Even at 46, an age considered ancient in the world of boxing, Evander Holyfield is unrelenting. A former four-time boxing champion, Holyfield is on the hunt again for a fifth title belt, recently going against the 7-foot Russian Nikola Valuev—a fight which ended in a decision disputed by ringsiders. Holyfield vows that he will fight another fight, ready to catapult his name into the Hall of Fame. But more pressing matter persist which could ruin his name this late in his boxing career. Besides his age, Holyfield will have to worry about more damning issues such as his name being linked to the case of two pharmacists in Alabama who were indicted for selling and distributing steroids.

For the past week, Holyfield has been making headlines not for being a celebrated boxer but for being included in a list of names dropped in the middle of a steroid distribution scandal together with other top and well-known athletes from every field of the sports world. The Times Union in Albany reported that Evander Holyfield, under an alias, was included in the customer list at the Applied Pharmacy in Mobile Alabama—the same pharmacy which was raided by federal agents for selling and distributing anabolic steroids and other illegal performance enhancing drugs to athletes from various sports. While Holyfield has not been indicted or charged in the investigation, his name has already been linked to the scandal and like it or not, a form of damage has been done.

In a recent report, Holyfield revealed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he may have unwittingly taken a drug that could have come from Applied Pharmacy sometime n 2004. He said that he took the drug to balance a hormonal problem—a problem that left him tired and overly fatigued at times—but that he stopped taking the drug after two or three tries because it did not work. Holyfield added that during that time when he was experiencing hormonal problems, somebody recommended to him that he contact a particular doctor who dealt with hormone drugs, who was based in South Georgia.

Holyfield said that he could not remember the name of the doctor but that he may have been associated with the pharmacy in question. Holyfield told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he didn’t know what the drug was, “hormonal something.” He said that all he knew was that the drug didn’t do anything so he stopped taking it. “They said, ‘Just keep taking it.’ And I said, ‘Why, it’s not doing anything?’ I lost to Larry Donald.”

Holyfield also revealed to the paper that right before he moved to heavyweight from cruiserweight in 1988, he was approached with taking steroids. The person who approached Holyfield told him that someone “high up” in the boxing world was taking steroids and that he should too. At that time steroids was not yet illegal in boxing. Holyfield told the person that he wasn’t going to do steroids because he wasn’t a cheater. At that time, he was the undisputed cruiserweight champion and he was also in the Olympics. If I took steroids, Holyfield said that people would say that he cheated at everything. The person then told him that Mike Tyson (former heavyweight champion) was doing it. Holyfield then said, “’I don’t care if Tyson is doing it, I’m not.”

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