Evander Holyfield on Fighting Mike Tyson "I Wanted to Bite Him Back!!" | Joe Rogan

I mean look man, you had some incredible fights, but to me, one of my fondest memories is, you know what Kevin James is from the King of Queens? You know the TV show? Me and Kevin James were at my house in Encino the night you fought Tyson, the first fight when you dropped Tyson. I'll never forget it, because back then, we knew that Buster Douglas had beaten Tyson, but we kind of almost thought it was like a fluke. But when you were battering Tyson and then you put him down and stopped him, I'll never forget Kevin James jumping off the couch, just jumping. Oh my God, we're throwing our arms up in the air. I mean that was for sure one of the greatest heavyweight championship victories in the history of the sport. It was just an incredible fight because in a lot of people's eyes Tyson was like this a bad guy. He was like a, people thought of him as like a thug, you know, and you were thought of as this like really good guy. And many people didn't think that you were going to be able to beat him. So when you didn't just beat him, but you took it to him, you took it to him, you know, like early on in the fight you could tell that you had decided you were going to push him around. And, you know, once you had stopped him, I mean, that was pandemonium. In my house, everybody was going crazy. They couldn't believe it. Well, you know, I know everybody, you know, I am, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm a Christian. But the point of the matter, I work hard. I train hard. My momma said, ain't too many things that you do well. So, son, you know, which one is sports you're going to do? Because I was a good athlete. I could. But football and boxing was my two best ones. But, you know, I played basketball and I did baseball and I did everything. My momma said, and enough time in the day to be the best at everything. Yeah. Don't say she says you got to pick one. So when I play when I play football in 10th grade and they put me on the bench and I start crying and my momma said, you can't quit till the season is over. So I had to play on that. I played play on that game. They finally let me play in the championship game. They see how good I was and asked me was I coming back next year? I said, no, sir. He said, why? I said, my momma said, I ain't got to like this. My momma told me you got to bet on yourself or you're going to bet on the coach. So in boxing, you better know yourself. Right. And in team sport, you better know the coach. You bet on the coach, you bet on the other players and you bet on the coach letting you play. Right. Right. Whereas in boxing, they have to let you fight. That's right. You may be asking somebody to tag in for you. Now, when did you think that boxing was going to be your career? Was it right after that? It's like around 10th grade. Oh, but yeah. Yeah. You know, after 10th grade, I realized that, you know, it came down to one one sport. Yeah. That I really do real well. And so that when I you know, I just put everything in it. Well, you were a part of that incredible Olympic team, too. I mean, so many great fighters came out of that Olympic team, right? Yeah. Breland, Purnell Whitaker, Taylor, I can tell you all of Paul Gonzalez, 106. Steve McCurry, 112, 19. Robert Shannon, 125. Mel Jeter, 132. Purnell Whitaker, 139. Jerry, Jerry and and 147. With Mark Breland, 156. Frank Tate, 165. Virgil Hill, 78. That's right. Virgil Hill. And then Henry Tillman and Tyrell Bix. What a team. Yeah. Crazy team. Nine gold medal, one civil. Amazing. Yeah. And you besides Michael Spinks, you were one of the rare guys to move up, to move up and be successful as a heavyweight. Did you just decide like after you'd beat Dwight Muhammad Kawee, who was a cruiserweight champion and you'd beat, you know, some real good names at that weight class, you just decided that heavyweight was where the real money was at. Well, actually, you know, my goal, I wanted to be a heavyweight champion of the world. And and the only person I knew is Mike Tyson do it. I could do it. So so Mike Tyson, whoop, everybody, you know, you know, you know, people tend to make up excuses. Now, Mike Tyson is a small person. Right. He after me, he hit hard. But he got short arms. Right. And so I seen Mike whooping people that six, four, six, five, six, six. They are weighing by 20, 30 pounds. He beat the daylights out. Right. I figured if Mike could do it, I could do it. So that gave you inspiration. That gave me inspiration. My only thing is that, you know, you know, you know, I actually, you know, for the cruiserweight division, I kind of went through that and what's the next goal is to go up and, you know, and and I chose to do it. And a lot of people said, man, you crazy. Well, you know, you have to be a little of that to be in this anyway. