Evan Holyfield, son of boxing great Evander Holyfield, hopes to fight again after open-heart surgery

ATLANTA - Evan Holyfield has boxing in his blood.

At 26, the son of heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield has been fighting professionally for 5 years, with 11 wins and only one loss.

Evan Holyfield's biggest fight may be outside the ring

On fight nights, Holyfield says he feels energized.

"It's a little nerve wracking, but at the same time, it's like it is a thrill, too," he says.  "It's an intense feeling, especially when you're representing the people who you love."

But about a year ago, Holyfield and his coach, Bert Wells, of Sugar Bert Boxing, began noticing something was off.

Holyfield, who fights under the name Yung Holy, was struggling at times.

His heart would suddenly race, or his chest would tighten, and he'd feel anxious, like he was having a panic attack, he says.

Wells says he thought Holyfield might be struggling with anxiety or depression.

"I just saw something that wasn't right, and I couldn't put my hands on it," Wells remembers.

But no one thought the problem was Holyfield's heart.

"Because I'm 25-years-old at the time," Holyfield says.  "I'm working out. I'm a real in-shape individual."

Professional boxer faces open-heart surgery

Last summer, after waking up with a heavy feeling in his chest, Holyfield went to a nearby urgent care clinic.

"They hooked me up to the EKG at the urgent care, and they said something was off," he says.  "It was giving back a 'cardiac arrest' signal, or something like that."

At Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, cardiologist Dr. Dan Sun diagnosed Holyfield with a right coronary anomaly, a cardiac blood vessel malformation he was born with.

"I have a picture, actually, of the CT, and we can see clearly that his right coronary artery is pinched," Dr. Sun says.  "That caused his chest pain. That caused his EKG changes on the stress test."

Up to 1% of people are born with a coronary anomaly.

"And, most of them are benign, they're inconsequential," Sun says.  "They don't pose any health issues for the patient."

But Holyfield had a malignant malformation that was restricting the blood flow through his heart, which can cause a heart attack, or the heart to suddenly falter and stop.

"It's estimated actually 20% of sudden death in the young athletes are from a coronary anomaly, the malignant type," Dr. Sun says.

The only way to fix the problem was open-heart surgery.

Dr. Vinod Thourani, Bernie Marcus chair of cardiovascular surgery for Piedmont Healthcare and the Piedmont Heart Institute, says he performs about 4 to 6 of these coronary anomaly repair operations a year.

"So, for me, it was a pretty straightforward procedure," Dr. Thourani says.  "But, we do have to stop the heart. We do have to open the heart, and we do have to reroute some of the blood flow so that this artery is no longer in that malignant course."

Evan Holyfield undergoes open-heart surgery

On September 22, 2023, Holyfield was rolled into the OR.

"It wasn't until an hour before the surgery, I actually recognized how serious it was," Holyfield says. "I started looking around, and I was, like, 'Oh, snap! This is serious!'"

The pain afterward was intense, but the procedure worked.

"We tested his blood flow to the heart, and his heart was completely normal," Dr. Sun says.  "So, basically, his issue is cured."

Now, Holyfield says, he needs to give the bones in his chest time to heal.

"I have a titanium plate in my chest, and that's, like, part of the reason, like, why they added it to make sure nothing goes wrong," he says.

By late October 2023, about a month after his surgery, he was back in the gym with Wells.

"It was amazing," his coach says.  "I mean, it was like he had not had open-heart surgery and I had to slow him down, like, 'Hey, slow down, relax.'"

Evan Holyfield is still months away from fighting again, but he is laser-focused on healing, and getting back in the ring.

"I know my heart's good," he says.  "I just want to make sure my whole chest, like the whole bone structure, is, you know, solid."

He is alternating between training and cardiac rehabilitation 3 times a week.

"I am the youngest person in my class," Holyfield says.  "But, you know, everybody around is really nice and really cool.  And, I just listen to their instructions and take their advice and apply it."