LAS VEGAS -- Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz did their best Thursday to sell their June 10 bout as a legitimate heavyweight title fight.

Just to be sure the point was made, promoter Don King did his best to help.

"I guarantee you this fight will be a better world championship fight than Lewis and Grant," King said. "That fight was a farce."

Holyfield and Ruiz got together for the formal announcement of their fight for the WBA portion of the heavyweight title, only five days after Lennox Lewis demolished Michael Grant in less than two rounds to retain the other two major portions of the title.

A federal court order stripping Lewis for defending his title against Grant instead of Ruiz, the WBA's top contender, means the heavyweight title is fractured once again.

"It's nice to be in a position to fight for the belt again," Holyfield said. "I'll be the four-time heavyweight champion of the world. No one has ever done that."

Both fighters used the Lewis-Grant fight to justify their reasoning that Lewis should have to vacate the title for not fighting the top contender.

"Lewis thought Grant should have been No. 1. He must have been out of his mind," Ruiz said. "I didn't think it was even a fight. I knew it wouldn't last two rounds."

Ruiz (36-3, 27 knockouts) doesn't have much more of a claim to fame than Grant, who was undefeated in 31 fights but was exposed for his amateurish ways by Lewis.

The Boston-based fighter has faced no serious contenders outside of David Tua, who knocked him out in the first round in March 1996, although he is riding an 11-fight winning streak since then.

But Ruiz does have the top ranking, and since Holyfield is No. 2, they will meet for the vacated title in the scheduled 12-round bout at Caesars Palace.

"We always wanted to fight Holyfield instead of Lewis," Ruiz said. "I think he's a true champion. He's not holding belts now, but I think he's the better of them."

So does Holyfield, who still believes he won his fight last November against Lewis in which the heavyweight titles were unified.

"Everybody who saw that fight knows he was given the decision," Holyfield said. "I was the champion and I was the most aggressive. I'm the one who made that fight."

Lewis said after beating Grant that whoever won the WBA title would merely have a "paper title" and would not be recognized as a legitimate heavyweight champion.

But Norman Stone, Ruiz's manager, noted that Lewis first became heavyweight champion by picking up the WBC belt that Riddick Bowe tossed in a garbage can.

"John is fighting the real heavyweight champion anyway," Stone said.

King, meanwhile, couldn't help but take a few shots at the Lewis-Grant fight, which he did not promote.

"Had I put on that farce, they would have ripped me to shreds," King said. "People were calling my office wanting their money back and it wasn't even my fight."