Evander Holyfield is an American former professional boxer who was the undisputed champion at cruiserweight during the late 1980s and at heavyweight during the early 1990s, and is the single boxer in history who won the undisputed championship in 2 weight classes in the three-belt era.
In this article, we will cover Evander Holyfield’s net worth, early life, personal life, career highlights, and others.
Evander Holyfield’s Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the estimated net worth of Evander Holyfield is said to be $1 million. Sadly, like many renowned boxers, he went through extreme financial troubles in spite of making hundreds of millions of dollars throughout his career. He earned about $230 million over the years without even adjusting for inflation.
Evander lost his longtime home to foreclosure in 2008 and was compelled to sell off the majority of his wealth to repay a number of debts. This has caused Evander Holyfield’s net worth to drop significantly.
After taking a dig into the net worth of Evander Holyfield, let’s have a look at his childhood and early life.
Early Life
Even after earning a huge net worth, Evander Holyfield doesn’t have much of it today. He was born in Atmore, Alabama on the 19th of October, 1962. When he was 7, he began boxing and won the Boys Club Boxing Tournament.
When he was 13, he qualified to compete in his first junior Olympics,s and by the time he was 15, he was already the Southeastern Regional Champion and won the regional tournament and the Best Boxer award. In the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela, he represented the US and won the silver medal, qualifying for his first Olympics.
Personal Life
In 1985, Evander tied the knot with Paulette Brown but the duo divorced in 1991. In October 1996, he remarried Dr. Janice Itson and the couple welcomed their first child together in 2000. In 2003, he married Candi Calvana Smith and they divorced in 2012. He is the father of eleven children.
Career
Evander Holyfield’s professional career has no doubt made him earn a good net worth. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the Light Heavyweight division. When he was 21, he made his debut as a professional and was given the nickname, “The Real Deal”.
In 1985, he elevated to the cruiserweight division, and the next year, he took home his first title after winning against Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the WBA Cruiserweight belt.
After that, he won against Ricky Parkey and Carlos De Leon and earned the Lineal, IBF, and WBC titles; apparently becoming the Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion. Evander got his first win as a heavyweight in 1988 since he won against Buster Douglas for The Ring, Lineal, WBC, WBA, and IBF titles in 1990.
It was until the year 1992 that he had not experienced his first professional loss as he was defeated in a fight against Riddick Bowe. After a year, he won against Bowe for the WBA and IBF titles but again lost against Michael Moorer in 1994.
Coming to his other wins against remarkable fighters, including George Foreman, Riddick Bowe, Larry Holmes, Ray Mercer, Michael Dokes, Michael Moorer, Mike Tyson, John Ruiz, and Hasim Rahman. In 1990, he won the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles, in 1993, winning the WBA and IBF titles, and also WBA titles in 1996 and 2000.
Evander was compelled to retire for a short period of time in 1994 after he was advised considering his medical condition but he came back stronger after a year.
In 1997, Evander defeated Mike Tyson when Tyson was ruled out for biting off part of Holyfield’s ear while they were competing. In 1999, he won against Lennox Lewis the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles. In 2014, he decided to retire but was ranked at No. 77 on The Ring’s list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. He held a career record of 44 wins (29 knockouts), 10 defeats, and two draws.
In 2017, he was called up to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Holyfield ranks at number 9 in BoxRec’s ranking of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers of all time. After retiring from boxing, he worked as a boxing advisor and mentor to heavyweight hopeful Zhang Zhilei.
Apart from her professional career, Evader Holyfield’s other ventures also earned him a remarkable net worth. Let’s have a look at it below.
Other Ventures
Evander Holyfield set up Real Deal Records which signed the one-time success group Exhale, amongst other groups and this also helped him in earning him a good fortune as well as net worth. By the year 1992, he was already popular in every household as he was part of many commercials for Coca-Cola and Diet Coke.
He also appeared in a video game for Sega Genesis: “Evander Holyfield’s Real Deal Boxing.” Evander also did commercials for the restaurant chain Zaxby’s. In 1996, he carried the Olympic torch when it was on its way to his hometown of Atlanta, the host of that year’s games. Evander launched a line of cooking products in 2007, Real Deal Grill, through infomercials.
Evander Holyfield’s acting career also earned him a good net worth. Throughout his career, he also appeared in many television shows, and in 1990, he did his first cameo on the Christmas special of “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. During the 1990s, he appeared in 3 films that include: “Necessary Roughness”, “Summer of Sam”, and “Blood Salvage”.
In 1994, he did a cameo on Nickelodeon’s GUTS. Evander appeared on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2005; Evander and his partner Edyta Sliwinska were placed in the fifth position.
He became the first housemate on the UK “Celebrity Big Brother” following which he made disparaging comments regarding a homosexual roommate. He later appeared on the Argentine reality dance show, “Bailando” in May 2016.
Evander Holyfield built his net worth over the years but unfortunately isn’t left with much of it. We will keep you updated with all the latest information until then stay tuned to our website.