Printable View
Just been watching this again.
Still find it unbelievable, to this day, what happened in the ring that night.
Three things I find hard to believe:
a) The fact Mike wasn't disqualified straight away.
b) The audacity he had to then bit Holyfield's other ear.
and
c) I can't believe how cool Holyfield was. 99% of other men would've just lot the plot and probably starting kicking him etc.
Utter madness. ;D
Man does desperate things when he sees history repeating itself.People always say "he snapped,he lost it".Ive never belived that.I think he knew exactly what he was doing...and it was to draw Holyfield out and make him wreckless and it worked for a minute.Holyfield starting flailing and getting wide,did his tribal kick dance and jumped in.I have zero doubt in my mind Tyson knew he was going to get tko'd that night,again.
From wikipedia:
I'll be honest, I don't actually understand what Teddy was trying to say. He somewhat contradicts himself.Quote:
Tyson's former trainer, Teddy Atlas, had predicted that Tyson would be disqualified. "He planned this," Atlas said. "That's the only reason he went through with this fight. This was a charade so he could get out and live with himself as long as in his world he would be known as savage and brutal. In his world, he was the man who attacked like an animal and people would say he was trying to annihilate Holyfield, trying to kill him, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Edit - on closer reading, I think I get what he was trying to say. I think he meant that Mike knew that he was going to lose the fight (as spicoli said above) but, in order to still be seen as brutal and an 'animal', that he planned on getting DQ - so that even if he lost, he'd be seen as savage.
Or something along those lines.
Steve Lott said exactly the same thing!
What Steve Lot also said was when Mike was with the original team he knew they knew what they were doing and respected and listened to them, he had zero respect for any other trainers and wouldnt do as he was told under them, he even gave Roach the runaround.
What Steve was getting at is if Mike was to have a frustrating round, he knew and was reassured by the fact he was going back to the corner to hear some sense that he knew he would listen to. He would also have been properly prepared so inbetween rounds all hed have to do is listen and follow instructions.
In round 3 of this fight we get a little glimpse of Mike using speed and putting punches together and when he does it Holyfield has no answer, he doesnt fire back, just stands there getting batted around with his guard up. A properly trained Mike would have been placing those punches better, been jumping in to new positions around Holyfield and firing the right hook to the body and right uppercut and wouldnt have been letting up. Its only when Mike lost heart again and stopped doing it that Holyfield was able to fight back. The Mike that beat Spinks was a different animal, that Mike wouldnt have let Holyfield out of the first;)
That last burst of Tyson was more desperation and one last hurrah. It looked excellent and a prime Tyson would have done that from round 1 and stopped Holyfield, particularly those body shots. Holyfield knew that he just had to ride the storm and that Tyson's burst would not last. Still it was good all the same.
If some one head buts you in boxing you do likewise, same with puches below the b elt but never should you bite the ear of an opponent.
Holyfield Once bit an amature opponent on the shoulder;)
it was after all billed as "The Sound & The Fury".
Or if someone punches another boxer below the belt, you do it to when you fight them. See Cotto vs Judah who obviously took exception to Judah's 'low blow' against Mayweather. ;DQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
Tyson knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he was going to lose so the best thing he could do in the circumstances in terms of creating enough controversy over the fight to make people want to watch him again was to bite Holyfield. If he'd just lost the fight it'd have serioulsy dented his PPVability and people would have been saying he was finished. Biting Holyfield's ear gave him the opportunity of at least one more massive payday.
Tyson knew he was going to lose as many of you have already said. He just didn't want to go out on his back. The man was petrified and became the stereotypical cornered animal. Believe it or not, he was always this way on the inside.
The words from Lott and Atlas are revelations of something they always saw and always knew about Mike. The intimidation factor he had in his prime was the result of his skills contributing to his confidence. He had people he trusted around him, he had the skills to take a guy out early and not really get hit. Those were ideal situations for him. The quicker he took a guy out, the quicker he could remove himself from that kind of high pressure situation. Its when he lost his mentor, his friends and the people around him that he he was unable to deal with the pressure because they followed him out of the ring and started to collect.
Biting Holyfield was an attempt at getting that intimidation back or a way of leaving the ring without getting pummeled. Its a win / win situation for Mike. Holyfield gets thrown off his game by anger or fear and Mike stands a chance of winning.... or Mike gets disqualified and leaves the ring with his pride intact.
Doesn't look all that uncommon when you consider the number of fighters that have done these kind of bizarre things. Golota... Judah...Cintron..
Im not sure any version of Tyson could have beat Holyfield and Im a big Tyson fan. Styles make fights and Tyson would always have trouble with a guy like Evander who forces him to fight off the backfoot. In the 2nd fight Evander had even more leg strength and I could see from the 1st round it was gonna be a bad night for Tyson .Quote:
Originally Posted by ross