LAS VEGAS – OK, so now we know that even with healthy eardrums, Evander Holyfield can’t beat John Ruiz.

We already knew he couldn’t beat Lennox Lewis.

And given his current state of deterioration, Holyfield would probably be hard pressed to beat David Tua, Kirk Johnson, Oleg Maskaev, Michael Grant or either of the wild and crazy Klitschko Brothers.

But there is still one major player out there in the heavyweight division that Holyfield can beat.

Or maybe it is more accurate to say there is still one major heavyweight out there who can’t beat Holyfield.

Mike Tyson.

Why even bother continuing the debate on whether Holyfield should or should not continue to fight.

He is going to, so deal with it.

But if you are seeking the ultimate reason why Holyfield continues to fight even though he is richer than Croesus, older than Methuselah and slower than Molasses, look no further than at the eccentric owner of the rococo mansion on Tomyastu Drive in Las Vegas.

As long as he still has Mike Tyson to kick around, Evander Holyfield isn’t going anywhere.

And if you think the way Holyfield does, that makes perfect sense.

There has never been a heavyweight, Ali included, with as strong a self-belief as Holyfield.

And there has never been so talented a heavyweight with so fragile a confidence as Tyson.

In a contest between body and mind, the mind will win every time.

Holyfield’s body may be crumbling, but his mind remains strong, to the point of mulishness.

He may say he still believes he can beat any heavyweight out there, but in his heart he knows there is only one he can be sure of beating every time out.

So what if Holyfield has now been life-and-death for 24 rounds against John Ruiz, a heavyweight who would have been called a tomato can 30 years ago but is called champion today?

Or that in the same number of rounds, Holyfield has learned that his arms are too short to box with Lennox Lewis?

Tyson is a whole different animal.

It has been said that styles make fights, but that is an oversimplification.

Mindsets make fights, because mindsets determine styles.

And the mindsets of Holyfield and Tyson practically assure that if they fought 100 times, Holyfield would probably win 100 times, or run out of body parts trying.

Likewise, the mindset of Lennox Lewis gives Tyson one hell of a chance to accomplish what Holyfield couldn’t, which is knock Lewis out and regain the heavyweight title.

If Tyson can pull that off – and Holyfield, for one, believes that he can – then there is really only one fighter he can face in his first defense.

Holyfield.

Consequently, retirement isn’t particularly high on Holyfield’s list of priorities right now, in spite of the beating he took from Ruiz Saturday night.

“I guess I’ll just have to get back in line,” Holyfield said in the ring after Ruiz turned a close fight into a rout with a dominant 11th round in which he floored Holyfield with a right and nearly dropped him two other times with barrages.

But there are really only three fighters Holyfield will wait in line for: Ruiz. Lewis. And Tyson.

After the fight, there was talk of a Holyfield-Ruiz III in Beijing on June 30. Promoter Don King produced a gentleman named Alexis Nu, president of something called Great Wall Enterprises, who said he is willing to part with much Chinese currency to bring a major heavyweight bout to Beijing.

Holyfield’s manager, Jim Thomas, seemed agreeable to the idea. “We’ll be there,” he said. “I understand the Chinese want Evander Holyfield, win, lose or draw, not the WBA champion.”

But wouldn’t a wiser course of action for Holyfield be to allow Tyson and Lewis to fight, and then challenge the winner? Hoping, of course, that the winner will be Tyson, who Holyfield has owned in two fights.

“I think Tyson has the perfect style for Lennox Lewis,” Holyfield said two weeks before the Ruiz fight. “He’s very explosive, and Lewis fights very reserved. I would bet on Tyson. The type of fight Tyson fights would give Lennox trouble, because Lennox doesn’t like to go forward, he goes back. Tyson fights real well when guys go back.”

It all goes back to mindset.

Holyfield’s mentality never allows him to take a backward step, even when he’s in trouble. Tyson’s mentality tells him that when his opponent comes forward, he -Tyson – is in trouble.

And the next forward step Lennox Lewis takes in a boxing ring will be his first, unless you count the Michael Grant exhibition.

Guys that back up on Tyson move right into his power zone. That would be Lewis.

Guys that stand firm with Tyson and trade punches soon find the self-proclaimed Baddest Man on the Planet backing up. That was Holyfield in both of their fights.

And despite the emergence of the New, Mature Tyson, the key element of his psyche remains unchanged – his insecurity.

At his open house for the media last week in Vegas, Tyson’s trainer, Tommy Brooks, made a statement so revealing that it tells you the important things about Tyson have not changed at all.

When it was mentioned that Holyfield was picking Tyson to beat Lewis, Brooks said, “Mike doesn’t care what the public or the press thinks, but coming from Holyfield, that means a lot to him. That’ll sell it.”

He meant, sell it to Tyson, the belief that he was capable of beating Lewis.

In truth, the real question should be, is Lewis capable of beating Tyson?

The fact that Ruiz was able to do something that Lewis couldn’t -knock Holyfield down – tells you quite a bit about Lewis, too.

Although he is indisputably a harder hitter than Ruiz, Lewis never took the chances that would allow him to hit Holyfield with his best shots.

What makes you think he would take the necessary chances against Tyson?

Evander Holyfield may be a terrible judge when it comes to assessing his own talents, but he’s got this one pegged.

Tyson is live against Lewis because Lewis will allow him to be. His mindset won’t let him fight any other way.

Likewise, Tyson is dead against Holyfield for precisely the same reason.

Holyfield knows that better than anyone.

That is why when he says, “I’ll know when it’s time to retire,” I’m starting to understand what he means.

Evander Holyfield will retire when Mike Tyson retires.

And not a moment sooner.