Holyfield celebrates a birthday and a place on one list of all-time heavyweights

Happy Birthday, Evander Holyfield.

A couple of lifetimes have been jammed into your half-century of heavyweight titles, improbable comebacks, surprises and disappointments. You lost your money and even a piece of your ear, but never your defiant pride.

You lost in a classic to Riddick Bowe and you were there as an eye witness on the night that the Fan Man dropped into the ring like the 82nd Airborne Division on the night of the rematch at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace.

You saw Mike Tyson for the bully he was and then slayed the beast when few thought anybody could. Tyson’s only counter was to tear off a piece of your ear in a rematch that spawned chaos throughout the MGM Grand and the streets surrounding the Vegas casino.

You were fearless, yet flawed.

Within the ropes, your mix of tactical skill and instinctive poise was often brilliant.

Outside of the ropes, your contradictions as a preacher with many wives and children were exasperating.

The critics gathered, calling you a hypocrite and then demanding that you retire. But you stood up to all of it, just as you stood up to Tyson, in your characteristically quiet manner. That’s why I say Happy Birthday. Few live life on their own terms, but at 50 you have, no matter how terrible the cost.

I’m not sure you’ll stay retired. Every time you have to pay alimony — $3,000 a month — and a reported $500,000 in child support, there will be the temptation to step through ropes one more time for a bout that will allow some shameless promoter to cash in on your name. My wish is that you stay retired. I hope it is yours as well. But that’s your business.

In retirement, it will be left to history to decide where you belong among the great heavyweights. About that, I have no doubts. As a four-time heavyweight champ and – for now – America’s last great heavyweight, you belong in the all-time top 10.

Here’s an informal list that will always be subject to debate and revision. Over the years, however, I suspect Holyfield will be always be there for the tenacity, technical proficiency and resiliency that have yet to be fully appreciated.

1. – Joe Louis. Great speed, power and furious combinations created the heavyweight who has been transformed into a historical figure for his rematch victory over Germany’s Max Schmeling in a 1938 bout symbolic of an imminent world war.

2. – Muhammad Ali. Few have ever possessed better foot work, which was matched by fast hands and a mouth that has roared down through decades since he changed his name and a lot minds during the 1960s and early 70s.

3. – Jack Johnson. The early 1900s were a very different time, but Johnson’s defense and some modern training would have made him the equal of anyone in any time. He went unbeaten for a decade. His place in history is secure. Without him, there would have been no “Great White Hope.’’

4. – George Foreman. He won a heavyweight title in 1994 when he was 45, in part because of the skills and sheer power he possessed as a younger man. He lost to Ali in the famed “Rumble in the Jungle.’’ But there were very few who could withstand the concussive force he had in both hands.

5. – Joe Frazier. His relentless pressure made him dangerous for anybody who dared stand in front of him, including Ali, who lost the first fight in a series that has become the standard for any great rivalry.

6. — Lennox Lewis. Size, speed and power made him virtually unbeatable and when he was on top of his game throughout the 1990s and during the first few years in the new millennium. Sometimes, however, his focus seemed to wander. When it did, he left his vulnerable chin open to a knockout shot.

7. – Evander Holyfield.

8. – Jack Dempsey. He would relentlessly attack and was quick to capitalize on any weakness he exposed during the 1920s. In a modern parallel, Dempsey has been compared to Roberto Duran, who was inexhaustible and unstoppable during his days as perhaps the greatest lightweight of all time.

9. – Larry Holmes. He was as great a tactician in the 1970s as there has ever been in the heavyweight division. His jab serves as a model.

10.– Rocky Marciano. He swarmed opponents in the 1950s with a brawling style hard to beat. Or in his case, impossible to beat. There’s a debate about whether his unbeaten record (49-0) was compiled against fighters past their prime. It also eliminates a key yardstick: How would he have responded to a loss? In a sport built on adversity, that’s a key. It helps us judge Holyfield, who came back from defeat more than once. Still, it keeps Marciano on this list.