Recently, Janice Holyfield, the ex-wife of boxing champion Evander Holyfield, filed papers seeking to obtain nearly $280,000 in past-due child support and interest that Evander was ordered by a judge in Georgia to pay in October of 2009.
In December of 2009, Holyfield also filed documents against his estranged wife. Holyfield is said to be asking asking Cobb County Superior Court in Georgia to modify his child support payments because his "income has decreased". Holyfield also mentioned that he has other children "for whom he is responsible to support".
In 1999, Janice filed for divorce after she learned that the boxer had fathered a pair of children outside of their two-year- marriage. Janice and Holyfied have one child named Elijah. There are some reports that Holyfield has eleven children in all.
Perhaps now we know why the former heavyweight champion wants to keep fighting at age 45. He'll have to make some big bucks to support 11 children.
That's not the least of his financial woes, his $10 million estate in suburban Atlanta was under foreclosure and was auctioned off on the court house steps last year. Plus a Utah consulting company went to court in a federal lawsuit claiming the boxer failed to pay back more than a half million dollars for landscaping.
Holyfield has likely made hundreds of millions of dollars during his 24-year boxing career, including a reported $34 million for his second bout with Tyson in 1997, the infamous "Bite Fight" that ended with Tyson being disqualified for gnawing off a chunk of Holyfield's ear.
At the time, it was the richest fight in boxing history. But Holyfield's earning power has been in steep decline since then. He went through a dismal six-fight stretch that produced only one win, prompting the state of New York to strip him of his license after a dismal 2004 loss to Larry Donald.
Resisting calls to retire, Holyfield returned from a nearly two-year layoff to land yet another title shot in October 08. He lost a unanimous decision to Sultan Ibragimov in Moscow for the WBO title, but still insisted that he would keep fighting until he's the undisputed champion of the Heavyweight Division. Hey - he has a lot of kids to support now.