30-for-30
“Chasing Tyson” — From a “Momma Boy” to a Beast
A “30-for-30” Film Analysis on two of the most memorable figures in boxing history
Foreword
Coronavirus, social distancing, cancellation of sports… As a fervent sports fan, I will never stop doing sports, watching sports, and feeling sports.
With no live sports to consume the present, sports fans are forced to revisit the glories of the past. While there are plenty of remarkable films in ESPN’s 30-for-30 series, we are here to present you with a story of two boxing legends: Evander Holyfield’s decade’s-long pursuit of Mike Tyson.
Summary
Spoiler Alert: the following content includes detailed information on the film.
With his outsized personality and ferocious punches, Mike Tyson cast a commanding shadow over boxing in the 1980s and ’90s. Even when “Iron Mike” was in prison, the heavyweight division belonged to him. Meanwhile, like Ahab patiently waiting to reel in his giant whale, Evander Holyfield endured years of delay for the opportunity to take down Tyson. Though Holyfield captured the heavyweight title when he knocked out Buster Douglas, the prevailing view of the mild-mannered Holyfield was that he was a journeyman — the heavyweight champion but never a truly great one. Though Holyfield dramatically lost and recaptured the heavyweight crown, and then lost it again, even he understood that his career would ultimately be defined by how he stood up to Tyson — if he ever got his chance.
By the time of their much-hyped and oft-delayed heavyweight title bout in November of 1996, Holyfield was 34 and considered past his prime. Four years younger, Tyson was heavily favored to be standing over another meek and easily vanquished opponent at the end. Instead, we got two of the sport’s most memorable fights — but for very different reasons.
“You know. I don’t Speak for the people but I can speak for myself. I didn’t need a Mike Tyson.” — Evander Holyfieldd
His ultimate goal was to be a Heavyweight Champion.
“I came from the ghetto. There’s always something about being good.” Holyfield said. The environment for Evander Holyfield as a child was tough, teaching him core life lessons and values: the spirit and work ethic of working hard to make it out of the ghetto. Evander Holyfield was born on October 19, 1962, in the mill town of Atmore, Alabama. The youngest of nine children, Holyfield was much younger than his other siblings and was born from a different father. “My goal—I wanted to be the Heavyweight Champion of the world. I was told, at eight years old, I could be it if I don’t quit. All I wanted to do is reach that goal.” Holyfield spoke of his childhood. “My mom wouldn’t read so that I wouldn’t read. In class, they told me I was dumb, so I wanted to fight.” By the age of 13, he qualified to compete in his first Junior Olympics. In the following year, he made his professional boxing debut. But all the spotlights were on Tyson.
Mike Tyson: “I met him when I was 14 or 15 years old. He was a nobody. Nobody knew who he was. Holly, Holy, how — we couldn’t pronounce his name. He just came out of nowhere.”
In the 1980s and 90s, famous for his ferocious punches, Mike Tyson cast a commanding shadow over boxing. Even my mom and dad, who were on the other side of the world, knew Tyson was dominating boxing. For boxers during that time, Tyson was an unreachable goal. “If you win the Heavyweight champion title, you are still nobody. You have to beat Tyson to get recognized by everyone.” a reporter in the film said so. His presence was just like the Golden State Warriors in the last five years, the best in the world.
Evander’s Way
To prove I can do what Tyson does
To learn from, to defeat, to surpass the greatest at that time, Evander took action with his determination. He watched every single fight of Mike Tyson and saw him as a challenge, motivating himself to get to an upper level every day. His game plan, similarly, was to fight all guys that Tyson has fought and let everybody know he could do what Tyson did.
His first fight as a Heavyweight took place on July 16, 1988, when he beat former Tyson rival James “Quick” Tillis by a knockout in five, in Lake Tahoe, Nevada (Tillis had gone the distance with Tyson). For his third and final bout of 1988, he beat former Heavyweight Champion Pinklon Thomas, also by knockout, in seven rounds.
