Was Mike Tyson right to bite Holyfield?

First off, Holy dominated the two first rounds. More so than in the first fight. I e a fully prepared Tyson with no excuses were actually doing worse than when he got beat the first time. Not a good position for such an ultra fast starter.

Second, all the times I've seen it, I've never seen any clear signs of intent. It just seems like a natural result of Holy standing his ground and getting under Mike's punches as he comes in. One of the best refs of the last decades, who was right in there with them, obviously agreed with this since he didn't warn Holy. I think it's only in Tyson fan lore that what was ruled as clash of heads have gone down in history as clear butts.

My best take on the whole situation is that Mike knew the jig was up when he started the third brightly, but didn't hurt or discourage Holy in any way and Holy instead rallied back even stronger than before. From that point there can be no doubt that Mike was going down the road to a worse beating than the previous time, only now with no excuses. So he got himself and his fans one. We'll never know for sure, but that is my best guess.

 

Great post and it's how most of us see it but probably only Tyson could truly say.

You've probably just made an enemy of Sangria with that post though.

 

Mike has given several different takes on the situation, but one of the more recent ones, I think, is that he knew he was getting beat and wanted a way out.

 

At least he's honest with it now (if only his fans could be).

The more interesting thing I've always found about these fights is how bad Holyfield looked against Czyz and Bowe preceding the Tyson fight and how sharp he was against Tyson and shortly after Moorer 2. It can't be roids because presumably he was on them from the beginning at Heavyweight and it was thought they harmed him in the first Moorer fight and the third Bowe match.

He must simply have recaptured his form that he seemed to lose after Bowe 2 and kept until Lewis 2 (the first fight being the exception).

 

You have to laugh at this mythical 3rd round from Tyson. It's true he started with gutso but it was his last hurrah and he knew it, trouble is Evander turned up the heat even more and Tyson couldn't handle it.

 

Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery what happened those years. His stamina looked terrible when he lost his crown to Moorer and when he lost the rubber to Bowe. He looked in essence like he was done. But then he got much of his stamina back and put together an excellent run. There was talk of both heart problems (quite possibly due to roids) and hepatatis, and there was probably something to this, but it sorted itself out it seems.

 

Yeah, Holy took Mike's best and then bullied him to the ropes and let go with some nice combos in close. A clear statement that there was no way Tyson was going to win. He was getting the short end of going toe-to-toe and he wasn't going to outbox or outlast Holy and a sudden one punch KO like the one against Botha wasn't going to happen to Holy either. There was just one way it could go from there.

 

I don't know about that, now I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this but in some bouts Holyfield looked like he didn't have the heart for it.

In the first Moorer fight he just didn't look like he wanted it enough for whatever reason, to me the fire was back for the Tyson fights.

 

Not before properly seasoning it with a little salt and oregano.

 

I've also seen a recent interview where Mike almost snapped and resorted back to 1997. I'm paraphrasing, but Mike said "I was getting headbutted to death, I had to do something!" when asked about the Bit-O-Ear. And Holyfield was sitting right beside him.

 

I love you man. Hope you had a good Christmas. Stay safe. Let me know if you need anything.

 

So you are saying Holyfield was constantly and blatantly butting Tyson, what tripe will you come out with next?

 

I'm not gonna lie, bro. I could use like eleven dollars. That's how much it adds up to every time I spent a penny this week and I'm over my budget. Let me holla at you on Facebook, you can instant message it to me and happy new yizzle.

 

Why the ear? He had to bite the head. Lol

 

When is it ever right to bite your opponent? All the armchair psychologists saying he didn't want another ass-whooping lol. Then why not quit on your stool? Why not low-blow him or elbow him or hit him on a break, with an elbow? How about a kick or a knee? How about going down after the headbutt and saying that you can't continue? It would've been a NC. Why tf would you bite someone's ear? Out of all the ways to quit, that's the most bizarre one.


The bite-fight can't be brought up without context. There were a lot of intentional headbutts and low blows in those fights. Put yourself in Tyson's shoes. Tyson was no saint, he was crazy. Not only was Holyfield beating Tyson, he was also fouling him. Everyone who has boxed knows there's nothing worse than a headbutt. Not only do they cause cuts, they also leave you disoriented. Those headbutts were premeditated. Headbutts don't just occur in the heat of the moment That happens with low blows, punches after the bell, and biting of course. You get angry and you low blow/bite someone. Headbutts are either accidental or intentional. Intentional headbutts require timing and precision. Which requires practice.


I find it funny when people bring up Tyson's other fights to justify what happened against Evander. Something along the lines of "got a taste of his own medicine". The difference is, Holyfield was actually a hypocrite. Tyson wasn't a dirty fighter like Evander, he was a maniac. Evander was an organized cheater. Watch Tyson vs Ruddock 2, does he even try to hide those fouls? He hits on breaks and he throws low blows right in front of the referee. He lost 3 points in that fight. He's fighting dirty but he doesn't pretend to be a clean fighter and doesn't act like a saint after the fight. He hit Biggs with elbows and low blows that were pretty obvious. He also hated Biggs and Ruddock going into those fights. Tyson has told the story about him elbowing Biggs several times. He doesn't sit there and say it was an "accident". None of this makes what he did right. And I won't even go into the "who's dirtier" argument. All that stuff is petty. Take things for what they are. Tyson fought dirty in other fights, so did Holyfield. But in this particular matchup, the dirty fighter was Holyfield. Don't act like this was some "good vs evil" matchup. Evander was just as shitty as Mike in the ring, if not shittier.


What Mike did wasn't right. But neither were the butts and low blows. Mike knew Evander was gonna let his guard down in the clinch and he took advantage. I actually think it was one of the most intelligent fouls committed in ring history. Not in terms of discretion but in terms of creativity and effectiveness. Seeing Evander jumping up and down is hilarious. If you're gonna give Tyson a taste of his own medicine, just remember that this mf is crazy. He's not gonna butt you back, that's what a normal person would do. Tyson bit his ear off and it wasn't because he wanted out. You can say that all you want but the fact that he literally chewed through his ****in earlobe tells me he wanted to inflict pain on Evander. I'm sure Mike watches that fight when he's high af and thinks "Gotcha thucka hahaha".

Happy new year to everyone.