Financial
Heavyweight Champ Evander Holyfield Knocked Out By Foreclosure
By Jonas Oliver

Jun 8, 2008

Evander Holyfield

The foreclosure crisis has gone Hollywood.  

First there was Michael Jackson and his Neverland Ranch which narrowly escaped foreclosure recently. Next came the news a few months back that Aretha Franklin’s Detroit manse was in danger of being foreclosed upon because of unpaid back taxes.  

Then just last month, baseball star Jose Canseco just up and walked away from his $2.5 million Encino abode rather than continuing to pay his mortgage. And last week, it was discovered that poor Ed McMahon, the famed sidekick of Johnny Carson, was himself fighting foreclosure on his $5 million Beverly Hills home.  

Now another name that can be added to that list is former heavyweight champion Evander "the Real Deal" Holyfield whose palatial, 54,000 square foot home in Fayette County, GA is under foreclosure, according to a legal notice that appeared in a local newspaper. It is set to be auctioned by Washington Mutual Bank on July 1.

The home, which reportedly has 109 rooms, including 17 bathrooms and a bowling alley, is said to be worth an estimated $10 million.  

In addition to the foreclosure, Holyfield faces other financial worries. The mother of one of his nine children is suing him for unpaid child support, and a Utah consulting company has gone to court claiming the boxer failed to pay for more than half a million dollars for landscaping.  

Holyfield's financial problems are particularly curious given that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Holyfield made $34 million for his 1997 bout with Mike Tyson, while TMZ says the four-time boxing champ made more than $200 million from boxing over the course of his career.