Glenn McCrory on Holyfield-Tyson II

By James Slater - 06/28/2017 - Comments

Dubbed, for obvious reasons, “The Bite Fight,” the return meeting between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson shocked the entire world like no other boxing match in history. Or rather it was the events in the third round, and the subsequent events that followed, that caused the enormous shock.

Twenty years have passed since that incredible night at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and no-one who was there has forgotten what happened – even if plenty of them, such as Sky Sports commentator Glenn McCrory, would like to forget.

Along with Ian Darke, McCrory commentated on the fight that featured the man he had famously sparred 96 rounds with and got to know reasonably well.

But, as Glenn explains today, the Tyson he saw in the ring on June 28, 1997 was neither a man he recognised nor wanted to see fight ever again.

“First of all, I wouldn’t have felt it was that long ago – 20 years, wow,” McCrory says today.

“The biggest thing I remember is myself and Ian Darke running and ducking for cover on the way out of The MGM, as shots rang out!”

The sheer carnage spilled out of the ring and fights broke out amongst fans and gamblers in the lobby. The “shots” fired may have been merely a “popping sound,” but the fear and the tension were as real as can be imagined; as McCrory recalls. All hell broke loose after Tyson, unbelievably, sank his teeth into Holyfield’s ear in that surreal third round.

“In all honesty, it was just a strange night even before the fight started,” Glenn says when thinking back.

“I’d known Mike of course, in the early days, and we had sparred. I sparred him when he was at his absolute, unstoppable best – for the Larry Holmes and Tyrell Biggs fights. But after that, the wheels came off for Mike, they really did. After he went to jail, the next time I saw him, it was a totally different Mike Tyson. He was really angry now, and he got in with a bad crowd. You really could tell, looking back, that it was all going bad for him.

“A fighter can sense the tension, the hate, the animosity – whatever you wanna call it. And there was something in the air that night. It was similar to the Andrew Golota-Riddick Bowe fight (from 1996, when Golota’s low blows caused a riot at Madison Square Garden in New York). I remember, I said to Ian Darke that night [for Bowe-Golota], that I had a bad feeling. Same thing with the Tyson fight; there were just bad vibes in the air. Then Holyfield came out with his religious music, not in any way scared or intimidated. The Tyson of then, to me, he had just become a bully, yet Holyfield had no fear whatsoever. I just thought at the time, ‘whoah, he has Tyson’s number!’”

After people got their breath back and began trying to make sense of what they had seen Tyson do, there were claims Tyson had “snapped” due to how Holyfield had head-butted him – purposely according to Tyson. McCrory disagrees, feeling that Tyson launched a calculated attack on his rival.

“It seemed to me that Tyson looked at that as the only way, other than going out of the ring on his back,” Glenn says.

“That’s why he did what he did, I think. With his crowd on hand and on his side, doing what he did allowed Tyson, in his own mind, to go out with some degree of dignity – far more so than going out on his back. He knew he couldn’t beat the man [Holyfield].

“Luckily, [referee] Mills Lane was very strong, and not just a ref but a judge. It felt like someone from a legal background was on hand, and it had got that far – it almost became a criminal incident. Mike Tyson committed an assault on Evander Holyfield, in front of millions of people watching on TV. But it could have been even worse. The thing is, Evander is just a fighting man, an honourable fighting man, and he never retaliated in a way others maybe would have.”

But what happened after Tyson had been disqualified was equally distressing for those people on hand.

“Oh, the whole place erupted! You know, it was a case of, when one man riots, everyone riots,” Glenn continues.

“There were gun shots in the foyer, myself and Ian heard them, and everyone was getting down for cover! Myself and Ian, we were hiding behind the slot machines in The MGM Grand!”

McCrory, like many other people, lost all respect for Tyson due to his cannibalistic actions.

“The thing is, I think he had lost respect for himself by then. After the jail thing, he kind of took to the gutter. In an odd way, the only way he could live with himself was to become sort of an animal. It was very sad. Mike went from being the best in the word to basically a punk. He went through a lot and I think all of that, the Robin Givens stuff, the Don King stuff and of course the time in jail, really, really took a lot from him. In many ways it’s fair to say all that stuff destroyed him – certainly from what he was as a fighter and what he could have been.

“Tyson went over the line. He went over the edge, really over the edge. Tyson was a hero to so many young kids, and his act was so deplorable. It really is a fight I want to forget, not a fight to talk and talk about. I’m not sure about a life ban (being appropriate) but he was allowed to fight again way too soon; what was it, just three years later? (Tyson actually boxed next in January of 1999). It’s lucky really that Holyfield knew and understood Tyson and what kind of man he was fighting. Tyson just lost the plot that night, we can only put it that way. Holyfield, with his religious nature, has forgiven Tyson, and if he can maybe we should. I’m not excusing Tyson or his behaviour at all, but at that time he really had been through some bad years. So much brought him down from the great fighter he once was. Again, it’s a sad tale.”