Living Up to the Holyfield Name | Bleacher Report

He was there at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on June 28, 1997, the night of his father's most famous-er, infamous-fight, one row behind Queen Latifah, inside the belly of her pregnant mother as she jumped and screamed and received Are you supposed to be here? glares.

When Mike Tyson gnawed on the ear of his father, Evander, his mom shouted so loudly she thought she might go into labor right then and there.

But it was not concerned or horror that made Tamie Pettaway shout. She did not want to sprint to the ring to save Evander from the assault. To hell with that back on. She wanted the fight to go on.

"I was like, 'he's ready, let's go!'" Pettaway remembers. "He does not need that right now."

Because she had seen the look in Evander's eyes that night. The drive. She knew he would crush Tyson and was ticked he did not get to finish the job.

And maybe that part of that night has lived on in Elijah Holyfield, the baby who would be born five months later.

Pettaway saw the same look-that feverish desire to finish the job, no matter the circumstances-piercing in high school, when Elijah became a star running back, and in college, when he played for Georgia. Before one game against LSU, see Elijah get off the bus team, Mom had flashbacks to that night in '97.

"I saw the eye of the tiger, I saw in his mind. There's nobody out here I can not compete against. I can do this. I'm built for this. This is what I'm made of, "Pettaway says." I believe in my heart that this is what my believes he's made to do. What he's built for. And that excites me every day I say it because I can see it.

"How can he be denied? He can not."

So never mind that Elijah did not get to finish his own fight against the night LSU, receiving only seven carries in a loss. And never mind that the ATV-shaped, 5'10 ", 217-pound back who ran for 1,018 yards and seven touchdowns on the 159th NFL draft thanks to lackluster 40 times.

The underdog is nothing new to a Holyfield.

"I think I'm the best back in the draft," says Elijah, soft-spoken and stoic. "I feel like I'm doing it, and I feel like I can show it.

"I do not feel like Elijah."

And when they do, he believes, they will see everyone around him, including Evander, sees. That he inherited what made the field great. That he's wired differently.

The 4.78 40 he ran at the hands of the team and the 4.8 at his pro day were frosty for a running back.

He faces the same uphill climb Dad did when he was a 25-1 underdog he beat Tyson and 2-1 before the fight.

He knows what an underdog can do.

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What's the feeling behind that look? Evander can not explain. Elijah can only try.

"You can not get into that mode until it just happens," Elijah says. "You're not worried about anything."

This fearlessness, he explains, is a gift inherited from Dad.

Elijah, the eighth of Evander's 11 children, grew up as a huge, "blended" family, as Tamie puts it. She has been married to Chris Pettaway for 20 years, As a kid, Elijah, Evander, watching after clip, fight after fight. No. 1 on his list is the first time Dad fought Tyson. He loves seeing Tyson walk to the ring in no dress, only a black cutoff sweatshirt, staring ahead, knowing full well his dad was not intimidated at all. Holyfield shocked the world with an 11th-round TKO.

Dad could see right through Tyson, Elijah says, and that's how you need to attack all obstacles.

"It's something in you," he adds.

Father and son do not talk about specific fights often, but it can relate to that fearlessness.

Played as a kid before fully committing to boxing, Elijah played well before. It's no shock Elijah gravitated towards running back, where he could punch away at defenses like a boxer. That's his running style-he prefers to blast through you.

Elijah Says: "I always love those physical, tough runs, where I could go around, but I do not want to." Those are tone-setters. [for] the whole team, it's an emotion-builder. '"

One specific game in high school on the map.

He knocks on the table, says, "I do not fumble," and explains how he always held a ball in the first half of a junior game at Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia . His team trailed 21-0. His coach told him, Elijah remembers it, "F – k it! You're going to run every f – king play! And, as Elijah remembers it, he then ran the ball 24 straight times. He never tapped his helmet to come out. No, he wanted more. From the stands, Mom screamed to the coach Woodward Academy, "You're killing my kid!" Chris calmed her down. He knew Elijah could take it.

Woodward lost the game 21-20 because of a blocked extra point. Holyfield finished with 260 yards and two TDs on 38 carries. The more he touched the ball, the more he punished defenders, the better he became.

"I was in one of those areas where it was like, 'If I need to do it, I'll do it,'" he says. "It was one of those defining moments in my career: If you need me to do it, I'll do it. "

Adds Mom, "Everybody in the stadium-even the other team-was giving him a standing ovation."

On the spot Elijah Holyfield for more.

Not that that's the only thing he wants to be known for.

