Evander Holyfield Stars in Compelling Anti-Road Rage PSA

There are a number of strong and valid reasons out there as to why you should never, ever engage in an act of road rage. 

For starters, fighting strangers on public roads puts you on the fast track to becoming a sad, dead statistic. Secondly, it’s an excellent way to get arrested and have your car blasted into a nearby tree line. 

The most compelling reason to avoid beefing in traffic, however, is the possibility that the person inside the other car is Evander Holyfield. You do not want that.

The former heavyweight champ illustrated this fact by appearing in a new anti-road rage public service announcement.

It’s a poignant and straightforward vignette: Driver A cuts off Driver B, and Driver B is looking to fight.

Unfortunately for Driver B, the jerk in the Mercedes turns out to be Holyfield, and he quickly realizes he has done messed up.

Most interesting, however, is that there’s more to Holyfield’s involvement in the ad than the obvious “Don’t throw hands with strangers, because some strangers are professional punch-monsters who can kill you” message. In a recent interview with the Associated Press (h/t ESPN), the 52-year-old former boxer said he experienced a road rage incident as a youth.

Holyfield says he was 17 years old and driving a beat-up car on the highway when the vehicle “just stopped” in the middle of the road. He says it wasn’t long before a man in another car lost it and began threatening him. 

“Somebody was blowing their horn and they got out and they just talked to me any kind of way,” Holyfield said. “I fought then. I wasn’t heavyweight champ of the world. I was 17, but I could fight and the guy is making all this noise. He was probably thinking I can’t fight. I was a good fighter. I was an amateur champion.”

Holyfield explained that he did “the wise thing” and followed his mother’s advice, saying she had told him to “just chill” when dealing with such situations. He does, however, maintain that he could’ve beaten the absolute tar out of the man.

“But, you know, in a moment I was upset and I knew the man couldn’t whup me and I could have got out there and fought, but I was embarrassed because my car was raggly and it stopped,” Holyfield said.

Remember this: Holyfield gave a man a pass, but that doesn’t mean the next professional man-beater will do the same.

There are trained fighters in cars driving around the world, and not all of them are as immediately recognizable as Holyfield.

So the next time you’re losing it in traffic and thinking about opening that car door, ask yourself, “Is that Evander Holyfield back there?" and, "Am I really about that life?”

Dan is on Twitter. He is not about that life.