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Holyfield thought about biting back
NEW YORK (AP) -- David Letterman cocked his head ever so slightly, his right ear tantalizingly tilted toward his guest."Go ahead," said the host of CBS's Late Show. "Take a bite."
Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, experienced at this business of ear-chewing, moved toward Letterman for a moment, mouth open, teeth poised. Then, thankfully for all concerned, he pulled back.
"Were you thinking about it?" Letterman wondered.
Holyfield, an honest man, grinned broadly.
"Yes," he said, "I was."
It was not the first time, either.
Holyfield, appearing with Letterman on Thursday night, told about biting an opponent on the shoulder in Golden Gloves competition 17 years ago and admitted that when Mike Tyson took a chunk out of his right ear in last Saturday night's heavyweight championship fight, he thought about immediate revenge.
"The first thing that ran across my mind," Holyfield said, "was to bite him back."
The only thing that prevented instant retaliation was the pain that left Holyfield jumping around the ring, clutching the side of his head. "It allowed me to think about how to get my composure," he said.
Holyfield said he thought a loss of composure was what Tyson's attack was all about.
"What happened opened people's eyes about how much pressure can happen when things are not going your way," he said. "Anytime you're accustomed to winning and it comes a point where you meet your match, something like that can happen."
Holyfield said he would fight again, probably in November.
"It's like a day at the office," he said. "I've done it for 26 years. I love what I do. The majority of the time, I'm better than the other guy."
Especially if the other guy is just using his fists and not his teeth.
Letterman wondered if biting was all that unusual or just another part of the sport, perhaps boxing's equivalent to baseball's brushback pitch or the phantom double play.
"They usually hit you low or behind the head," Holyfield said, "But not biting. To do that, that's one of the lowest things you can do. That was the reason I jumped up and down and almost had a fit."
Holyfield said boxers need a good temperament to succeed. "That's the only thing that keeps you from losing," he said. "To lose it like that, that's not normal."
Neither, of course, was having a paraglider land in the ring, which also happened to Holyfield during a Las Vegas match with Riddick Bowe. That was different, the champion said, because it merely interrupted the fight but did not leave him with part of his ear on the canvas.
Holyfield said the first bite on his right ear, the one that ripped part of the ear off, was more painful than the second nip on his left ear.
"It's better," he said. "I got four or five stitches. The most important thing is I can hear."
And what became of the piece of ear? Holyfield said it was retrieved, then somehow lost on his trip to the hospital.
Letterman considered that development for a moment, thinking perhaps of the top 10 places it might have wound up.
"It would be a lovely addition to a charm bracelet," he said. "It might be floating in somebody's drink."