Story of Holyfield's Victory Has a Page Written in Dothan

It didn’t concern Evander Holyfield that everyone was predicting doom for him against Mike Tyson. He was hearing victory before he even entered the ring.
Before, during and after Holyfield punched out the self-proclaimed “baddest man on the planet” Saturday night, he was psyching himself for the challenge with prayer and song.
And the song playing while Holyfield marched toward the ring and the peak of an already stellar boxing career, appropriately titled, “Victory,” was recorded by four Dothan men.
M.A.R.E.E. (Music and Rhythm Equal Excellence) recorded the song specifically for the Atlanta fighter’s World Boxing Association championship bout and the four members were in the MGM Grand Garden audience in Las Vegas when Holyfield became boxing’s second three-time heavyweight champion with a stunning, although convincing, 11th-round technical knockout.
The group – Keefer Lamar Cotton, Rochester Johnson Jr., Paul Neal Jr. and LeRoy Harris – is also talking with Roy Jones Jr., and hopes the Pensacola super-middleweight champion will use a M.A.R.E.E. song for his Nov. 22 title defense against Mike McCallum on HBO.
“It was an emotional high,” Keefer Lamar Cotton said. “I was just watching other people and seeing their reactions to our song.
“We were extremely ecstatic to be a part of history in the making . . . We were blessed by God to be a part of that history,” Rochester Johnson Jr. said.
“We want Dothan to be proud of us, and we see it as not just M.A.R.E.E. being a part of history, but Dothan at-large.”
The song, written by M.A.R.E.E. and Jeffrey Carroll, has the line that seemed perfectly written for Holyfield’s pre-fight mindset: “When it’s time to fight, stand up for your right, although men will tell you the odds are against you.”
“Before the fight, I was pondering which song to use,” Holyfield said. “I was thinking about the theme of this fight and the odds against me and was looking around, and I had this song right in front of me – ‘Victory.’”
The group – Keefer Lamar Cotton, Rochester Johnson Jr., Paul Neal Jr. and LeRoy Harris – is also talking with Roy Jones Jr., and hopes the Pensacola super-middleweight champion will use a M.A.R.E.E. song for his Nov. 22 title defense against Mike McCallum on HBO.
M.A.R.E.E. brought Holyfield to Dothan in January 1995, when the group was involved with the Drug-Free America program. Cotton and Johnson announced this week the new World Boxing Association heavyweight champion has agreed to return on Feb. 28 to support the group’s “Roc (Reclaiming Our Community) Foundation.” The members will release more details at a later date.