CAPE TOWN – Evander Holyfield has revealed the secret to beating former undisputed world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
Holyfield beat Tyson twice in the late 90s, and their second fight included the infamous ear-bite that saw Tyson disqualified.
Now, with both fighters having announced their comebacks, and with speculation heating up that they could face off for a third time, Holyfield has claimed he figured out the secret of beating “the baddest man alive”.
“I always liked to come forward, everyone thought I was gonna run from Mike. I wanted him to know I wasn’t going anywhere, that was the whole big thing,” Holyfield said in an interview with the BBC.
“I felt that I had quicker hands than Mike, I felt I had the reach. I got to hit him a coupld of times, when you start hitting people that start changing.
“Mike even said himself, ‘everyone’s got a plan until they get hit.’ I’m one of those fighters that got hit a lot of times by some good shots, but I can take it. The point of the matter was Mike didn’t get hit a lot because people were kinda timid with Mike.
“With me, I wasn’t timid. I realised he was going to hit me but I had the right to hit him back. The art of the game was to let him know that he chose the wrong person this time, because if he’s gonna get me he’s gonna have to out-work me,” said Holyfield.
“The thing is I had already made up my mind that I would get the last punch so when he goes back to the corner I wanted him to think about hard I hit him. I didn’t want to go back thinking about how hard he hit me.
“I knew that was part of the game plan, you’ve got to push him, you’ve got to beat him to the punch.
“Mike liked hitting people to the body but Mike didn’t like getting hit to the body. I know that, things that people tend to do to their opponent then don’t like that for it to happen to them. When I saw I hit Mike to the body, I knew it would slow him down.”