Phil D. Jay
WBN Editor
Darren Julien, the founder of the organisation who will sell off Holyfield's possesions, revealed his disapppointment at the ring legend's attempts to block the auction, but insisted that the sale would go ahead as planned on the 30th of this month.
"We have been working with Evander Holyfield for the past few months to put together a world class auction of his memorabilia from his career and his personal belongings," Julien told World Boxing News.
"Mr. Holyfield approved the press release as well as the catalogue cover and all the items that are included in the auction.
"We spent time, and considerable money in Atlanta picking up the property after he lost his house and at that time, he kept all the items that he did not want to include in the auction. All the other items that he gave us were to be sold in the live auction that we are holding for him on Friday, November 30th and were approved by him.
"We have done an enormous amount of work including advancing him hundreds of thousands of dollars due to his current financial situation and upon his personal request. We clearly do not understand his reasoning for trying to stop his auction at this time.
"We are a very reputable auction house who takes great pride in dealing honestly and fairly with all of our clients. It is disheartening to us that after all of our hard work, support and expense of helping Evander, including our commitment to throw him a world class 50th Birthday party which he attended at our auction gallery on October 19th, that he would try to do this.
"We plan on honoring our commitment to Evander Holyfield and have put together a first class exhibition and auction that we promised even though he has taken this unjust position.
"The auction will continue as planned," he added.
Holyfield has several significant items up for auction at the sale, including his 1984 Olympic bronze medal and the gloves he wore in his 1996 knockout victory over Mike Tyson.
It is not know why the two-weight world title holder has decided on the u-turn, although Holyfield has announced that he is to continue his boxing career after initially confirming his retirement last month.