BoxRec

After 20 years, hardcore boxing fans and even many casuals, still find themselves talking about the infamous bite fight - where Mike Tyson was disqualified after biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield's right ear in their rematch.

Holyfield, a former four time heavyweight champion, felt Tyson was scared and looking for a way out of the fight, which is why he bit him.

During WBC's 55th annual convention in Baku, Holyfield told reporters that he was never afraid of Tyson and always felt that he could beat him.



"They said I wasn't as good because I had not defeated Tyson, but I was not afraid of anybody. We fought and I stopped him, so we went back to do it again and he bit me twice in the same fight. I knew I could beat him," Holyfield told Carlos Zulbaran.

"With those bites I understood that Mike was afraid because when you do something like that, it's because you want to run and not fight. When I fought with my brothers, I would bite them and then run, so it was the same situation. Biting me was the easiest way out of the fight."

Holyfield also emphasized that his rivalry with Tyson began way before they faced each other in a professional ring, because they were even positioned as rivals in the amateurs.

"People keep talking about that fight [from 1997]. But even in the amateurs many wondered what would have happened if we had faced each other. We both wanted to go to the 1984 Olympics but nobody remembers that," said Holyfield.

"At some point we did some sparring, he was 20 and I was 21. At home I was always the smallest and when I wanted to do something they said I couldn't because I was the smallest, so when I was with him in the ring, in my mind I had it set that I could not lose to someone else."

The only problem with that is...holyfields actually four years older than tyson. Tyson was 17 when he sparred a 21 year old holyfield.

I guess Holyfield was scared and looking for a way out every time he broke the rules. You know, every headbutt, elbow, low blow, and every time he used steroids... Holyfield was one of the dirtiest fighters in and out of the ring for years and this born again christian has the fornicating nerve to pontificate about others being dirty and the motivations behind it...

One day someone is going to mark exactly where these mysterious Holyfield headbutts are.

Until then we do have Tyson's first Holyfield fight foul tour de force, beginning as early as round 1: punching after the bell, using the elbow, using the shoulder, punching below the bell, and headbutting (and hurting himself instead) among other infringements, before the arm bar and the tearing a chunk of flesh off Holyfield's head, Night of the Living Dead style, in the rematch!

Tuan_Jim wrote:One day someone is going to mark exactly where these mysterious Holyfield headbutts are.

Until then we do have Tyson's first Holyfield fight foul tour de force, beginning as early as round 1: punching after the bell, using the elbow, using the shoulder, punching below the bell, and headbutting (and hurting himself instead) among other infringements, before the arm bar and the tearing a chunk of flesh off Holyfield's head, Night of the Living Dead style, in the rematch!

I literally threw a girlfriend out my house when she claimed Evander deserved "all he got" for head butting poor little Mikey. I offered to show her Tyson failing with a headbut and hurting himself but she was adamant. She'd just read mikes book you see, Undisputed Truth and it said Holy was a dirty fighter in there

Tyson has certainly memed the Holyfield headbutt into reality. It's even more convincing than the Bigfoot tape, or that picture of Nessie!

My answer was Yes

He'd already given the best effort he could give in the 1st fight, and it wasn't enough. He didn't want another ass kicking like that.

I think that the great Mike Tyson was scared. The referee told him that he was going to disqualify him if he does it again. He did it, and Mills Lane had no choice to disqualify Tyson.

I don't think that Tyson wanted another ass whupping like the first fight. That time, The Real Deal was much stronger than the first fight. Iron Mike knew he couldn't fornicate with him.

Lol at "imaginary" headbutts.

Holyfield Reflects, Says He Butted Tyson in Both Their Fights Out of Fear

Tyson wasn't scared, but he certainly wanted out

Tyson was scared all right... Scared of getting humiliated again ... scared of getting roughed up and bullied again ... scared of getting beaten up and knocked out ... or knocked so woozy the referee will call time to examine his state of consciousness and his resolve to continue -- because he got stopped in the previous fight and that's always a consideration.. You don't want a fighter taking bad beatings and Tyson had a plan to avoid being finished off again by a better and tougher fighter.. The headbutting was real and Holyfield was getting away with them -- but he didn't need them to win. They were Mike's excuse.

He looked scared before the fight. Not surprising, evander was his kryptonite. 100 times out of 100 at any point in their careers.

Tyson was not always scared of him.

Tyson knew he was a fraud in his comeback. He needed to learn how to throw combinations again after prison.

I always have a hard time reconciling fear with what a man has to go through just to be stepping into that ring as a professional.

Tyson was never cut in his whole career before Holyfield 2, if I'm not mistaken and headbutts were significant in the first fight too, although Tyson was gracious enough to brush it off with the comment "Yeah he butted me, but I probably butted him too".

I think he lost control of his emotions and I suspect that his deep knowledge of the history of the sport (and thus a keen awareness of his own legacy) made the situation more intense in his own mind. I have absolutely nothing to base that theory on.

Ultimately even though he got fined, and suspended for it and stuff. It was probably the right career move for Tyson honestly. Biting the guy's ear, and being thought of by the General Public as a dangerous "loose cannon" type of fighter kept him more marketable than if he'd have simply been beaten up and stopped again, then he may have just been seen as washed up. Instead he was seen as dangerous and unpredictable.