Holyfield Pops Buster’s Balloon : Boxing: Third-round knockout gives the challenger the undisputed heavyweight title.

LAS VEGAS —  Evander Holyfield caught Buster Douglas flush on the mouth with a short, powerful, right hand in the third round, knocked him cold, and became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world at the Mirage hotel Thursday night.

Holyfield won boxing’s most valuable prize with a counterpunch. Douglas, who had lost the first two rounds, threw a wild, sweeping right uppercut at Holyfield that missed badly.

Holyfield then stepped in with the punch that would make him champion, a short, jolting right that snapped Douglas’ head back. Douglas then toppled over onto his left side and rolled over on his back. He rose to one elbow, feebly touched his face with his right glove as if to see if he were bleeding, then his head went back to the canvas.

Official time: 1:10 of the third round.

Douglas was on his back for several minutes. Holyfield’s cornermen nearly had to leap over Douglas when they poured into the ring, where they celebrated wildly before a crowd of 16,100. It was a stunning finish to a fight that pitted a flabby, 246-pound champion in his first defense of a championship that he won as a 42-1 underdog last February in Japan, when he knocked out Mike Tyson. Holyfield, at 208 pounds, was never troubled by Douglas’ superior size or his vaunted left jab. In fact, Holyfield won the first two rounds on the strength of his own jab.

Douglas had punished Tyson with a thumping jab for 10 rounds in Tokyo, but not once did he even interrupt Holyfield’s rhythm Thursday. By early in the third round, Holyfield was even triple-jabbing Douglas with a lead left punch that some might call a half-hook.

Holyfield went off as an 8-5 favorite, making Douglas only the 12th heavyweight champion to enter the ring as an underdog. And Douglas, who earned $19,075,000, looked like it as he lay on his back, staring blankly at the night desert sky.

It was the end of a long wait for Holyfield. He had been the No. 1 contender for more than a year and was scheduled to meet Tyson in a title bout in Atlantic City, N.J., last June.

But Douglas, in Tokyo, ended that plan. Holyfield then had to endure a long, complicated lawsuit last summer--involving Don King, Douglas and Steve Wynn, president of the Mirage hotel--before the Douglas-Holyfield fight date could be set.

Holyfield is the strong, silent type. But not Lou Duva, his 67-year-old trainer.

A friend of the late Rocky Marciano, Duva waddled into the ring to embrace Holyfield. Then the trainer went to a neutral corner, pointed to the sky and yelled at ringsiders: “This was for Rocky, that’s who this was for--this was for Rocky Marciano!”

In the aftermath, Holyfield, uncharacteristically animated, paid tribute to Jesus, his entire training staff, his strength coach, his promoter and his mother, to whom, he said, he had dedicated the victory.

Holyfield’s promoter, Dan Duva, then indicated that Holyfield, having just knocked out a 246-pound heavyweight, would next take on 260-pound, 42-year-old George Foreman.

Holyfield, 28, who earned $8,025,000 Thursday, is looking at a purse in the $20-million range for a Foreman fight. Mike Tyson? “He’ll have to get in line, like everyone else--he’ll get his chance,” Duva said.

He said Holyfield-Foreman would be held next March or April.

Douglas, who was 231 pounds when he stopped Tyson eight months ago, said his weight wasn’t a factor, but acknowledged that Holyfield was.

“I got caught with a good shot, and by the time I picked up the count, it was over,” said the 30-year-old Douglas, who was the 17th heavyweight champion to lose the title in his first defense. “I was hoping to get some rounds under my belt, to get some rhythm. My weight had no bearing on it, and I’m not embarrassed.”

Holyfield (25-0 with 21 knockouts, the last 13 in a row) did not dominate Douglas (30-5-1, 20 knockouts), and never really hurt him before the knockout punch. But he was the superior boxer.

Douglas apparently wasn’t exactly trembling with fear in the dressing room, shortly before the fight. They had to wake him up for the pre-fight meeting with the referee, Mills Lane.

“We went into his room, and one of his trainers had to shake his arm, to wake him up,” Nevada boxing commissioner Duane Ford said.

The oddest aspect of this matchup was the 6-foot-2 Holyfield’s ability to reach the 6-4 Douglas with his jab/hook.

Both started off with caution, and Holyfield would later credit his patience for his victory. Early in the first round, he caught Douglas as he was backing up with a medium-velocity left hook.

Holyfield stung him again seconds later with a short hook that made the champion stumble as he came off the ropes. And at the bell to end the first round, Holyfield caught Douglas with a running right hand.

Holyfield clearly won both the first and second rounds. In the second, he increased the tempo with his jabs. Also in the second, Douglas, although he had not been truly hurt yet, was breathing through an open mouth.

By the end of the second, Holyfield seemed to be in command.

Early in the third, he drove Douglas into the ropes with a left hook to the ribs and a right hand to Douglas’ biggest target, his belly. Then, at center ring, as Douglas missed badly with a right uppercut, Holyfield stepped in with the short, explosive punch that gave him the heavyweight championship.

The punch snapped Douglas’ head back, and then his legs left him. He crumpled softly to the canvas.

As Douglas’ cornermen surrounded their fighter, co-trainer John Russell softly massaged Douglas’ face to revive him, then rubbed his face with a wet sponge. In two minutes, he was sitting up, then he sat on a stool.

Holyfield won with confidence, smoothness and efficiency. Some wondered if he had fought his best fights in beating Michael Dokes and Alex Stewart.

It did not appear that way Thursday. Holyfield knocked out the man who knocked out Mike Tyson. And it didn’t surprise him in the least, he said.

He was asked 30 minutes later if winning the title had sunk in yet.

“It has,” he said. “I felt going into the fight I would be the champion of the world.”

On the undercard, Riddick Bowe knocked out Bert Cooper in the second round.

Bowe, 6-5 and 230, a 1988 Olympic silver medalist who grew up in Tyson’s Brooklyn neighborhood, improved his record to 20-0 with his 16th knockout.