Wolff said he has no reason to think he'll stop now. On Saturday afternoon, it was confirmed that the former heavyweight champion and Philadelphia boxing icon was in serious condition after being diagnosed with liver cancer. "We're looking for some miracles," said Wolff, Frazier's business manager. "When you're dealing with the Big C, it's not an easy thing to deal with. " The 67-year-old Frazier was diagnosed a month ago and is currently in hospice care in Philadelphia.

A FEW YEARS ago, heavyweight Eddie Chambers made the difficult decision to cut ties with his father-trainer, Eddie Chambers Sr. , because he believed it would benefit his boxing career. Now, after a 19-month period in which he has fought just once, Chambers, still only 29 and ranked No. 1 by the IBF (he is not rated by the WBC, WBA and WBO), gets back to work on Oct. 28 when he takes on veteran Tony "The Tiger" Thompson (36-2, 24 KOs) in an IBF elimination bout at Bally's Atlantic City.

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. " - From the musical "Annie" I WAS 12 when my mother trapped a local merchant in a fiendishly clever extortion plot. "How much do you think I spend here each week?" my mother asked Sam Zepper, proprietor of the Girard beef market. "I don't know exactly, Mrs. Mitchell. Why do you ask?" "Because my son needs a job. " I started work that day and was never out of work for more than a week or two until January 1973 when the Philadelphia Bulletin hired me as a nightside rewrite man for $5 an hour.