Violence & Brawls ·
Two Bites, and the End of a Title Fight
Mike Tyson was disqualified after biting Evander Holyfield twice in their June 1997 rematch. Holyfield retained the championship; Tyson’s boxing license was later revoked.
With 33 seconds left in the third round, Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield during a clinch, taking a chunk out of his right ear. Holyfield jumped in pain. Referee Mills Lane stopped the action. As Holyfield turned away, Tyson pushed him from behind. Their June 28, 1997, WBA heavyweight rematch at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas was not yet over.
Lane deducted two points from Tyson—one for the bite, one for the push—and warned him that another bite would mean disqualification. A ringside physician examined Holyfield, whose ear was bleeding. After a pause of several minutes, the fighters resumed. They exchanged punches, then tied up again. With 10 seconds remaining in the round, Tyson bit Holyfield a second time.
Lane ended the fight after the round, before the fourth could begin. Holyfield retained the championship by disqualification. “You could see the teeth marks, the indentation in his ear,” Lane said afterward. “One bite is bad enough. Two bites, that’s the end.” Holyfield had won the first two rounds on all three judges’ scorecards; the scheduled 12-round fight had lasted only three.
The disqualification did not immediately separate the fighters. Tyson tried to charge toward Holyfield and his corner, and security guards restrained him. Police entered the ring to restore order. Holyfield eventually left under his own power and went to a hospital. Tyson left to boos and was pelted with bottles, cups and other objects from the stands. “When he bit me the first time, I couldn’t believe it,” Holyfield said. His corner had told him to breathe deeply and concentrate before the fight resumed.
Tyson initially defended his actions as retaliation for head-butting. A clash of heads early in the second round had opened a cut over his right eye, but Lane said he had ruled it accidental and informed the judges. “He butted me in the second round, and he butted me again,” Tyson said afterward. “No one took points from him.” He also minimized Holyfield’s injury: “He got a little nick on his ear, and he quit.” Holyfield offered a different explanation, saying Tyson had fouled to escape a fight he believed he could not win.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission initially suspended Tyson and withheld his purse pending a hearing. In July, it revoked his boxing license and fined him $3 million. He could apply for reinstatement after a year, but restoration was not automatic. “Without further action,” the commission’s legal adviser, Donald Haight, said, “the license would not be restored.” Tyson had publicly apologized and asked to be allowed to fight again someday.
By November, Tyson described the bites differently in a television interview. Watching recordings of the fight, he said, brought “disgust” and “disdain.” “That was just striking out in pure hatred,” he said. “For that one moment I just forgot he was a human being.”