Standing on the top of the world, but still below Tyson’s fame. It was time. Evander Holyfield was going to meet Tyson in the Heavyweight championship game if the undefeated Tyson won the fight with Buster Douglas. However, to everyone’s surprise, one of the biggest upset in sports history happened. By 1990, Tyson could not manage his fortune and fame. His marriage to Robin Givens was heading for divorce, and his future contract was being fought over by Don King and Bill Cayton. In a fight on February 11, 1990, he lost the undisputed championship to Douglas in Tokyo. Holyfield ended up not fighting Tyson in the heavyweight champion game. On October 25, 1990, Evander Holyfield had a fight with Douglas. In the third round, Douglas tried to start a combination with a big right uppercut. Holyfield countered with a straight right hand and Douglas went down for the count. Holyfield was the new undefeated, Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, but lost the chance to prove to everyone he was better than Tyson.
“Your hot dog won’t be cold if you come to the fight.” — Tyson
The second meeting was scheduled for the following year. Then a deal was signed for him to defend his crown against Mike Tyson in November 1991. Both Tyson and Holyfield were in their prime, ready to present to the whole world one of the greatest fights of all time. However, Tyson got indicted for rape. Tyson was arrested in July 1991 for the rape of 18-year-old Desiree Washington, Miss Black Rhode Island, in an Indianapolis hotel room. Tyson’s rape trial took place in the Marion County superior court from January 26 to February 10, 1992. The fight, therefore, was canceled again because of the indictment. Tyson was going to jail, and Holyfield lost his opportunity again to prove himself.
He never gets cocky.
In the following years, Holyfield continued to dominate the boxing world, getting all the trophies but facing all the doubts from the crowd. He reclaimed the Heavyweight Champion Title after a furiously long fight with Riddick Bowe. Then misfortune hit.
Holyfield lost his belt in a fight with Moorer in 1994. What’s worse? Holyfield’s heart has been a concern since he lost the heavyweight title to Moorer in April 1994. He was diagnosed then as having a non-compliant left ventricle, which is manifested by severe fatigue, and a small hole between the upper chambers of his heart.
Is it over? The most expected fight between two of the greatest boxers of all time?
Not yet.
Holyfield said he never used steroids and he was still growing after the Olympics he fought in, implying that the heart problem of the Holyfield could be a misdiagnose. In the same year, Tyson came out of jail, with one of the largest crowd to watch a prisoner coming out of jail, which was unheard of in the sports world.
The fight could happen again.
After being paroled from prison, Tyson said he reflected on his life and is going to continue his journey of boxing. Shortly after, Holyfield announced to come back because the heart problem was a misdiagnosis.
Tyson easily won his comeback bouts against Peter McNeeley and Buster Mathis Jr. His first comeback fight grossed more than US$96 million worldwide, including a United States record $63 million for PPV television. Tyson quickly got his Heavyweight Championship belt back.
1996 was also a very good year for Holyfield. First, he met former world champion, Bobby Czyz, beating him by a knockout in six. Then, he and Mike Tyson finally met.
I would’ve beaten Holyfield five years earlier and am super confident about beating him right now.
Tyson vs. Holyfield I
The first fight between the two that could’ve happened 6 years ago
Before the fight, everyone liked Tyson, supported Tyson, and thought Tyson would crush Holyfield in the fight. Tyson, in a pre-game interview, said he knew this fight was going to be hard despite what he said in front of the public because he knew Holyfield had the warrior’s heart and the dedication to win. Holyfield, on the other hand, didn’t say a word, training hard despite the fact that he was the underdog.
The fight was held in Las Vegas in 1996 and Tyson faced Holyfield in a title bout dubbed “Finally”.
