ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Evander Holyfield has run out of heavyweight titles to give away. He still refuses to admit he's also running out of time.

Chris Byrd became the latest to benefit from Holyfield's charitable ways, winning the IBF version the heavyweight title Saturday night by exploiting the legs and reflexes of the aging former four-time champion.

The light-hitting Byrd won a title that Lennox Lewis thought so little of he sold it to promoter Don King for $1 million and a Range Rover. Still, the win plants him firmly on the second tier of heavyweights, just beneath WBC champion Lewis.

For Holyfield, the future is less certain. He's won only two of his last seven fights, and he's a 40-year-old heavyweight who shows the wear and tear of some of the beatings he has taken over the years.

His goal of becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion once again seems almost laughable -- to everyone but Holyfield himself.

"I will be back," Holyfield said.

Holyfield was bidding to become the first heavyweight to ever win the title five times. Instead, he earned the dubious distinction of having lost title fights to all three major reigning champions.

Losing to Byrd might have been the worst of all, mostly because Byrd made him look like a wild-swinging amateur at times and an old man at others.

Byrd stuck his tongue out at Holyfield at times, taunting him and doing what he does best in the ring -- frustrate the other fighter. Still, the two prayed in the ring together after the fight, and Byrd was generous in his estimation of the faded former champion.

"He's got a lot left in the tank. He's better than most heavyweights out there," Byrd said. "He'll probably fight until he's 50."

That scenario worries some in boxing, who think the accumulation of punches Holyfield has taken over the years is starting to take its toll.

"I didn't want to see him fight again after the second fight with Lennox Lewis," said Lewis' trainer, Emanuel Steward. "What is he going to accomplish? His legacy is solid, his wealth is good and his mind and body are solid. Why risk all of that?"

Holyfield rationalized his performance by saying he injured his left shoulder in the first round, probably by throwing one of the wild punches that Byrd easily avoided.

According to a story in Monday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Holyfield tore his left rotator cuff in the first round and said he strained muscles in his back in the "fourth or fifth round" from overdependence on his right hand, preventing him from sitting on the stool between rounds.

Holyfield was expected to undergo an MRI. Surgery is likely, Dr. Chris Vaughns, Holyfield's physician, told the Journal-Constitution, but Holyfield said he didn't know the extent of the damage.

"I'll see the doctor and get an evaluation and see if this will keep on happening," Holyfield told the newspaper early Sunday.

Holyfield had a rotator cuff injury in the first Michael Moorer fight in 1994, in which excessive doses of morphine and overhydration in the hospital led to a misdiagnosed heart ailment. General wear and tear also led to arthroscopic surgery to clean out fragments before his June bout against Hasim Rahman.

Aging fighters break down more easily than those in their prime, and despite looking as fit as always, Holyfield's body is beginning to let him down.

"I don't want to be in the ring and think, 'Uh-oh, it's happening again,' " Holyfield told the Journal-Constitution.

Holyfield got his best punches in when he pinned Byrd on the ropes, but far more missed than landed, and he threw only about half the punches that Byrd did. Punch stats credited Holyfield with landing only three jabs the entire fight, to 154 from the crafty Byrd.

"He can't fight a full three-minute round anymore," Steward said.

For Byrd, the fight was vindication for his claim that he can mix it up with heavyweights despite his relatively small size and lack of punching power.

The 32-year-old fighter was masterful at times, ducking, moving, punching from all angles and generally making it a miserable night for Holyfield. But the former 168-pound Olympic silver medalist is only 214 pounds and showed in a loss to Wladimir Klitschko that he can be bullied around the ring.

"Finally I got my just due," Byrd said. "Now it's time to go out and face the best guys in the world. I'm just so happy to win the title."

If King has his way, Byrd will fight the winner of the March 1 WBA title fight between John Ruiz and Roy Jones Jr., who is moving up from light heavyweight. But Jones has not agreed to fight again as a heavyweight after that fight.

Lewis, meanwhile, is still likely to face Vitali Klitschko in April, despite saying earlier Saturday that he would wait until after the Ruiz-Jones fight to decide whom to fight next. Lewis later recanted, saying he planned to fight Klitschko.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.