28 years ago today, the world championship fight between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield ended in one of the biggest scandals in boxing history.
Mike Tyson is furious, he’s practically foaming at the mouth. It’s the third round of this eagerly awaited boxing match, and the former world champion simply can’t find a way to beat Evander Holyfield.
His opponent is faster than Tyson, even though he is four years older at 34. He is more agile and constantly presses him. Tyson is sweating, bleeding, clinging on. And then, on June 28, 1997, things take a monstrous turn.
Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield: The ear bite
“Iron Mike” loses his nerve and, in the clinch, bites a 1.5-centimeter piece out of Holyfield’s ear. Holyfield screams in pain, jumps around the ring and repeatedly points to his bleeding wound in disbelief.
“He did that on purpose, I was sure my ear was off,” Holyfield will say later.
16,331 spectators at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas are horrified, and riots break out, leaving several people injured. Referee Mills Lane initially tries to calm things down and allows the round to finish. Then he disqualifies the ear biter, whose career would never recover from the scandal. Especially since it wasn’t his first.
Mike Tyson had already experienced his first downfall
In the late 1980s, Tyson was feared as a brutal knockout specialist and became the youngest heavyweight world champion of all time in 1986 at the age of 20 against Trevor Berbick. The protégé of the legendary shady promoter Don King seemed to have the potential to have a sporting career on par with Muhammad Ali.
Instead, 1990 brought an unexpected setback with a sensational defeat to James “Buster” Douglas in Tokyo – and two years later, the first major fall: Tyson was charged with rape and sentenced to prison, and a fight against Douglas’ conqueror Holyfield, which had already been scheduled, was canceled.
After his release from prison, he made a comeback in 1995 accompanied by huge hype and regained the title in 1996 against England’s Frank Bruno.
Evander Holyfield won the first duel in 1996
But Tyson had only seemingly picked up where he left off in his heyday; his speed and punching power were no longer what they used to be. Holyfield exposed this in the first fight with Tyson on November 9, 1996, at the end of which he dethroned “Iron Mike” by technical knockout in the 11th round.
This did not dampen interest in Tyson, and the rematch broke all previous financial records, generating $100 million in revenue, of which Tyson pocketed $30 million and Holyfield $35 million in fight purses.
But at the height of his commercial success, a second defeat against Holyfield threatened to permanently damage Tyson’s sporting reputation. Tyson’s ear bite was possibly a desperate reaction to this – although he himself claimed that anger over an unpunished headbutt from Holyfield had thrown him off balance.
Unbelievable: At first, Tyson tried to deny his crazy outburst, claiming that a punch had caused the wound. The fitting response from legendary referee Lane, who died in 2022: “Bullshit.”
One-year ban after ear bite in 1997
Tyson was fined three million dollars and ultimately banned from boxing for a year, which he bridged with a well-paid guest appearance for the WWE wrestling league. He got off relatively lightly; the sport clearly did not want to force the still popular superstar into retirement, as some critics had demanded.
However, the sporting glory of yesteryear had faded for good after his return. After his comeback fight against Axel Schulz’s former rival Francois Botha in 1999, he didn’t achieve much. In 2002, he got his last chance at the world title, but was knocked out in the eighth round by Lennox Lewis. His career ended in 2005 after defeats to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride, which destroyed what was left of his reputation.
Tyson’s second career, which essentially consists of marketing himself, is once again significantly more successful. Today, former archrivals Tyson and Holyfield are reconciled and even good friends. A third fight for charity was even discussed a few years ago.
During a joint appearance on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” Tyson once said of Holyfield: “I want to tell the world that he is a wonderful boy. It’s a pleasure to know him.”
