Were Evander Holyfield's Headbutts Intentional?

Definitely, but I still think it’s an overused excuse by Tyson fans as to why he lost the Holyfield fights

 

I think it provides context as to why he snapped and bit off his ear. Rewatch the 2nd fight and look at how many butts including at least one that cut Mike open pretty bad were thrown by Holyfield.

Holyfield was very skilled in how to throw them without the ref noticing or making it look accidental, the video I posted earlier in the thread goes into detail for that.

I'm not excusing Mike biting off an ear, but you can understand the frustration that built up in him and he wasn't just a rabid dog looking to bite as a tactic. Also with what we know about head trauma now, a 200+ lbs man launching his skull into another man's head is probably worse healthwise than a torn-up earlobe.

 

I don’t buy it at all, I don’t think Tyson bit him because he was angry, I think he bit him because he knew another beating was coming and it was a mixture of fear and embarrassment, this ultimate ‘bad-boy’ the ‘baddest man on the planet’ getting beat up by a church boy, I think there was a lot of psychology involved in why he chose to bite him but it certainly wasn’t because he was annoyed about headbutts, Tyson himself threw the most blatent butt of them all in the first fight. If you look at Tyson’s face during the stare down for the rematch he couldn’t look Holyfield in the eye which was significant because staredowns were Tyson’s thing, but he looked petrified and barely made eye contact, he was beat before it started as many of his opponents were when he fought them.

 

Against Tyson, Evan did what you're taught to do by every decent trainer from the land before time - if you're coming into the inside range, tuck your chin and make yourself smaller. Sometimes, this ends up in a clash of heads if both fighters time the exact same manoeuvre at the exact same time. However, there's a time where Mr Fields deffo started to fall in and then rise with the head - whilst, I think he didn't do it as often as is lauded and deffo not as much in his younger days, there was deffo an increasing regularity as his handspeed and stamina started to diminish. Outside of RiRi, I've not seen anyone have as much forehead impact as what Evan did to Hasim.

 

What has Frazier's bob and weave style got to do with Holyfield coming in and making himself smaller, whilst tucking the chin?

It's possible to have a clash of heads be accidental, as a result of tucking chin whilst stepping into the inside and lowering your base - in Holyfield's case, he started moving upwards with his head, but this doesn't mean that every single headbutt in his career was intentional.

 

Prolific in 2 areas of being an absolute cheat. 1: Head Butting . 2: Ask Evan Fields.

 

I sincerely hope the Tyson ones were anyway, especially in their 1st fight. It wouldn't be the same if they were accidental. Nothing better than seeing He of the 'elbow throw & arm-break manoeuvre' getting totally filled-in. A great night's entertainment, following the earlier disappointment of seeing Nigel Benn's final fight in losing to Steve 'right place, right time' Collins.

 

Funny how Tyson is coming forward on most every headbutt and Holy is supposedly the one who butted Tyson.

Tyson came forward with his head up and on a straight line. Holyfield lowered his head and ‘made himself small’ and Tyson smacked right into him. It’s as plain as day.

Tyson wanted Holy (and every other fighter he fought) to instead pull their head back into the wheelhouse of his punches. Holy instead ducked inside those punches when Tyson came forward.

 

I like who Tyson has become, loved him growing up and then viewing him as an adult, with my own kids and the morals that I try to teach them, I find him to be a petulant man-child surrounded by felatio masters and Churchill nodding dogs in his circles at the time that my own youth blinkered me to what was unfolding.

Holyfield giving him an ass-kicking was somewhat pugilistic karma. Tyson, complaining about headbutts that he initiated with his forward movement and keeping his head on line as Evan tucked in and minimised his space is ironic, giving the arm break attempts and elbows thrown.

That said, I was hoping for a Tyson combination to land ala Kid Dynamite at the time.

 

Boom. Bam. Bing.

This is exactly how I saw it when I forced myself to watch it and take the sound off.

I reckon the Tyson series is where Evan realised how effective coming in small and then continuing to move into his man could be. At this stage, he started not only shrinking up, but also aiming for his opponent IMO.

 

The irony is that Holyfield’s head butts in the Tyson fights are specifically brought up and isolated far more often to excuse Evander than they are to exonerate Mike.

You could talk all around the Tyson fights and nominate several examples of Holyfield’s intentional head butting otherwise but the defence will STILL always return to and rest its case on the Tyson fights - because Mike was guilty of fouls during his career also.

 

You get overt foulers, and smart foulers in boxing.

There is an entire science, surrounding how you deliver a foul.

1. Deliver it from an angle, where the referee wont see it.

2. Deliver it, and make it look like an honest mistake.

3. Make it entirely obvious that it it deliberate, but it is just a warning the first time.

 

Holyfield has given more head in his career than every prostitute in Vegas.

 

100 % yes .. great for Mike to bite his ear off