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. Right. Yeah. So when you first did fight Mike Tyson, was that like something you had always knew was going to happen once he got out of jail? Well, it was it was like this. My mom used to tell me, she said, now, let me tell you something about a good fighter, you can't wish him away. They ain't never going nowhere. You got to face it. And so, you know what? And, you know, and everybody in everything that I've done, everybody will always remind me, you didn't beat Mike Tyson. Right. And I was like, well, you're right. And I said, but it's not like it was my fault. Right. Like this. I see every time I get ready to phone something happen. I said, but it wasn't my fault. Well, you ain't really the champ until you beat him. It was amazing that he was so popular. I'm especially in my house. I was, you know, when people get mad at me, they tell me, I can't wait till you fight Mike Tyson. That's crazy. So the thing is, is that, you know, you know, he was that person that I watched. Everyone is fighting. And I realized you can't make that that many mistake with Mike. Right. When you finally did beat him, do you think when you did fight him and did beat him, do you think that that raised your your celebrity and your notoriety to a different level? Not really. I think that it let people know that you ain't got to be considered a bad person to be good in the ring. Yeah. I'm saying because when you know my own thing, I could box. And but everybody thought that because I didn't curse a lot. I don't get in trouble that you ain't mean enough to beat a mean guy. And most so then I'm a skillful fighter. I took care of my body and I did everything right. I'm, you know, I, you know, in general, I've got a lot of guys a lot bigger. And and but it's art to the game. It's really art. It's really art. It is. It's not just one thing. You just you hit harder because you got to be able to take something to give. So right. Well, you always could take it. Yeah, that was a big part of your your career when you had an iron chin. I mean, Riddick Bowe was a giant man and he hit you with some bombs and those wars that you guys had, you were able to take some incredible punches. Well, you know, the art with me, I knew that I could take it. But can you take it? And so the whole big thing is the whole big thing, my whole thing, my whole my whole big thing with Mike is that what Mike had told somebody, say, everybody got a plan to get hit. And he was right. Because, you know, if if you hit this guy, worried about you hitting him and he worried about getting hit. So he got to worry about it. Right. But I knew if you hit me, I'm going to hit you back. And so that was part of the plan was to let him know that early. Right. It seems like that was when you when you fought him, particularly in the first round, you pressed him and that was a rare moment to see someone like really pushing Mike back and getting Mike back on his heels. Well, in our other game, if if you like Mike get you back, that may be it. Right. Right. Right. So you have to attack him. So the whole big thing, the whole big thing with me was it is things that my mama said, she said, let me tell you when you know. When you know how good you are, when somebody press you with what you're doing, she said, Mike, low to press other people, but can he handle the press? My mom said, do it back to him. Do it back. If you want to see somebody stop doing something to you, do it to them. All of a sudden they'll stop. People really don't like what you make, what you do to somebody and somebody do it again, you get ticked. Right. Like that. So and so the thing was to we practice just point pressure, point pressure, point pressure, make him feel the same way that he make other people feel. So that was the game plan going into that. Game plan. Yeah. Was there anything surprising about that fight? Not not to me because I didn't want no surprise because of the surprise you may get knocked out like this. So the thing is, is to stay on him and let him think about all these those things. Now, once you stopped him in the first fight, the second fight is the fight that's probably the most famous fight because he bit a chunk of your ear off and I saw it when you were coming in here. Show everybody that. Well, did you ever think about getting that fixed? Well, no, you know, that's my identification. I got my ID. I can show him. Yeah, that is right. If you want to get into somewhere. Do you know who I am? Look at my hair. Yeah, that's crazy, man. That was one of the craziest moments when Mills Lane looked at you and you were jumping up in the air and looked at Tyson and realized, holy shit, he bit a chunk out of your fucking ear. Right. Like what? What were you thinking at that time? Bite him back. I'm serious. I was getting ready to bite the daylights out of him and I was going to bite him in the face. I would bite in the face. I went on wait for the year. I was going to get the fats up, you know, because, you know, when you're from the ghetto, they say, if you do something, you've got to do it worse than what they did. Right. And so, you know, and I told Mike and talk to her, I said, no, I said, no, I will pretend that like like I was hurting real bad. But I was going to trip you up and bite you ready in your face. Everybody knew what I was going to do. I said, but this prophet told us before the fight, he told me, he said, look, he's going to do something in your face