Evander Holyfield will celebrate his 45th birthday on Friday, but another year and another failed attempt to regain a version of the world heavyweight title is not likely to be enough to make him retire. Holyfield lost a unanimous points decision to Sultan Ibragimov for the WBO title in Moscow on Saturday, but the four-time heavyweight champion, who has spent most of this century in denial about his waning skills, is unlikely to call it a day.

“I just have to get back in line and it doesn’t mean that it’s over,” Holyfield said. “Did I do so bad that it’s not worth it for me to try?”

Ibragimov, who won a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics, is probably the weakest of the four main claimants to the title, all of whom come from the former Soviet Union. But Holyfield lost by at least six rounds on each of the judges’ scorecards and there is no reason to believe he would do any better if given another chance. “I would put him in the top five heavyweights of all time, but there’s always a time and his has come,” Freddie Roach, Ibragimov’s trainer, said. “I’d hate to see him end up being hurt.”

Derry Mathews, the featherweight who will collect the Boxing Writers’ Club Young Boxer of the Year award a week today, extended his unbeaten record to 19 bouts by stopping Matthew Marsh in 11 rounds at York Hall, Bethnal Green.

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