The Bite Fight
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The Bite Fight (also known in some circles as "Bite Night" or "Bite of the Century") is a name sometimes used to identify the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield on June 28, 1997, in which Tyson bit off a portion of Holyfield's ear.
[edit] The Fight
The fight was originally billed as "Holyfield-Tyson II, The Sound And The Fury". The fight began with Holyfield dominating the smaller Tyson but doing no real damage. Tyson seemed slow in the first two rounds and lost both.
In addition, Holyfield was headbutting Tyson above his right eye, and by the beginning of the third round had swelled the eye to grotesque proportions. Tyson complained to Mills Lane about the butting (which was also a problem in their first fight, which Holyfield won by TKO in the 11th round), but Lane ruled the butts unintentional.
At one point in the third round, Tyson and Holyfield were clenched, with Tyson holding Holyfield's arms at his sides. Then, out of nowhere, Tyson sought out Holyfield's right ear and bit it hard, causing Holyfield to yelp in pain and jump away. Tyson had actually bit part of the ear off, and spat it across the ring shortly thereafter.
Referee Mills Lane called time and examined Holyfield. Meanwhile, Tyson went to his corner and waited. After seeing the damage Tyson had caused, he went to ringside and told Nevada state athletic commissioner Bruce Ratner that he was going to disqualify Tyson immediately. However, Lane stopped himself and checked with ringside doctor Flip Homansky, who assured him that Holyfield could continue the fight. With that bit of information, Lane deducted two points from Tyson for the bite, and ordered the fight to continue.
After a few more seconds, Tyson sought out Holyfield's left ear and bit it, though not with as much force as the other ear. Lane immediately disqualified Tyson, who went ballistic in the ring, fighting off anyone who tried to control him. He even went as far as to shove Holyfield from behind, touching off a melee that the police had to be called in to control.
[edit] Reaction
As a result of this and other behavior, Tyson was banned from boxing for one year and fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield on both ears. It also shocked the 16,000 people at ringside and the millions watching. Tyson's excuse was that Holyfield was headbutting and Tyson was retaliating. One of Tyson's former trainers, Teddy Atlas had actually predicted before the fight that Tyson would deliberately get himself disqualified.
