This happened in a WBA heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas, in June 1997. The previous November, also in Las Vegas, Holyfield had surprisingly defeated Tyson when the referee stopped the fight at the end of the eleventh round. Tyson's camp had complained of persistent head–butting by Holyfield, which had gone unpunished – the referee ruling it as accidental.
For the rematch, and at the insistence of the Tyson camp, referee Mitch Halpern stood aside in favour of Mills Lane.
After the first bite, Lane stopped the fight and deducted two points from Tyson. Tyson was disqualified and the fight was stopped at the end of the third round, after Tyson bit Holyfield's other ear.
The first bite removed a piece of Holyfield's ear, which was found on the canvas after the abandonment of the fight. Several people were injured in the ensuing brawl.
Tyson later stated that he'd acted in retaliation to more head–butting by Holyfield. Two days after the fight he apologised to his opponent, and asked the authorities not to ban him for life. Nine days later his licence was rescinded by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. As most state commissions honour sanctions imposed by other states, this effectively meant that Tyson was unable to box in the United States until October 1998, when his licence was restored by the Nevada Commission. By this time he was 32 years old, and he never won another world title.
Evander Holyfield fought Britain's Lennox Lewis in March 1999 in a unification match for the WBA, IBF and WBC heavyweight titles. The first match was controversially declared a draw (most observers believing that Lewis had won easily), and the rematch, eight months later – which also included the vacant IBO title – was won by Lewis.
Lewis was later stripped of the WBA title for refusing to fight the preferred candidate, John Ruiz. Holyfield fought Ruiz for the title in August 2000 – regaining it, only to lose it in a rematch seven months later.
© Haydn Thompson 2021