IT HAS BEEN nearly 27 years since the “Bite Fight,” and onetime arch-enemies Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield are now unlikely besties. The two former heavyweight boxers notoriously clashed back in the ’90s, with Holyfield beating Tyson to the 1996 WBA title—leading to their now-infamous 1997 rematch, during which Tyson, on the verge of losing again, bit off a chunk of Holyfield’s ear.
It was one of the most controversial sporting moments of that decade. In the 2008 documentary Tyson, the former World Heavyweight Champion claimed that the bite was in retaliation against a series of illegal headbutts from Holyfield.
“It doesn’t make no excuse for what happened, but I was just enraged and I wanted to inflict so much pain on him,” Tyson told Oprah Winfrey in 2009. “I was just pissed off that he was such a great fighter, too… I was just mad at him.”
But that’s water under the bridge now; Tyson shared a photo of himself at dinner with Holyfield on social media this week, writing: “We’ve come a long way since the bite fight.”
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The two fighters reconciled and put the past behind them that same year in a joint appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
“This is a beautiful guy, me and this guy both come from basically the sewage, and we watched each other grow to become established and esteemed fighters, you know what I mean?” And I just want you to know it’s been a pleasure passing through life being acquainted with you.”
Since then, Tyson and Holyfield have become good friends—and even went into business together in 2022, creating an edible cannabis product in the shape of Holyfield’s ear.
