Evander Holyfield has come back firing at the SI.com story that blew up last week that alleged the Real Deal has been less than real in his training regimen.

SI said Holyfield, using the pseudonym “Evan Fields,” purchased performance enhancing drugs from a physician, who was then snared in a drug sweep. SI said they were given a file from the physician which had a phone number for “Fields” in it. SI called the number, and the writers say, Holyfield answered the phone.

Here’s Holyfield’s second counterpunch against the SI story:

“I am disturbed about potential damage to my hard-won reputation as a result of allegations in recent news reports concerning performance-enhancing substances. While nobody has directly accused me of anything, the implications in many of these stories are obvious and unmistakable, and I’m anxious to respond in detail.

Unfortunately, that is proving very difficult. Law enforcement authorities have stated repeatedly that I’m not under investigation and I have not been contacted by any officials. Therefore, I don’t have access to any specifics about these allegations other than what has appeared in the press. Without knowing in detail what was actually contained in the pharmacy records, I open myself up to trying to deal with a potentially endless series of conjectures.

What I am doing instead is conducting my own investigation. While I’m fairly certain I know how my name came up, I don’t want to say anything more until I have all the facts, which I hope is just a matter of a few weeks. At that time I’ll release everything I know, no holds barred, and will be more than happy to respond to questions.

For now, though, let me repeat what I’ve said before: I have never taken an illegal or banned performance-enhancing drug of any kind. The use of such substances runs counter to everything I believe about sports and my place in the athletic world.

I am hopeful that the press will be as diligent about investigating the truth of my forthcoming statement and as vigorous in reporting the results as it was about covering the initial allegations.”

As I wrote last week, I stick to my “innocent until proven guilty” stance, and sincerely hope that the SI allegations are proved to be erroneous…

I’m guessing, though, that steroids/HGH usage in boxing is much more prevalent than we all suspect, and the subject matter will get more press as we move deeper into 2007…