How would've Tyson-Holyfield II went if Mike didn't go for the bite?

I like Tyson, but he bit Holyfield because he got frustrated and started to wilt under the mental and physical pressure. If he had chosen not to bite, that pressure would have remained - and increased. I see a late Holyfield stoppage again

 

Just on physical and technical grounds, maybe Tyson was still able to carry on the fight.

But mentally Tyson was finished and went for the easy way out, in order to prevent an embarrassing defeat.

 

Well after the first bite he was told if you do it again your gone. He did it again. If he thought victory was reachable he would have kept fighting.

Mike's mind was in a bad place at that point in his life. If a guy butts you butt him back, hit him low, get even but biting isnt something a fighter does. Just my view.

 

To be frank, this is just nonsense to preserve the Tyson myth. He wasn't a four round fighter in the first fight (had mayba his best round in the 5th), so how was he all of a sudden in the next when he was clearly in better shape?

It was a Liston 2 scenario. His hopes that the first fight was a one off quickly dissipated and he found a way out before being stopped earlier than in the first.

 

4 round is maybe a slight exaggeration on my part. That being said, i don't think he had the mental focus to sustain his concentration in the later rounds. I don't think this 97 Tyson is the same as the 92 Ruddock Tyson who could maintain his mental concentration for 12 rounds.

 

Pure speculation, though.

In his next fight, two years later, he looked in poor shape and unmotivated, got outboxed and still managed to get the finish. So what that the much sharper Tyson of '97 couldn't sustain his concentration is based on, I don't know.

 

Holyfield was just better than Tyson. Full stop.

 

Kind of strange he couldn't beat Bowe who I don't rate. Let alone losing to Moorer

 

Tyson flipped , plain and simple . He was mind screwed to start and the on and off of the meds did him in ... he was clearly winning the first 2:15 seconds of the third round, landing multiple hard shots and snapped ...

 

The problem is those hard shots weren't really that big of a deal to Holyfield and Tyson wasn't going to be able to sustain it, the longer the fight went on the more Holyfield was going to run away with it

 

Stoppage.

Some guys just have another’s number. Tyson was just not going to beat Holyfield. Frazier was just not going to beat Foreman. Liston was just not going to beat Ali. Fury was just not going to beat Usyk.

it’s how it goes.

 

The real issue is here. Tyson was a KO based fighter. In there with one of the most durable guys the division has seen. That’s just always going to be a really tough lift.

if you’re a KO based fighter, you should see a Holyfield or a Mercer and be like “****”. If you’re a slickster? You might be a lot less worried.

 

Yes, and Tyson understood that.

 

I think calling him a 4-round fighter is an exaggeration, but the truth is that his cardio was much weaker than before prison. You can see it in almost every fight, even in the short ones that he won. He simply got tired faster than before. Also with Botha, whom he knocked out in the 5th round. Remember that Botha was not in good shape at all in their fight. Probably better prepared physically, he would have done the same to Mike as Holyfield did. But even Tyson, who gets tired quickly, always has an argument in the form of a punch - ALWAYS

 

I think the experience of going 11 rounds against Holyfield and his better preparation for the rematch helped him regain some of his stamina for the 2nd Holyfield fight.