Holyfield does not run from the shadow of his father. He welcomes it. But he also makes it clear he's his own man. He's a steak afficado and says it's a ribeye cooked medium, no matter how much his well done friends make fun for him. He's a Netflix junkie and points to Spartacus as his favorite show ever. His favorite athlete is not Dad or a football player goal Kobe Bryant because of that rare "mindset" he represents.

And he knows the Holyfield name can, unfortunately, be a negative at times.

Like in youth sports. Mom remembers other parents instructing their kids to take out his eight-year-old son, just to brag. She did not want the "Holyfield" name on the back of his day because it was time he would not even have the ball and kids would blind him.

Gold when Dad 's financial troubles became news. She was remembers being in the checkout line at Walmart and trying to create a conversation with Elijah so he would not hear $ 230 million.

Gold at school. In eighth grade, three classmates attacked Elijah in the bathroom, cornering him. Rather than flee, he fought, standing his ground to preserve his reputation. He pummeled all three. The bad news? Even though this was self-defense, he was suspended. The good news? Nobody messed with him again.

That became a theme.

In high school, when the opponent plays dirty, he returns the favor. "I became a person you did not want to mess with," he says. Nobody talked smack because they knew they'd pay. And when fans tried taunting Elijah with pictures of Tyson in the stands, he only laughed. Why would that scare him? Tyson never frightened his father. In fact, he loves the story of Evander randomly bumping into Tyson at a hotel after the second fight.

Their rooms are next to each other in New York at the NBA All-Star Game.

Tyson exited his room. Holyfield exited his. And Holyfield simply said, "It's all good."

It's always better to be a Holyfield than not.

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The name means nothing, Evander says. Nothing, unless you do something with it.

He wants all 11 kids to be better than he ever was. "Not like me," he says. "Better than me, that's the key to what is true love.

Maybe this is why Elijah never gets irritated by all the questions about Dad. Never tries to steer the conversation away from him. Because he knows the truth: What makes Evander great? In the NFL.

"A lot of people try to make it like I should be upset or feel a certain way about my Dad," he says. "I'm like, Why would I ever be mad that my Dad [is] one of the greatest boxers of all time? I'd never be ashamed. It does not bother me that way.

"It's more of a … it gives me something to go at."

And a reason to never quit.

Forced to wait behind Sony Michel and Nick Chubb at Georgia, Holyfield was a non-factor for two years. Then, as a junior, he split work with D'Andre Swift. While other running backs would have gone to another school, though, Holyfield stayed put. To him, it was simple. He felt he was always the best of the bunch.

He was not back away from that fight in the bathroom and would not be back from this.

"I've just never been that type of guy," he says. "I've never been the type to give in. Sometimes, it hurts Sometimes it's not always the best thing But I've always had this attitude when I do something, I do it all the way Either I 'm in or I'm out.

"So I said to myself: 'Your dream was always to play at Georgia, and your dream is still in front of you. … Through my whole college experience, I've become a whole lot more mentally tough.

Of course, it helps having a dad around who knows what it's like to be counted out.

Evander can be said to have been counted out, when he was in the position, against Dwight Muhammad Qawi, in Atlanta. Evander was 23 years old, Qawi 33, and Evander still remembers Qawi sniping, "I can not believe they are a baby to do a man's job." He let Qawi talk. He knew the truth would be told.

Evander won, and his career took off. To him, the reason is simple. He believed that he did not quit, ever, he'd be the best.

"I did not quit," he says, his voice tough, weathered. "If I would have quit or got mad because things did not go my way, then I would have never made it.This message-'Don't quit'-means that something is going to come up. Something's going to happen that's going to make you want to quit.

So that's the message to Elijah now.

Evander did not grow up with a dad, and his mom, Annie, did not have much money. He remembers you want to go to Six Flags, only for Mom to tell him, "You have to eat to live." Any idea that Elijah was fed with a silver spoon in his mouth is dead wrong. Evander stressed humility.

Meanwhile, with Evander busy boxing until 2011, Tamie and Chris raised Elijah. And in their house, he did not get away with anything. He did not do his homework? Did not take the trash out? Mom would grab him by the jacket, smack him with a shoe- "shoes, punches, everything," Tamie says. Usually, the sound of her voice and disappointment in her face were enough.

For one full year before high school, Elijah did move in with Evander, who at the time was living in a 44,000-square foot that is now occupied by rapper Rick Ross. On the surface, that would seem like a life of luxury and leisure, but in reality, Elijah would wake up at 5 am each morning to work with Evander and a trainer. And he loved it. The next year, Elijah attended a military school-after that three-on-one skirmish, Dad had a reason to send him and continued to train. And train. He took weightlifting as his last period of class and always stayed to work out extra.

