Evander Holyfield vs. Michael Moorer II victory, rumors of the long-awaited unification match between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. After the Holyfield–Moorer II fight, Lewis would also pick up the "Lineal" Heavyweight championship by defeating Shannon Briggs, the man who had dethroned George Foreman to win the title. With both Holyfield and Lewis now holding all of the major titles, the highly anticipated unification bout looked like it might finally take place. Holyfield would make his mandatory defense against Vaughn Bean, defeating him via unanimous decision, while Lewis faced mandatory challenger Željko Mavrović, also winning his fight via unanimous decision. After these victories, the Holyfield–Lewis fight
Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman going the distance with the much younger champion. The fight was a huge success financially, becoming for a time the highest-grossing boxing match of all time. The bout brought in approximately $55 million from pay-per-view buys, with 1.45 million American homes purchasing the fight. Also, an additional $8 million was made from the live gate, with an estimated 19,000 fans attending the fight live. Many thought this would be Foreman's last chance at the Heavyweight championship. Foreman, however, would shock the boxing world over three years later by defeating Michael Moorer to become the oldest Heavyweight champion at age 45.