The 49 year-old, who has not held recognised title for twelve years, had actively been seeking a shot at either of the belt-hoarding Ukrainian brothers since scoring back-to-back victories over Frans Botha and Brian Nielsen – without any success.
Both Klitschko and younger brother Wladimir, who possesses four of the six main belts, have stated on more than one occasion that they respect Holyfield too much to face him in the ring as he approaches his 50th birthday, which seems to have made the ‘The Real Deal’ more determined as Vitali repeated their stance this week.
“If that’s what they choose to do then that’s what they choose to do, everyone has their own opinion as to what is important to them,” Holyfield told World Boxing News.
Asked whether the final belt holder remaining, WBA champion Alexnader Povetkin would now be targeted, Holyfield stated: “If he would like to fight, yes – as I am not looking to fight anybody else other than the champ.
“I won’t consider any eliminators, I just want to fight for the title,” he added.
On the upside, the seasoned Holyfield is yet to taste defeat in four years, with his ten career defeats from 57 bouts all coming against former or current world title holders, which in itself is an astonishing record.
A fight with Povetkin seemed to be on the cards in late 2011 when Holyfield was invited to Germany and even posed for pictures with the Russian as he claimed his title by beating Ruslan Chagaev in August of that year.
For one reason or another though the fight failed to materialize and with Povetkin pencilled in to face another veteran former world champion in Hasim Rahman next month, Holyfield cannot be ruled out as a possible future challenger.