Tyson came out fast and sent Holyfield reeling with his first solid punch. Holyfield, who had studied Tyson’s style intensively, later explained that Tyson dipped to his left, from which position he usually loaded up a left hook, but on this occasion surprised Holyfield by firing a right cross. Holyfield tied Tyson up and revealed the first surprise of the fight, his superior strength, as he pushed Tyson backward. Tyson would never seriously hurt Holyfield for the remainder of the fight. As the rounds passed, Tyson was unable to adjust and found himself being thoroughly outboxed. At the end of the tenth round, a punch from Holyfield sent Tyson staggering across the ring. Holyfield chased him into the ropes and landed a series of devastating blows. Finally, Holyfield made history by defeating Tyson in an 11th round TKO. After the bout, Tyson, meek as a puppy, virtually crawled to Holyfield at the post-fight news conference, whimpering, “I just want to touch your hand, man.’’
Tyson vs. Holyfield II
The notorious bite by Mike Tyson
People were still doubting Holyfield that maybe he did not beat “the best Mike Tyson”. Instead, he beat a man who was beaten by the system and his own life.
In 1997, the rematch between Tyson and Holyfield was arranged, and Tyson was confident and expecting a knockout, so as Holyfield. It was contested on June 28, 1997, for the WBA Heavyweight Championship.
The fight began with Holyfield dominating Tyson. Holyfield won the first three rounds. In the second round, Holyfield ducked under a right from Tyson. In doing so, he head-butted Tyson, opening a large cut over the latter’s right eye. Tyson began the third round with a furious attack. With forty seconds remaining in the round, Holyfield got Tyson in a clinch, and Tyson rolled his head above Holyfield’s shoulder and bit Holyfield on his right ear. The bite avulsed a one-inch piece of cartilage from the top of the ear, and Tyson spat out the piece of the ear onto the ring floor. As Holyfield shrieked in pain and jumped in circles, he managed to push Tyson away, at which point Lane called for a time-out.
As Holyfield turned to walk to his corner, Tyson shoved him from behind. Lane sent Tyson to a neutral corner as an enraged Holyfield gestured for Mills Lane to look at his bitten ear, which was rapidly bleeding. The match continued after a stop by the referee for a few minutes. During another clinch, Tyson bit Holyfield’s left ear. Holyfield threw his hands around to get out of the clinch and jumped back. Tyson’s second bite just scarred Holyfield’s ear. Lane did not stop the fight this time, so the two men continued fighting until time expired. The men walked back to their respective corners, and when the second bite was discovered, the fight was stopped.
Holyfield won the fight and Tyson was disqualified for boxing for 15 months. He never won a championship title again.
Further Research
Looking into the reasons behind the bite
Why did you do it, Mike? “Because I’m crazy a little bit and was bleeding all over the place.” “I was frustrated.” “I was angry that he was butting my head.” “I just snapped and reacted the way many athletes have done.” “I just wanted to kill him.” “I don’t remember much because I was so enraged.” “I wanted to inflict so much pain on him.” “I was pissed off that he was such a great fighter.” “I just wanted to beat him up.” “I was an undisciplined soldier and lost my composure.” “I was in a very competitive mood and wanted so desperately to beat him for my own self-aggrandizement.” “I was just upset.”
Boxing has never been the same since Mike Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear 20 years ago. Over the twenty years, Tyson has given a variety of answers to why he bit Evander Holyfield’s ear. But the memory blurs as he tried to recall the real reason why Tyson bit him, as “I still can’t believe I bit his ear. What was I thinking?’’ Tyson wrote in the forward to The Bite Fight, George Willis’ 2013 book about that unforgettable night. In the article “From the Vault: Mike Tyson bites Evander Holyfield in both ears,” the author Paul Campbell addressed the whole story on the night Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear and the reasons behind the bizarre and dangerous action. In fact, Tyson was outraged on that night, losing his consciousness. He was overwhelmed by the strikes from Holyfield, who had the advantage during the fight that night. Cuts started to appear on Tyson’s face, as Holyfield kept butting him. “He tried to cut and get me stopped on cuts,” Tyson recalled.
