Making Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort was a ‘Herculean’ effort for Triller
Triller head Ryan Kavanaugh details how hard it was to pull the latest Triller Fight Club event together after the loss of Oscar De La Hoya.
Triller Fight Club: Legends II takes place on Saturday, Sept. 11, and features Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort. Plans came together quickly after the loss of Oscar De La Hoya, but it wasn’t easy.
A little less than a week before the event was supposed to take place, De La Hoya tested positive for COVID-19 and had to be hospitalized. Holyfield was rumored to be his replacement hours later, but the event was far from secure.
The Staples Center in L. A. was supposed to host the Triller pay-per-view card, but the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) wouldn’t approve Holyfield as an opponent, and they had strict stipulations for an exhibition bout.
Luckily, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino was available, but bringing the show to a new state took a massive effort on Triller’s part.
When asked about the difficulty of putting everything together, Triller head Ryan Kavanaugh summed it up in one word for FanSided–”Herculean.”
“I think I’ll probably go to sleep for about two weeks after this event. Thank God we’ve got a great team and people who just don’t take no for an answer. We don’t believe in the impossible. We just do what we need to do. And I was told that just never before in history it happened where we changed your main card, changed states, changed performers all in a week.”
It took a massive effort from Triller to ensure that Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort would happen the way they wanted it
Triller has been criticized for including a 58-year-old Holyfield in a professional boxing event and taking on President Donald Trump as a commentator, but you can’t fault them for their effort in securing this event.
Holyfield was in shape and prepared to take De La Hoya’s place when asked, but he wasn’t a pre-planned backup option. Neither was the new location.
“They [CSAC] just basically said, if we do an exhibition here, we treat it differently,” said Kavanaugh. “We don’t judge it. We don’t score and blah, blah, blah. So we just said, okay, well, unfortunately, that doesn’t work for us, and we appreciate it. Hopefully, Oscar’s fight will be there in the future. We had already gotten an approval by Florida for Holyfield to fight. He was originally going to fight [Kevin] McBride. And so they’d already gotten their medicals and turned them into Florida. So that’s where the fight was gonna happen. So that’s why Florida became the natural step because that was approved as a full pro bout.”
Holyfield’s performance during his media workout sparked concern from people on social media. He looked slow and lethargic. Holyfield is 58, and people fear that he could get seriously hurt in a professional boxing bout. Kavanaugh sees something different in Holyfield.
“He had already passed his physicals at his medicals, but we’ve been shooting him because we do this docuseries leading up for that fight [originally planned against McBride]. And I’d argue that Evander Holyfield is in better shape than most 30-year-old boxers. It’s not like we just called him up randomly and said, ‘Can you fight in a week?’ We’ve been, you know, working with him for six months, and the guys in the gym every single day training harder than anybody I know. He’s in incredible shape.”
According to a Tweet from Dan Raphael, legendary fight broadcaster Jim Lampley was supposed to return to the mic, but he opted not to join the broadcast team. Kavanaugh confirmed that Lampley is not working this fight but said it was due to the change in fight location.
“What I was told is when we moved it to the east coast, that he tried to move things around,” explained Kavanaugh. “But then he couldn’t move. He couldn’t get here and back in time for something that he had on Sunday.”
Still, the show goes on. Many things were working against Triller, but Holyfield vs. Belfort takes place on Sept. 11. Pay-per-view coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET on the FITE.TV app.
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Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort takes place on Sept. 11, live from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL. Follow along with FanSided for all your live news and highlights.