The Bite Fight: How Tyson vs Holyfield II Ended in Disqualification in 1997

On the night of 28 June 1997, the most lucrative heavyweight rematch of its era ended after three rounds with blood on the canvas, a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear on the floor and Mike Tyson disqualified. The fallout cost Tyson his Nevada licence for more than a year and a $3 million fine.

November 1996: The Upset That Set It Up

The story of the bite begins seven and a half months earlier, in the same building. On 9 November 1996, Tyson walked into the MGM Grand Garden Arena as WBA heavyweight champion, having taken the belt from Bruce Seldon in a single round. His record stood at 45-1 with 39 knockouts. Holyfield, at 32-3, was widely viewed as a former champion whose best nights were behind him, and the betting reflected it: Wikipedia records Tyson as roughly a 5-1 favourite on fight night, while other retrospective accounts say Holyfield had opened as long as 25-1 before the price shortened.

The fight did not follow the script. Holyfield met Tyson's rushes with strength rather than retreat, tied him up, walked him back to the ropes and scored in combination. In the sixth round Tyson went down. By the end of the tenth he was badly hurt, and early in the eleventh referee Mitch Halpern stepped in after another sustained Holyfield assault. Holyfield became a three-time heavyweight titleholder, the first man since Muhammad Ali to do so, and The Ring named the bout both its Fight of the Year and Upset of the Year for 1996. Tyson had been paid a reported $30 million for the night; Holyfield, $12 million.

The Head-Butt Grievance and the Referee Switch

Tyson's camp left the first fight convinced that Holyfield had used his head as a weapon. Halpern had judged the clashes of heads accidental, and when he was assigned to the rematch, Tyson's side protested. The Nevada Athletic Commission rejected the objection, but Halpern withdrew on his own a few days before the fight. The replacement was Mills Lane, a Nevada state trial judge and former prosecutor who, according to a 2020 profile on Referee.com, had spent around four decades in the sport as a fighter and official.

The rematch was even bigger business than the original. Holyfield was guaranteed a reported $35 million and Tyson $30 million, with the WBA title once again on the line at the MGM Grand.

Rounds One and Two: The Cut Over Tyson's Eye

The early action looked much like the first meeting. Holyfield won the opening round and landed an overhand right late in it that shook Tyson. Thirty-two seconds into the second round, as Holyfield ducked beneath a punch, his head crashed into Tyson's face and opened a deep cut over Tyson's right eye. Lane ruled the collision unintentional and took no action. For Tyson, it was the same grievance that had followed him out of the first fight, now bleeding down his face.

Round Three: Two Bites in Under a Minute

Tyson came out for the third round without his mouthpiece, and Lane sent him back to his corner to put it in. For most of the round he fought with renewed urgency. Then, in a clinch late in the round, he bit down on Holyfield's right ear and tore away a piece of it. The Los Angeles Times account carried by The Spokesman-Review put the moment at 33 seconds left in the round, a figure also given by Referee.com; Wikipedia places it with about 40 seconds remaining. Holyfield leapt away in pain. Ringside judge Duane Ford later described seeing Tyson spit the piece of ear onto the canvas.

Lane halted the fight and had ringside physician Dr. Flip Homansky examine the wound. Homansky cleared Holyfield to continue. Lane deducted two points from Tyson, one for the bite and one for a shove in the back that followed, and warned him that a repeat would end the night.

Action resumed, and within seconds Tyson bit again, this time into Holyfield's left ear. Lane did not see it as it happened, according to Wikipedia's account of the bout. The round ended in a wild exchange. Only after the bell, when the second injury became obvious, did Lane rule that Tyson was finished. Ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. told the arena that Tyson had been disqualified for biting Holyfield on both ears and that Holyfield remained WBA champion.

Lane's explanation to reporters, as quoted by UPI, was blunt: "You have to take a position sometime and that was it."

Chaos in the Ring and in the Stands

The disqualification did not end the violence. Tyson tried to get at Holyfield's corner, charging at cornerman Tim Hallmark, and in the scramble a police officer was knocked over, according to the Los Angeles Times report. As Tyson left the ring he was pelted with drinks from the crowd and at one point went briefly into the stands, swinging, before security hauled him away. Holyfield, blood running from his ear, was taken to a Las Vegas hospital for treatment.

The two men's words that night were as far apart as their exits. Holyfield, quoted by UPI, called Tyson "a coward." Tyson insisted that he had been responding to the butts. In remarks later reported by Fox, he said: "I can't continue getting 'butted like that." Wikipedia also records Tyson saying, when asked why he had bitten Holyfield, that he simply wanted to kill him.

The Nevada Commission's Verdict

The Nevada Athletic Commission, chaired by Dr. Elias Ghanem, moved quickly. In July 1997 it revoked his licence outright and fined him $3 million, the maximum the commission could impose, since Nevada law capped such fines at 10 per cent of a fighter's purse. He also had to cover the legal costs of the proceedings. The revocation left Tyson free to reapply for his licence after a year.

He did not get it back quickly. On 18 October 1998, the commission voted 4-1 to restore it, with Commissioner James Nave the lone dissent, according to CBS News and an Associated Press report. The restoration came with conditions, including continued psychological treatment. Ghanem made clear there would be no further leniency, telling Tyson, as CBS reported: "I want to warn you, from my view, this will be your last chance." By then Tyson had been out of the ring for more than 15 months. He returned on 16 January 1999 against Francois Botha, again at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Sources That Disagree, and a Strange Epilogue

Accounts of that third round do not agree on every detail. The time of the first bite is given as 33 seconds or about 40 seconds from the bell depending on the source, and descriptions of how much of the ear was lost range from "a chunk" to roughly an inch of cartilage. All agree on the essentials: two bites in one round, two points deducted for the first, disqualification for the second.

The rivalry closed on an unexpected note. Holyfield said soon after the fight that he had forgiven Tyson, and the two men later became friends. In 2022 the two of them put their names to cannabis edibles shaped like a bitten ear, sold as "Holy Ears." Nearly three decades on, the bout remains one of the few nights in heavyweight history remembered less for who won than for how it ended.

Sources

• Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Mike Tyson vs. Francois Botha, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Evander Holyfield wins, Mike Tyson disqualified for biting, UPI, 29 June 1997
• A heavyweight bite: Tyson disqualified after biting Holyfield (Los Angeles Times report by Tim Kawakami), The Spokesman-Review, 29 June 1997
• DQ'd: Tyson vs. Holyfield, June 28, 1997, Referee.com, 9 July 2020
• Tyson regains boxing license, CBS News, 18 October 1998
• Tyson wins back license, Minnesota Daily (Associated Press), 20 October 1998
• Why Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear, FOX 5 New York, 15 November 2024