At the end of the story, Tyson finally called Holyfield a beautiful guy. He and Holyfield basically both came from the sewerage and watched each other grow and become established and esteemed fighters. “I just want you to know that it’s been a pleasure passing through life and being acquainted with you.”
The Aftermath
Before the fight, Holyfield’s trainer, Don Turner, one of the fight game’s better brains, helped Holyfield with his game plan versus Tyson. What Tyson did not count on was that Holyfield’s inner resolve — fuelled, he says, by God — was such that he could lift himself for one more awesome effort. At the end of the fight, Mike had come completely unglued. He was clawing and fighting his way across the ring to get at Holyfield, throwing wild punches at anything in front of him. His own people were trying to hold him back, but he still managed to deck a security guard. Eventually, a whole platoon of security guards backed him into his corner and kept him surrounded.
In “How Tyson-Holyfield II Almost Destroyed Boxing”, the author Wallace Matthews focuses on a different perspective from the previous source: the aftermath and the impact of the fight. Tyson ended up losing 3 million dollars. After granting an interview to Showtime’s Jim Gray in which he contended the bite was mere retaliation for Holyfield’s deliberate butting, Tyson wept in his dressing room. “It’s over, it’s over. I know my career is over,’’ he repeated, again and again. Tyson would fight again — 10 more times, in fact — but he never won another major fight and was stopped in three of his last four fights, quitting on one knee in his final bout against journeyman Kevin McBride on June 11, 2005. Holyfield fought 20 more times, losing his titles to Lennox Lewis in 1999 but regaining a version of the title a year later. He finally retired, at 48, on a win over Brian Nielsen on May 7, 2011. Earlier this month, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York.
The damage to boxing was incalculable. The images of the sport’s biggest star in decades — already tarnished by the rape conviction, his public divorce from Robin Givens with allegations of domestic abuse, and all-around anti-social behavior — was irreparably damaged. And boxing, riding high for the nearly 11-year period between Nov. 22, 1986, when Tyson knocked out Trevor Berbick to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history, and June 28, 1997, when he became one of its most infamous scoundrels, slipped back into the downward spiral it had been in since the mid-1970s.
The film director Steven Cantor’s stylistic choices
Director and producer Steven Cantor is the founder of New York City based Stick Figure Studios. Steven Cantor gets the most out of a great highlight reel. He’s only covering the stories of Evander Holyfield and Tyson between they boxed professionally and Tyson’s bite, but of those stories, Cantor subtly portrayed two complete different characters. Evander, an underdog who trains hard but never gets acknowledge, was shown to the film viewers through clips of Holyfield talking about his toughness built from his rough childhood and Holyfield training night and day. On the other hand, Cantor characterized Tyson as a rich, formidable, and arrogant boxer by putting others’ comments in the film, such as a commentator that says that Tyson is the best fighter in the century and a citizen that would bet Tyson will crush Holyfield. Throught these character building and up-and-downs of the story, Cantor makes his film a roller coaster, tucking the readers’ heart string but at the same time satisfying readers when they see Holyfield finally won the game. The design and structure of the whole story fulfills the readers’ appetite, adding there readiness to continue watching.
Bibliography
Wikipedia contributors. “Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 Apr. 2020. Web. 7 May. 2020.
Campbell, Paul. “From the Vault: Mike Tyson Bites Evander Holyfield in Both Ears.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 28 June 2017, www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/28/mike-tyson-bites-evander-holyfield-both-ears-boxing.
Wikipedia contributors. “Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 May. 2020. Web. 7 May. 2020.
Matthews, Wallace. “How Tyson-Holyfield II Almost Destroyed Boxing.” Complex, Complex, 30 June 2017, www.complex.com/sports/2017/06/how-tyson-holyfield-2-almost-destroyed-boxing.
