Holyfield is set to challenge South African Francois “White Buffalo” Botha for the World Boxing Federation heavyweight belt at Mandela National Stadium in Kampala on January 16, according to the New Vision newspaper.
Holyfield (47-10-2, 27 KOs) hasn’t boxed since his controversial majority decision loss to Nikolay Valuev for the WBA world title last December. He is hoping that a victory over the man known as “The White Buffalo” (47-4-3, 28 KOs) will put him in line for a shot at WBC champion Vitali Klitschko later in 2010.
Thirty five year’s ago Africa played host to the biggest world boxing heavyweight championship, the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, that saw Mohammed Ali knocking out George Foreman.
Celestino Mindra, the Uganda Professional Boxing Commission president confirmed the fight.
“We have been aware of this fight for the last two months. They should have had it in December but have now pushed it to January,” Mindra explained.
“It’s an honour for Uganda to be hosting this historic fight and we at the commission have always wanted this to happen.”
In 1997, Mike Tyson stunned the boxing world when he bit off a piece of Holyfield’s ear in a much-hyped rematch. The occurrence marked one of the biggest setbacks to Tyson who was looking at that match as his come-back into the ring. Earlier this month, the two were reconciled on the globally popular Oprah Winfrey Show.