Tyson/Holyfield Sparring Session

Here is what Emanuel had to say about it:

CIANI: After the Seldon fight Tyson went on to fight Evander Holyfield, who was largely viewed as a dead man walking going into that fight. There weren’t too many people giving him a chance, as he was not too far removed from a knockout loss against Riddick Bowe, and he had the issues with his heart and whatnot at the time. How surprised were you to see Evander rise to the occasion in those fights when he fought Mike?

STEWARD: When Evander fought Mike Tyson, I told Don King. I said, “Don, you made one of the biggest mistakes you ever made. You should never have made this fight”. He said, “What do you mean?” Holyfield I guess passed the medicals after he had some problems with his heart, and I told him I trained Evander I remember in 1993 when he was training for his second fight with Riddick Bowe. All throughout the whole training camp, all he talked about was his obsession with fighting Mike. Now once again Mike would fight a fighter who had the same type of mental determination as Buster Douglas did the night that he fought Mike. Evander from an incident we had in the amateurs had always wanted to beat Mike, and when he sparred with Mike they went at it real hard and heavy when Evander was the light heavyweight and Mike was a heavyweight in the Olympic training camp just prior to the final Olympic trials. From that experience Evander always knew that he was going to be a real tough guy for Mike. So he was never, never afraid of Mike! In fact, it was just the opposite! He was obsessed with wanting to beat Mike. That was the goal for Evander Holyfield’s entire career was to one day beat Mike Tyson. So when I was training him ’93, and he was telling me, “Everybody is afraid of Mike, but Emanuel, if you start fighting Mike and pushing him back, Mike will start folding”. That was always what he had in his mind, and when they made the fight I told Don that Evander has always been obsessed with beating Mike Tyson. So when he beat Mike I was not surprised. In fact I picked him to beat Mike and then in the rematch. Evander Holyfield, if they had fought ten times, would always beat Mike just because of the determination and style. After the first fight Mike told me he butted him really bad, and said even though he beat him that he butted him and cut him up. In the next fight I was doing the broadcast with Nick Charles, and I was telling Nick that he was frustrated. I said, "Watch, Evander is butting Mike", and he butted him again. "Mike has been so obsessed with Evander butting him from the first fight that I think he might snap”. In the second round I think Mills Lane broke them, and Mike was bleeding from the other eye different from the first fight. Mills said it was an accidental butt, and no way in the world was Mike buying that, because that’s what he was worrying about and complaining about way before the fight. So then in his mindset, and I know Mike, when he went to his corner he was thinking like he had ten more rounds to go in one of the biggest fights of his life and he had to fight with his eye torn apart. So he went out the next round and Evander butted him again! If you look when he bit him, he was getting butted again. So Mike bit him, and when a piece of Evander’s ear came off, if you really watch Mike had no remorse at all. He felt in his mind that this was right. We have ten more rounds to go. I’m bleeding. You’re bleeding. In his street mentality mind, he thought he butted me and I did something back to you. If you notice right after that, they went at it real heavy and that was the best Mike fought! He felt it was an equal fight then. Then I think he bit him again and he got disqualified, and he went crazy! He felt that he had been mistreated and butted in two fights, and no one ever noticed or felt sorry for him. He did what he thought was retaliating, and he wanted to fight everybody. I remember when he came by the press section that I was at, and he wanted to go after the fans. He just went totally berserk. That’s the side of the story that nobody ever hears, but he was butted though. He was just at that state where it didn’t take much for him to snap. But straight up and up, he would never have beaten Evander I don’t think, just style-wise.


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