MOSCOW, Oct 11: The last time a big-name American boxer fought in Russia the crowd ended up chanting his name after an epic victory.

Then again, the punches that Sylvester Stallone’s character received in “Rocky IV” were all pulled, whereas Evander Holyfield will be attempting to win a fifth heavyweight world title Saturday against an unbeaten Russian opponent who counts 17 knockouts among his 21 wins.

And if Holyfield was hoping to steal any support away from WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov, then it might have been wise to show a little more discretion about delaying his departure from the United States.

“When I found out he was training over here, I thought, Why would I go over early?,” Holyfield said of Ibragimov in Florida. “He’s thinking the same thing I’m thinking. I figure the least amount of days that we can go over there, we will do that.”

With Ibragimov (21-0 with one draw) even parodying the Cold War-inspired role of Ivan Drago to promote TV subscriptions for the fight at the Khodynka Arena, Holyfield is banking on a similar against-all-odds Rocky finale to take the first step in his stated aim of unifying the heavyweight titles.

On the verge of turning 45 to be Ibragimov’s elder by 13 years, Holyfield is facing a sizable test. “Yes, but it’s a bigger test for Ibragimov,” said Ronnie Shields, Holyfield’s trainer. “You’ve got to take it one step at a time. It’s like walking, you’ve got to crawl before you can walk. So, we’re crawling now.

“Ibragimov is a really good fighter, that’s why he’s undefeated. He’s got a style where he throws a lot of punches, sometimes he moves away, sometimes he moves in. We’ve practiced for both. If Evander does what we’ve worked on in the gym then that will be enough to win the fight.”

Holyfield (42-8 with two draws) has twice fought previously out of the United States, both times in France for two TKO wins at cruiserweight level 20 years ago. The inevitable slowing of reflexes and cumulative effect of being hit for so long has many questioning if this fight should be taking place.

But “The Real Deal” has confounded expectation before. Most notably, when he stopped Mike Tyson in the 11th round in 1996 as a long-odds underdog to win the WBA title and join Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis as the only three-time heavyweight champs.—AP