Champ wins one round but Holyfield auction still on

Hundreds of Evander Holyfield's ring mementoes are to go up for auction next week, even though the former heavyweight world champion obtained a court ruling excluding 12 treasured items from the sale. "Though the judge approved a temporary restraining order to exclude just 12 items from our November 30th auction, we will absolutely continue with the auction on November 30th where we will be selling over 400 plus lots of Holyfield memorabilia beginning at 10am," Darren Julien, president and chief executive of Julien's auction house, said in a statement after a judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the sale of the items in question. Julien said he remained confident that those items would also be auctioned at a future date, when the court battles that have arisen around the auction have been settled. "We are confident that we will ultimately prevail when these frivolous claims are actually decided on the merits, and once we have won, we fully expect and intend to sell these few items in a future auction," Julien said. According to a press release issued in July, the auction was originally slated to include robes and trunks worn by Holyfield for his 1996 upset victory over Mike Tyson and gloves worn in Holyfield's 1997 re-match with Tyson in which Tyson famously bit Holyfield's ear. Holyfield sued to stop the auction earlier this month, saying he didn't give permission to sell a majority of the items. Julien's has since sued a Holyfield's assistant who was tasked with confirming the history of each item and securing Holyfield's approval for its sale. "As to the lawsuits, we sincerely regret that Evander has chosen to engage in litigation, especially given the hundreds of thousands of dollars we have expended and advanced to Evander, and the incredible amount of press coverage and promotion we have obtained to make this the most amazing auction possible," Julien said.