What caused Tyson to bite Holyfields ear?

Same here. And I gave Haney all the close rounds for good measure.

 

Some pundit wrote that Mike must have realized after the first two rounds he was in pretty much the same fight he was in the first time. Tyson kept trying to keep Holy in range and remain aggressive but couldn't seem to get much significant in for punches. He'd get one punch out of several that would land well, but Holy kept smacking him back, tirelessly. It looked like another beating was the inevitable conclusion, at least according to the writer.

 

Not sure if this has been posted, but this was Holyfield's excuse.


'It wasn't a head-butt, just an inadvertent collision, but when it opened a cut over his eye, he started ponting to it and complaining to the ref. A cut not caused by a punch is pretty good evidence of a head-butt - and Mike's eye was bleeding, but I knew something Mills Lane probably didn't, and that is that Mike had cut his eye in practice, while sparring. That was the injury that had delayed this fight for six weeks, and what he had now wasn't a new cut from colliding with my skull. It was the old cut re-opened when my head rubbed against it as he held me in the clinch
Blame his sparring partner, not me.'

- Evander Holyfield



Basically blamed the sparring partner for causing the cut, and refused to admit any sort of intentional head butting, just a "head collision".

 

Probably for the same reasons that he broke Botha's arm, hit Savarese and Norris after the stop command, and tried to head-butt Golota. In the second stage of his career, Tyson was not a normal boxer

 

To be fair, he was fouled repeatedly by Holyfield and Mills Lane did nothing about it.

 

Mike Tyson WAS a violent criminal. That's a matter of record. He caught some headbutts from Holyfield (due to both having similar styles) and instead of being good enough to adapt his style, he reverted back to his street instincts. Holyfield said in the "Chasing Tyson" documentary that Tyson wanted out of the fight and chose to foul instead of quit.

Mike Tyson becoming undisputed HW champ of the world is a small accomplishment compared to Mike Tyson growing into a productive citizen. The fact that he's alive, out of jail, and has become a beloved figure is a miracle in itself.