“I have something he probably wants,” MGM Grand employee Mitchell Libonati proclaimed to a security guard. Resting in his gloved hand was a half-inch long piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear, plucked from the canvas after the bout against Mike Tyson.
It was June 28th, 1997. Tyson had returned to boxing following a prison sentence and met Holyfield in the pairs second career bout. The first fight between them concluded in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, with Holyfield, ‘The Real Deal’ bullying the WBA and WBC heavyweight champion into a dramatic 11th round win. Tyson, humiliated, and with his personal life in turmoil, was fired up.
Promoted “The Sound and the Fury”, this second episode remains today in the top grossing boxing matches in history, making over $100 million. But it would never be remembered for the boxing.
The first two rounds passed with little incident, but what ensued in the third round has been remembered as one of the most shocking events to ever happen in the history of, not just boxing, but sport as a whole.
Embed from Getty ImagesHaving been headbutted – ruled unintentional, in the eyes of referee Mills Lane – Tyson retaliated by sinking his teeth into Holyfield’s right ear, spitting the human flesh to ground. Tyson wasn’t initially disqualified for this, instead being docked two points by Lane. Granted a second opportunity, Tyson elected for the same barbaric, vile and illegal tactic in a bid to restore parity to the fight, this time biting Holyfield’s left ear. Holyfield screamed and jumped back in agony as he watched his opponent spit his own flesh onto the floor. Tyson was incensed. Possessed.
“He butted me in the second round, and he looked at me and butted me again. No one deducted points. This is my career. What am I supposed to do? I’ve got children to raise. He kept butting me,” Tyson alleged after the fight.
“Bullshit,” replied Lane. “The butt was an accidental butt. How many times do you want him to get butt? There’s a goddamn limit to everything, including bites. One bite is bad enough, two bites is dessert.”
It’s hard to distinguish precisely the motives behind the bite, with Tyson offering various vague half-apologies throughout the years. Ironically, just 24 hours before the fight, he described himself as “a professional who doesn’t get emotionally involved in anything” before later offering an insincere act of contrition, pleading for forgiveness as his career derailed before his eyes.
Embed from Getty ImagesMore astonishing perhaps are the confessions of Tyson’s former trainer Teddy Atlas. He predicted to reporters on the evening of June 27th, that if he failed to secure an early knockout, the former heavyweight champion would “try to disqualify himself either by elbowing, throwing a low blow, butting or biting.” Shockingly, not only was it a sheer lack of human decency, it was most likely pre-meditated and part of his game plan.
Holyfield was rushed to hospital. The chunk of flesh plucked from the ring by Libonati was lost in transit to A&E and would never be seen again – at least until Tyson returned the piece of ear in a satirical advert by FootLocker – but nevertheless, the plastic surgeons did a stellar job at repairing the injury.
When faced with the question ‘Why did you bite Evander’s ear, Mike?’, sympathy and remorse has eluded Tyson since. “I just wanted to beat him up.” “I just wanted to kill him.” “I was enraged.” These are just a selection of the various faux excuses the former world champion has used to defend – or avoid condemning – his own actions.
It wasn’t until he was invited onto Oprah Winfrey’s show, alongside Holyfield, where he mustered the first real show of repentance. Looking uncharacteristically uncomfortable, speaking nearly at a whisper, it was almost as if twelve years of conflict would finally come to an end. He said on the Oprah Winfrey Show “This is a beautiful guy,” gesturing towards Holyfield who was sat beside him. “Me and this guy basically both come from the sewerage, and we watched each other grow and become established and esteemed fighters. And I just want you to know that it’s been a pleasure passing through life and being acquainted to you,” he said extending his hand towards his former opponent. Holyfield accepted the hand, smiled and simply said “okay.”
Tyson and Holyfield eventually put the past behind them and could move on. Now, they seem to be in a good place with each other, appearing on Fox Sports poking fun at what happened in the ring two decades ago.
But would the pair ever face each other on the canvas again? Holyfield’s trainer Don Turner’s words remain true:
“Only if Tyson has his teeth removed. Only then.”
Liam Potter 