Evander Holyfield

By Joel Stein

Evander Holyfield, the heavyweight champion, fights Lennox Lewis on March 13.

Q: Before you married your current wife, you proposed to three different women before three big fights and then broke it off after each fight. Did you keep using the same ring, Champ?

A: Well, yeah. If you don't get married, you don't let them keep the ring.

Q: Did they get angry, or did they give it right back?

A: They got angry.

Q: Do you let your wife nibble on your ear, or does that freak you out now?

A: I don't do anything like that.

Q: You've said the only foreign foods you like are French fries and French toast.

A: Yeah. That's about it.

Q: Have you tried French-cut green beans? Delicious!

A: No.

Q: Your house has 17 bathrooms. Have they ever all been used at once?

A: No.

Q: You said that when you were four years old, an angel visited you in your family's kitchen every night. Do you know why he picked the kitchen?

A: No, I don't.

Q: You said a prophet warned you before the Mike Tyson fight that he was going to do something bad to your "facial area." Why the heck wouldn't you listen to a prophet?

A: Well, all fighters try to do something to your face. They hit you in the face; they elbow you; there's a lot of things like that. But you don't think somebody is going to bite you.

Q: What's the last thing a prophet told you?

A: I can't recall right now.

Q: Did the prophet mention me at all?

A: No.

--By Joel Stein