One Big Night

One Big Night was a professional boxing card contested at Madison Square Garden on May 10, 1996.

Promoted by Main Events and broadcast by HBO, the card featured three televised non-title heavyweight bouts; Tim Witherspoon vs. Jorge Luis González, Lennox Lewis vs. Ray Mercer and Evander Holyfield vs. Bobby Czyz.

The event's origins date back to November 1995 when it was announced that Madison Square Garden would produce an all-heavyweight fight card in honor of the 25th anniversary of Fight of the Century, the heavyweight title fight between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali which had taken place at the venue in 1971. Originally, the card, promoted by Bob Arum and dubbed End of an Era, was set to be headlined by a George Foreman–Michael Moorer heavyweight title fight, a long-awaited rematch of their 1994 fight two years prior that was to be Foreman's final fight. Supplementing the Foreman–Moorer bout was an undercard that was tentatively scheduled to feature Jeremy Williams facing either Ray Mercer or James Toney, Peter McNeeley, coming off his infamous fight against Mike Tyson, against undefeated knockout sensation Eric "Butterbean" Esch and young up-and-coming heavyweights Michael Grant and Jo el Scott against yet-to-be-named opponents.^[1]

The original event, initially set for February 29, 1996, was derailed after a dispute between Arum and Time Warner, the then-parent company of HBO, regarding a series of conditions Time Warner insisted on Arum meeting before they agreed to broadcast the event on pay-per-view.^[2] After the cancellation, Madison Square Garden senior vice president John Cirillo, determined to still put on a heavyweight boxing event, recruited promoter Dino Duva of Main Events, who began negotiations with former heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield to face Ray Mercer and Lou Savarese respectively. In early February, Lewis agreed to face Mercer, followed by Holyfield, who was matched up against two-division world champion Bobby Czyz instead of Savarese.^[3][4]

The first bout of the televised broadcast saw former two-time heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon against former heavyweight contender Jorge Luis González, who was nearly one year removed from his WBO heavyweight title fight against Riddick Bowe. Witherspoon had suffered a broken hand in his previous fight, also at Madison Square Garden, against Al Cole in January, leaving his status uncertain for the One Big Night card, though the injury had healed enough for him to commit to face González.^[5]

Witherspoon controlled the fight and ended it during the final minute in the fifth round. Witherspoon caught González against the ropes and landed a series of right and left hooks to the head of González. Stunned, González tried in vain to clinch Witherspoon, but failed and was hit cleanly with more hooks that eventually sent him down. Referee Joe Santarpia counted until seven, but after realizing González was in no condition to continue, stopped the fight with five seconds remaining in the round, giving Witherspoon the victory by technical knockout.

After the event, Witherspoon was critical of the performances of his fellow former heavyweight champions, Lewis and Holyfield, stating to the New York Times "If that's all they have to offer, then I'm the best out there."^[6]

Though Lewis entered the fight as the clear-cut favorite, Mercer surprised both Lewis and the audience by putting on one of the best performances in his career. From the opening bell, the two men would go back and forth, with Mercer being able to win two of the first three rounds on the scorecards. The two men would have arguably their most entertaining showing in the fourth. Lewis was able to hit Mercer with two impressive combination within the round's first two minutes, but with 40 second left in the round, Mercer was able to put on his best offensive showing in the fight as he hammered Lewis with a 16-punch combination that briefly stunned Lewis. Lewis then responded with a combination of his own, but Mercer was able to fight out it with another combination. The two continued to exchange close rounds with neither man gaining a knockdown and, by the end of the fight, both fighter's eyes were almost completely shut. One judge had the fight scored a draw at 95–95, the other two judge's had Lewis narrowly winning the fight with scores of 96–95 and 96–94, giving Lewis the victory by majority decision. When the decision was announced by Michael Buffer, the pro-Mercer crowd loudly booed, having felt Mercer had done enough to win the fight. The unofficial Associated Press scorecard had Mercer clearly winning the fight by the score of 97–93, while HBO's unofficial ringside scorer Harold Lederman scored the bout a draw 95–95. Despite giving up three inches to Lewis, Mercer was able to land 60% percent of his jabs to Lewis' 33%. Mercer also landed a higher percentage of total punches, 59% to Lewis' 44%. Lewis, however, was able to narrowly land more total punches, having landed 235 punches to Mercer's 223.^[10][11]

In the main event Holyfield controlled the bout with Czyz receiving a standing 8-count in the 3rd.^[12]

Czyz quit on his stool after the 5th round complaining of a foreign substance in his eyes telling his corner "my eyes are burning and I can't see.". Dr. Rufus Sadler examined him and verified a vision problem. Czyz claimed someone in Holyfield's corner had put a substance on his gloves to cause burning. Referee Ron Lipton halted the bout, declaring Holyfield the winner by a technical knockout after the fifth round. He then went to Holyfield's corner, took the gloves and rubbed them on his face. Before telling Czyz that nothing had come off the gloves.

The Lewis-Bowe match never ended up taking place. In his tuneup fight against Andrew Golota, an out-of-shape former world champion performed poorly and only managed to win after Golota was disqualified for repeated shots below the belt.^[13] Lewis’ camp pulled out of the fight afterward as their interest in taking on Bowe faded. Lewis did not fight again in 1996, but in his next fight he got the title match he had been clamoring for; after Tyson vacated the WBC title to pursue a fight with WBA champion Bruce Seldon, Lewis fought and defeated Oliver McCall in a controversial fight for the vacant title, avenging his previous loss to McCall.

Confirmed bouts:^[14]