area that you've got to stay focused. Because if you don't stay focused, that's the only way he's going to get you. So by him biting me on my ear when a man and I knew I would get rid of him back. And but my corner person started telling me, keep my mind on the Lord. And because the prophet told me, say, only way he can get you to get your mind, he going to do something to you. I thought he could hit me with an elbow, a hip, but anything like that. But I never, ever thought in my life he would bite me on the ear and bite a chunky ear. And it hurts so bad. People say, how bad did it hurt? I said, did you see how high I jumped? No, it was crazy. You just leaped up in the air. Yeah. It hurts so bad. And I said, Dan, I said, Dan, that guy, my corner guy, Tim Hallmark, kept telling me, keep my mind on the Lord. And I ain't want to hear that. You know, even though he was saying that and I was, man, I was still I was just trying to remember that get him. I want to bite him. I would I really wanted to bite him back. And and all of a sudden I hit my mind that. They always catch the second person. Right. I'm telling anything in life. And I'm the one that people always did something to them. They were always catch me. And I'm the only one to get get caught all the time because they always catch me trying to get to get back. So revenge is the Lord. So you don't go get back because you're going to get caught. Yeah. I was amazed that they didn't stop the fight immediately. But they came back in check and he asked me, you are right. And I said, yeah, I at least want to hit him. Right. I really want to hit him. I was really upset. But he tried to bite you twice. Right. Well, yeah, he bit me twice. He bit you twice. But it bit me when we went back in and he thought I was going to be scared. And he seemed I caught him with me two shots. And he bit me again. Man, I jumped back and I just get ready to kick him in a bowl. But in a bell rung and I went back to the corner. Boy, I was so dog on man. I was really going to get him and they stopped the fight. Yeah. And then I got mad because they stopped the fight. Because you were going to get him. I wanted to get him back. Well, it seemed like he thought that you were going to get him and he was trying to find a way out. Well, it's the only thing that made sense. Well, yeah. But the thing is, the only thing that I guess with me and what I stand on is that I was able to forgive him. And that's that has been the turnaround in my life to tend to make people people always wonder about the ear bite. And I said, but I forgive him. Everybody said, so what's special about that? I said, but everywhere I go around the world with the Muslim of whatever and people said, wow, this guy can forgive. How can you forgive when you are already beating the guy? Yeah, I said, but you know, but it's it's what it's what life have to be. If you're going to survive with even your brothers and sisters, because if you don't forgive nobody, you're going to be a mad person. You're going to find yourself locked up. Right. Right. And it's going to haunt you. Whereas if you forgive him, it took a weight off your shoulders. Yeah, I'm I'm Mike and I, we do a lot of things together because the forgiveness part. It's cool to see you two together now. I mean, when when I have seen things that you've done together, I'm like, wow, it's crazy, like after he bit you, those crazy fights and to see you together and laughing and joking around together, it's it's pretty interesting. Well, I mean, when you tell people, you know, when you don't choose your parents, you don't choose your neighborhood. You ain't choose your skin color. You ain't choose to be tall, to short. But, you know, this is your statue. And and two people, two people came from the ghetto who box and box was the only thing I did real well. OK, and football. And but the thing is that after all that, look at how much money we made doing something that we by doing it properly, we make money. Yeah, we make money and we can both, you know, raise our family in the way that we want to raise them. How long did it take after the fight before you forgave them? But I think after about about time I I got into the locker room and everybody started complaining. I can't believe he did this. This is this. I said, look, I said, did he bite you? They said, no, OK. I said, he bit me right. And I said, now I'm going to forgive him. You know what? Y'all got to forgive him, too. They said, what's it mean, forgiven? I think he didn't bite you. He bit me. I said, look, I'm going to forgive him. Wow. So you forgive him in the locker room right after the fight. Yes. Because the thing is, the thing is, I, you know, I was really mad coming, coming down and people throwing water and people mad and they upset because they didn't get a chance to see what they really wanted to see like this. And so they were mad and they were upset. And and I asked me, I figured who in control? God. So I said, Lord, what is this thing all about? He said, forgive me. And I said, who would I want to forgive? But this is what it is. We were the two very important people. Everybody come to see and they need to