Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield, with the moniker "The Real Deal", is a professional heavyweight boxer who became world champion multiple times in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. He is credited as one of the best fighters of the decade, famous for being the only boxer to win the heavyweight belt four times. He was born in Atmore, Alabama on October 19, 1962.

Holyfield started his professional boxing career in the light heavyweight division in 1984. He steadily climbed up the rankings and moved up to the cruiserweight division in 1985. By 1986, Holyfield captured his first world recognition by defeating Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the WBA Cruiserweight title. In 1987 he defeated Ricky Parkey for the IBF Cruiserweight title. By 1988, Holyfield became the first-ever Undisputed Cruiserweight World Champion when he defeated Carlos De León for the WBC Cruiserweight title. After defeating James Tillis in title defense that same year, Holyfield relinquished his cruiserweight titles to move up to the next division. His aim was the heavyweight crown held by Mike Tyson.

Although Holyfield was promised a fight against Tyson, a series of unexpected events shifted Tyson out of Holyfield's scheduled fights. He then fought and won unremarkably against Buster Douglas (who earlier defeated Tyson in one of the most shocking upsets in sports history) and became the new undisputed world heavyweight champion. He then had another chance at Tyson, now as title defender; however, Tyson was imprisoned for his rape of Desiree Washington. Holyfield continued his successful campaign, defeating George Foreman in 1991 and Larry Holmes in 1992.

By 1996, Holyfield finally faced Tyson in two events. These series of matches would go into the boxing chronicles as one of the most bizarre in the history of boxing. After his major victory against Tyson, Holyfield's performance began to decline. He became the fodder for the next batch of emerging world champions, particularly Lennox Lewis and John Ruiz.

After his defeat to Sultan Ibragimov in 2007, rumors began to surface about Holyfield's possible retirement. However, he quashed the rumors by stating his intentions on BBC Scotland's Sports Weekly, "I'm gonna fight, be the heavyweight champion of the world one more time. Then I'm gonna write another book and tell everybody how I did it"

On December 20, 2008 he faced Nikolai Valuev, reportedly for $600,000, the lowest amount he was paid for a major fight. Holyfield lost to Valuev by a controversial decision. Many analysts were outraged, who thought Holyfield won the match. There are talks about a possible rematch in 2009.

Tyson-Holyfield I

On November 9, 1996, Evander Holyfield finally squared off against "Iron" Mike Tyson in a highly publicized fight billed as "Finally". Tyson will be defending his WBA Heavyweight belt against the supposedly "washed up" Holyfield, who was given by Don King and several other analyst virtually no chance to win.

Except for a first solid blow that sent Holyfield reeling, Tyson was dominated for the entire 11-round match. Holyfield thoroughly out-boxed Tyson, until on the 11th round when the referee Mitch Halpern stopped the fight.

After the match, Tyson's camp accused Holyfield of repeated head-butts during the bout that were left unchecked. Although the head butts were ruled by the referee as accidental, they became the point of contention for a future rematch.

Tyson-Holyfield II

The highly awaited rematch took place on June 28, 1997. Dubbed as "The Sound and the Fury", the lucrative event drew 1.99 million viewers on pay-per-view, setting a buy rate record that stood for ten years. Both boxers also got the largest purses ever, a record that also stood for 10 years - Holyfield received $35 million and Tyson $30 million. After protests from Tyson's camp, Halpern was replaced by Mills Lane as referee.

The bout evolved into one of the most controversial and singular fights in history. In the first two rounds, as many expected, Holyfield began to dominate Tyson with the same tactic he used in their first bout: Punch-Clinch-Shove-Punch. The clinch-shove tactic serves to keep Tyson off-balance and thus minimize the raw power of his punches while also give Holyfield the opportunity to score combinations. However, like in their first match, Holyfield's clinches again opened a bleeding cut over Tyson's right eye.

Tyson got even in the third round. As Holyfield got Tyson in a clinch, Tyson rolled his head and bit off a portion of Holyfield's ear. As Holyfield celebrated with the pain, Tyson charged Holyfield and pushed him, startling both Holyfield and the crowd. The match was delayed for several minutes, with Tyson penalized with two points. The match was cleared to proceed.

The match resume ferociously, with both fighters eager to trade blows. But several clinches later, Tyson again attacked - this time with Holyfield's left ear. This time the fight wasn't stopped due in part with Holyfield freeing himself from the clinch, although he shook his head several times to clear the pain. The two fought until the time expired, after which announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. gave the decision of disqualification, in favor of Holyfield, "Referee Mills Lane has disqualified Mike Tyson for biting Evander Holyfield on both of his ears"

Later, the match became known as "The Bite Fight" or "The Bite of the Century".