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 ...