know that forgiveness is a big part of life. And so I was able to do that. So in the point of being able to do that, you know, I I realized that it made my life better all over the world. You got a minute. Kleenex. Yeah, sure. That's a very powerful thing, man. It really is. That's a very powerful decision. And, you know, it's a very powerful statement, you know, to for you to forgive him after that. I mean, that really that probably did a lot of good for a lot of people to realize, man, if a Vander Holyfield can forgive Mike Tyson after he bit a chunk of his ear off. I mean, that's a that's a strong statement of character right there. Well, you know, the thing is, I did now. A little earlier than that, they may not would have got that they would have got some. You bit his face. But but it's amazing how what time would do for you. Right. Right. At one point in time, I'm talking about something would have happened. Right. But because they gave me a little time to think about and gave me and and I was like, and you know, and you know, with me, when when things things don't go right, I go back to the prayers. Lord, what is this all about? Right. And he said forgiveness and, you know, and I wouldn't be who I am is it. When some forgiveness everybody don't feel short somewhere. Right. And like that. So, you know, the whole big thing is and and I talked to the week a week after that, I talked to my we were we we said all saw a basketball game in New York and. And I looked up and everybody was streaming. And I wonder what they were streaming about telling me to watch out. I'm like, watch out for who? I looked up or Mike and he had the big bad coat and he like this and so everybody telling me that it wanted me that Mike Mike there. He had a big bear skin coat. You know, you had a big fur coat, big fur coat and the stuff like that. And he wouldn't do nothing but shake hands. And wow. A week after. A week after. You know, I'm just so your ears probably still sore. No, no, I want even that. The thing is with my ear, my ears almost like a testimony. Right. And, you know, it's almost like you win a trophy yourself that a person looking and said, man, he became the guy. So I see that more people when they see me, they look at my ear. Then I see me and then they smile. And I can see not in anger. They smile and say, well, you know, he became that guy. Wow. So when you saw Mike, did you guys talk? Yeah. Yeah. A week after the fight. Yeah. What do you say to you? Matter of fact, his room was next door to mine. I didn't know. We came out. We come out at the same time. He looked, he looked, he asked me, is it all good? I said, yeah. So we get on the elevator. Whoa. And we come down with a door open. Everybody was shocked. So they were shocked. Wondering why we wasn't fighting. Right. And it was just you two in the elevator or other people as well? Yeah, that's just you two in the elevator. Yeah. And so at the shocking part, they said. Man, and we thought they would be fighting. And I told the guys, man, I said, you know how much money I got paid in that fight. How much money can you think we're going to fight for free? Was ever talk about a third fight? Wait, I have people mentioned it, you know, they they mentioned it. Right. And but, you know, the thing is, is that they want to give a lot of money and they asked me to try to. And my only thing is that I kind of feel like it's kind of a bully for you to ask somebody to fight, to fight you again when you know you're going to win again. Right. I'm so you know, so the whole big thing is, you know, I just didn't I didn't think that if Mike is Mike wanted to do it, I would have done it. But I wasn't going to go ask. I think I think you've been a bully when you know you're better than somebody and you want to you want to play them in something that you know you're going to beat them. Right. Right. It's a challenge. Somebody challenge you to think that I can come back and beat you. But, you know, just just, you know, you feel that you better. And so I think it'd be wrong for me to ask it. Right. No, that's that's amazing. I mean, but that just shows what kind of a person you are, like that shows what kind of character you have and that sort of defines your career, that you are the guy that did always seek the big challenges. Yeah. You know, when it is, you know, you know, the nickname of real deal, I would like and people ask me, how you get that name of real deal? I said, you know, I just I thank God for all the anything that great and come from God at all given time. You know, I'm you know, I had a mom who who had a sick education, but she raised me. She raised the four time heavyweight champion of the world. She stayed on me all the time. And my brothers and sisters said, Mom, you're going to make a sister of him. You don't let him go out. You're going to let him do nothing. My mom said, he's going to be all right. You just wait and see. And and when I think about it, she never did give in to what nobody said about about me and I became who I am. And I'm just so I'm just so thankful that in the Bible said all good things come from God, anything that is good for you. It came from God.