THE BIBLE THUMPER

By Steve Wulf

At the time, there was no way of knowing the significance of the final leg of the torch run at the opening ceremony for the Atlanta Olympics. It was simply nice that the leg began with Atlanta native and former Olympic boxer Evander Holyfield running in the tunnel beneath the stadium, with his own smile as a beacon, and ended with the lighting of the torch by Muhammad Ali.

There was also no way of knowing what would transpire on Nov. 9 in Las Vegas. Holyfield, 34, and thought to be on the ropes of his career, vanquished W.B.A. champion Mike Tyson to become the only heavyweight besides Ali to win a title three separate times. By beating the supposedly invincible Tyson with an 11th-round TKO, Holyfield dealt a resounding blow to Don King's gangstas of boxing, not to mention the bookmakers who were happy to take sucker bets on the 7-1 underdog. "I got caught in something strange," said Tyson.

Or something wonderful, depending on your viewpoint. One of the sweetest men ever to practice the sweet science, Holyfield had won only two of his past four fights, and the Nevada State Athletic Commission was so worried about a heart irregularity that it would not sanction the fight unless he received clearance from the Mayo Clinic. "Nobody thought I could win," Holyfield said last Friday during a swing through New York City. "Their judgments were not based on our talents, though, but on our images. It was the monster with hate in his heart versus a man who was always talking about God. But the Bible tells us to have no fear, and I didn't. Besides, I've known Mike since I was 17. He's not so bad."

In retrospect, there are a number of reasons why Holyfield was able to humble the bully. He has the ability to take a punch, and as a longtime student of Tyson, he knew he could push him around and tire him out. Holyfield trained much harder than Tyson did. And he had far savvier handlers.

Also in his figurative corner was his new wife, Dr. Janice Itson, an internist from Chicago whom he met several years ago at a revival meeting. Midway between the Olympics and the fight, Holyfield asked her to marry him--and to help take care of his finances as well as his six children by four different women. Not only did she restore order to his Atlanta household, but she also gave her husband a new sense of well-being. "I never could've beaten Tyson without Janice," he says.

Holyfield will never achieve the popularity of Ali or Tyson or even George Foreman, in part because goodness doesn't sell as well as brashness or menace or comedy. But there should be a place in the heavyweight pantheon for a champion who travels without an entourage, for a man who truly cares about others. Asked if he would like to train boxers, Holyfield recalled a painful experience he had while coaching the Holyfield Team, a group of amateur boxers. "I was working in the corner of one boxer, and when I looked over, the opponent was in tears. Turns out he was crushed because I was his hero, and now his hero was in the opposite corner. I decided I couldn't hurt another person that way."

Holyfield has a book coming out, Holyfield: The Humble Warrior, presciently written by him and his brother Bernard. Beyond that, he's not sure what he'll do. King has the rights to a Tyson-Holyfield rematch, which could earn Holyfield as much as $35 million. But there have been suggestions that now would be the time for him to retire, so that the hero could ride off into the sunset. Says Holyfield: "I just might retire. Depends on how my body recovers. Depends on what Janice thinks. Ultimately, it's God's will. I do know that people will listen to a winner before they listen to a loser, and right now I'm a winner. If I tell them that we all have Mike Tysons in our lives and that the way to beat them is to challenge them and not go around them, they'll listen to me."

If Holyfield retires, he will do something not even Ali could do: quit at the top of his game. And he would stave off any further ravages from boxing, so that if called upon 16 years from now, he could participate in an Olympic ceremony unimpaired.