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SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney and Evander Holyfield are set to enter the boxing ring together Friday in the name of charity.

While Holyfield is no stranger to the boxing ring — a four-time World Heavyweight Champion — and would easily hold the upper hand in most matches, Romney — an “out of touch” and “stiff” former Republican presidential nominee — plans to take on his critics and “fight back.”

In a boxing promo video recently released, Romney and Holyfield take turns trash-talking ahead of the fight.

Romney says he’s tired of the critics and all the “garbage” they’ve been saying. So now it’s his turn to fight back.

“For years I’ve been listening to garbage like that,” he said. “And I’ve decided to fight back. How do you do that? By taking on the former Heavyweight Champion of the world.”

Holyfield, though, says he’s not entirely sure Romney is up for the challenge.

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“I’ve trained every day for people tougher than Mitt Romney,” Holyfield said. “Does he even work out?

“Mitt, you can’t run, you can’t hide,” Holyfield added. “Come get your whoopin.’”

The fun video was posted by CharityVision, a non-profit organization helping provide medical equipment, vision screenings and surgeries for individuals in developing countries.

“Last year, Charity Vision performed almost 40,000 surgeries in some of the poorest countries of the world,” Romney said in the video, adding that Friday’s fight will help bring more money to the organization “so they can do the same kind of work next year.”

Romney and Holyfield will have an official weigh-in Thursday night at a gym in Holladay. The two will enter the ring at the Rail Events Center in Salt Lake City sometime Friday after 8 p.m.

The event will feature four other professional boxing matches, including bouts between Fereti Spitsenberg vs. Gary Cobia; Christian Nava vs. Jordan Smith; Kenton Sippio-Cook vs. Wes Capper; and Rashad Ganaway vs. Leon Spinks III.

Contributing: Andrew Adams and Dave McCann

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