Elijah can not remember the last non-Sunday he did not work out. He describes it as "constant," in his head, which he can not quite explain.

Adds Mom: "His mindset is amazing.He is a competitor.We know the type of person Evander is, it's the same thing with Elijah.I know who he is.I know what he's made of.I know what he's built of. "

The result is that it is a spitting image of Dad.

In mindset and physics.

"He's always working out," Evander says. "And … you do not have to tell him to work out." "He's what he wants to do." He's focused. "He wants to be the very best."

So he can not stop.

Elijah trains with John Lewis, the older brother of former NFL back Jamal Lewis. Has since childhood. Never late, Holyfield called one day in college to tell Lewis he had "had a little incident" so was running late. The car on his car had blown out. Minutes later, he pulled up in an Uber. He'd decided to deal with the tire later. It could not interfere with that day's intense cycling. "You can not teach that!" Lewis says.

Elijah also lifts weights with Buddy Primm, the Mickey Goldmill-like trainer whom Terrell Owens asked to stand at his Hall of Fame induction. Primm was the miracle-worker behind T.O.'s physics, the one who was in the Super Bowl seven weeks after the receiver had broken his leg and torn an ankle ligament. And Holyfield, Primm says, is just as tireless of a worker. "He has one gear: That's wide-open and straight ahead … He has that boxer mentality."

To top it off, Elijah has been training at David Buer Fitness. He must hold certain poses, he explains, be it a wall sit or an increase, to the point of literal collapse. The first day, you're in for one. Which is impossible. Which is the point. From there, he rips through three-minute poses at a time in sets of five, 10, 15, 20 and 25. The goal is to restructure the body by getting typically sleeping muscles firing and to teach his body way to the brink.

"It pushes my mind to places where I've never pushed my mind," Elijah says. "It's really pushes you." When your muscles give out. Collapse My mom said they were like: 'Nah, you probably don 'It's intense, it's intense.' "

Perfect for a player who, as a kid, asked Mom for training with Lewis as his only Christmas present. A player who lives at full speed. Lewis says, that team had better say that it says "No tackling." That's when you will see the player who seemed to be of his element at the combined and his pro day.

Holyfield lives for contact and competition, and a few sprints in shorts do not quite show what makes him special.

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His is an underdog. There's no disputing that.

Heading into the draft, which begins April 25th, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller has been ranked as the 11th-best back and 132nd-best overall prospect. The 40 time is a red flag. Elijah's camp did not agree with the media, but one AFC scout assures that Elijah did, indeed, run in the 4.8s. Lineman territory. A reason to forget the name entirely. Teams are in the process of being slowed down by a group of young people.

Evander rants about the 40. If someone was trying to tackle his own, he said, nobody would catch him. It's a sport contact. Not track.

Lewis agrees. He imitates how Elijah ran the 40, his legs extending at exaggerated 45-degree angles, like he was looking for someone to hit while he ran. That's his nature. That's a strength.

Elijah brushes this all off as just another obstacle to overcome. "I've never had anything like easy to me," he says. "Everything I've done in my life is what I've worked for."

That's why he's confident he'll be in the NFL. He believes he gets better as the game grinds on, as opponents start running on empty. And he plans on being an all-around back anyway, like his favorite, LaDainian Tomlinson. That last season in Athens, Elijah knew he needed to improve a receiver, so he started catching 100-plus balls every day after practice. And during practice-whenever there was a lull-he'd have someone throw him 10, 20, 30 balls. In all, he estimates he caught 500 balls a day. Georgia never showcased him as a receiver, but the talent's there, as NFL scouts also saw at his pro day.

And nobody, Elijah assures with a cold stare, will ever outwork him. He plans on obsessing over his craft, like Kobe.

Adds Lewis: "If you have a guy who runs a 4.3, it's all about the criteria, who does not really practice hard … we'll see you how long it lasts.

"But if you get a guy with a mentality, heart and the willingness to say, I am a football player, that's the difference. He does not want any hand-me-outs. He wants to earn it.

"Because he's going to earn it because of that? You're saying I'm slow. You're saying I'm this. I know him. He's mad right now. "

Evander knows the feeling. For him, any time things got tough, any time he was doubted, "Woo-hoo!" he shouts. That's what got him going. He'd never shout into a mic like other boxers, never talk trash to intimidate. He quietly ramped up the work behind the scenes. So Dad knows what's going through his son's mind right now.

The same thoughts Evander had before taking Tyson.

"He wants it," Dad says. "He has something to prove."

Tyler Dunne covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @TyDunne.