Was Mike Tyson right to bite Holyfield?

yep I don’t think you can be a real fan of someone you admire without acknowledging their faults. I agree you have to enjoy the good stuff but accept the bad otherwise you block out reality and end up misrepresenting them. It’s that thing of needing to believe Tyson was the best ever, he doesn’t need to be, like most other fighters don’t to.

I’d guess Tyson himself would put the blind fans straight these days, he has a wiser head on his shoulders and the way he worships holyfield now kind of tells the story, he knows how great holy was, they had a great podcast recently talking about their careers on hotboxin.

 

Of course. It's always okay to bite off any body part of another person you see fit, whether for food, or any other reason one deems necessary

 

Tyson was a classic bully. He knew he was going to get another painful and one sided beating and wanted to get out of there.

 

the bully tag is is overused when it comes to Tyson, I’d sway more towards him being a front runner that ran out of ideas if his opponent was out matching him, took a special fighter to do that to prime Tyson. Bully’s don’t take the beatings he did. I think in the case of the Holyfield rematch he was spooked and reacted unexpectedly, no defence for it and I agree he was looking for an out but he proved he could accept loss in other cases. Just calling Tyson a bully is such a simple generalisation.

 

Fair point . The fact that at no point in his career can I remember him turning the course of a fight around through guts and determination. Just about everyone who hit him back with some conviction beat him. That points to a certain shallowness of spirit I think.

 

Don't see it .

 

Remarkable theory. First time I've heard this one put forward. I do agree that Holyfield made no effort to stop the heads banging but to argue that Tyson was nuts and then to say that the bite was a lucid decision and that he hadn't completely wobbled out is difficult line of logic to follow.

 

I don't think the reason for him never turning a fight around is due to guts or determination, the reason likely is a lack of ability and fighting instinct.

Tyson could only fight one way, once that's been solved what else can he do?

 

A lot of Tyson haters don't. A lot of fight fans who were alive to see both in action do. Video evidence of Tyson's skills eroding since the first Bruno fight. Besides, how do you know Holyfield beats Tyson every time? It's a professional boxing match and there could be a different outcome at a different time. It's not set in stone. It's not inevitable. This isn't scripted WWF nonsense.

 

Whoa there Sangria. I was alive to see it and have been involved in Boxing for over 40 years. I'm not a Tyson hater or a hater of any fighter. I say I don't see Tyson beating Holyfield under normal circumstances because I don't think he had the all round game. That and the fact that just about every Fighter who hit him back stopped him. For largely the same reasons, I could never see any version of Tyson beating a peak Lennox Lewis. It doesn't mean I am so shallow as to hate the guy.

 

If you don't fellate Iron Mike and pick him to beat each and every fighter that ever lived then in this guy's eyes you're a hater, don't sweat it. He's a child.

 

Nice one Griffo. Cheers.

 

I happen to like both of you, @young griffo and @Sangria so I'd like to say that might be a little unfair to Sangria. So he loves a certain fighter and defends him...hey, I love Holmes and probably defend him WAAAAY too much. But who doesn't love specific fighters and stick up for them here? Granted, if Sangria doesn't like what somebody says about his favorite fighters, he doesn't have to say anything. But Sangria has said interesting things about other fighters, too (and you are guilty of writing some extremely interesting things, too) and I usually make sure not to miss posts by either of you.

Sangria has a favorite, we all do. Maybe we could cut him some slack? Feel free to ***** slap me if you want.

 

We all have favourites mate but most of us are rational enough to realise that they're not unbeatable (no one is) and most of us don't label fellow posters as haters or get personally insulted when someone has the temerity to pick against our favourites. This guy does this routinely.

In fact if you pick a fighter against Tyson he automatically hates that fighter too and launches attacks on them as fighters and as people. It's very strange bordering on obsessive.

I choose to give him a taste of his own medicine and point out some home truths about his hero. Probably immature of me but whatever...

 

Basically he's a blinkered idiot.....