JUNE 28th - Back to the Shallow Pools of Crazy Town



On this day in 1997, Mike Tyson and fought Evander Holyfield for the second time. Oh, and Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear. Like a full chunk of his ear. He either momentarily became a zombie, or he just got tired of being outclassed by Evander. I’m not sure what is more believable. Tyson had already gotten beaten in the first fight with Holyfield getting TKOed in 11 rounds. He couldn’t do anything he wanted to do, and that continued in the second fight. So the frustration thing--seems plausible. But I’m not ready to take momentary zombie off the table just yet. First off, I wouldn’t put it past Tyson to have ingested some type of mind-altering drug like bath salts and they kicked into overdrive in that third round after Holyfield had barraged him with body shots. Or the maybe he ate an Angel’s Trumpet flower. There was a kid who tried to eat his own arm because he thought it was a roast beef sandwich after ingesting that thing. And while Tyson eventually pulled his life together after boxing, it took a while, and I wouldn’t say he was the picture of sound decision-making and stability in the late 90’s. There is the outside possibility that he was momentarily seized by the desire for human flesh, but considering that Evander didn’t turn into a zombie, we can probably safely shelve that option. Unless they had antidotes on hand. You never know. Logistically speaking though, safer bet is he had a flash of cannibalism. Just a touch. Like a minute. Bite an ear. Bite another ear. Get disqualified. No more cannibalism. Whatever the case, I am glad it was only a brief departure to the deep recesses of crazy town and that Mike was able to come back to the shallow pools of crazy town. I didn’t want ole Iron Mike to just fade into Bolivian. But we can’t have situational cannibals or zombies running around out there either. It's okay to be crazy. Just not too crazy.



This Day has been Marked.

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