EVANDER Holyfield is gunning for another world heavyweight title - and refuses to listen to the legions of fans that have urged him to quit for the good of his health.

The 43-year-old legend comes to Manchester for a dinner date next week, but says that he still has unfinished business at the tail-end of a career which brought an epic trilogy of fights with Riddick Bowe, two sagas against Lennox Lewis and two infamous scraps with ear-munching Mike Tyson.

And when he returns to the States after his flying visit, Holyfield will resume training for a bout with club fighter Frank Wood on July 29.

Holyfield is adored by fight fans the world over as a true warrior, but many of them have implored him to quit rather than risk being mauled by a man he would have pummelled in his heyday.

The New York State Athletic Commission has gone one step further, refusing to allow him to fight on its territory on health grounds.

Holyfield, as ever, stands undaunted, a man alone.

The riches he made from the sport - he lives in an enormous é10million mansion in Atlanta, Georgia - and the fact that he has a beautiful wife and 10 children do not enter the equations in Holyfield's head.

Opinions

"People can have their opinions, but they have to look after themselves," he told M.E.N. Sport. "I have a mind of my own, and I wouldn't be the man I am today if I listened to popular opinion.

"For most of my life, I was told I wasn't going to amount to anything, so popular opinion doesn't go well with me.

"My goal is to retire as heavyweight champion of the world. It hasn't happened yet, but I believe that everything has a start and everything has an ending - you can't choose the start, but you can choose the ending."

Maybe the parlous state of heavyweight boxing is encouraging Holyfield to hang on - two of the big three titles are held by eastern Europeans who are solid rather than spectacular, with Russian Nikolay Valuev and Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko the top two in the world.

Holyfield, despite a 20-year career littered with excruciatingly tough fights, claims he still has enough in the tank for one last hurrah, despite losing his last three fights, to Chris Byrd in 2002, James Toney in 2003 and Larry Donald in 2004.

"There will always be good heavyweights but right now the landscape is different. I am looking at all of the belts but have no plans beyond July 29," he said.

Holyfield believes that boxing faces extinction in the US unless the powers-that-be can revamp the sport at grass roots level:

"They don't show amateur fights on television that much, so we don't have many fighters participating. Those that do participate don't stay in the amateurs long enough to get the skills necessary to dominate. It's like missing high school and trying to go straight to college.

"We need to get a good amateur programme running and show it on television. They don't even show the Olympic boxing any more, and no one knows who made the Olympic team.

"People need to stand up for boxing. It is one of the oldest sports in the world and America used to thrive on boxing - now we go to the Olympics and get fewer medals than some countries who never used to win a thing.

Interests

"Boxing does appear to be on the slide, and adjustments need to be made."

He hinted that promoters need to look after the interests of fighters a little more, or face up to a dwindling supply line, adding: "Most people who fight don't have a great education, but they know what they want and are willing to pay the price.

"The problem comes when they are successful and people get envious."

Holyfield has never been the most naturally-talented of boxers, but through grit, mental strength and the ability to maximise what he has, he will be remembered as a legend by fight fans.

Outside the sport, he is remembered as the man on the receiving end when Tyson bit off more than he could chew.

Holyfield says he has no bitterness over that incident, in 1997, which saw the New Yorker disqualified and left Holyfield requiring surgery on his mauled ear.

"Things happen to people. Unfortunately I got bitten on the ear, but the most important thing is to forgive. I forgave him and moved on," he said. "Mike and I are not friends, but we are not enemies either." But, as a fellow boxer, could he understand the frustration that led to Tyson's shocking act?

"I don't think it was so much frustration as insecurity and a lack of sportsmanship. Every time you participate in sport, you get someone who gets a decision and someone who doesn't. That should make both people better people, for different reasons.

"But you have to bring your kids up to know that it won't always go their way, and they will have to make adjustments."

EVANDER Holyfield will be special guest at a dinner at the Piccadilly Hotel on Thursday, May 25. Tickets for the event, which includes a three-course meal, will be é95 per person. For more information, ring Fisher Promotions on 01925 414123 or visit the website www.fisherpromotions.co.uk

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