Teddy Atlas knew it all along.
More than 24 hours before Mike Tyson disgraced himself by twice biting Evander Holyfield in the ear and being disqualified after the third round of their World Boxing Association heavyweight championship fight, Tyson's first trainer called a friend at a hotel in Las Vegas to tell him what would happen Saturday night."He's going to get himself disqualified," Atlas said Friday afternoon. "He'll bite Holyfield. He'll butt him. He'll hit him low. He'll do something if he don't get him early with a lucky shot.
"I know this guy. He's got this all set up in his mind. The way out. That's the only way he can face it. That's what this is all about."
When Atlas first heard the Tyson camp was protesting at the last moment the presence of referee Mitch Halpern and demanding a change, he knew in his heart and from long years living in the same house with Tyson when both were young acolytes of the late trainer Cus D'Amato what was going through the tormented mind of the former champion.
Tyson was afraid, and he could not face that fear without the presence of an out. So, when the third round came in a fight Tyson was losing, he went berserk and bit off a 1-inch chunk of Holyfield's right ear only to come back 23 seconds later when the champion next hit him in the face and bite the left ear, forcing referee Mills Lane to end the fight.
When Lane acted, a melee broke out with men from both camps charging each other and Tyson swinging wildly at several police officers but hitting none of them. While this was going on, Atlas was reaching for a phone to call his friend back.
"I called this one right," Atlas said. "Not that I'm no freakin' genius, but I know human nature. I know fighters. I know this particular guy. I know weakness. 'Cause I gotta know that if I'm gonna be in this business. I gotta know the truth from the lies and the (expletive).
"I called this. I got you earlier yesterday and you could have had the page that I said he'd lose by disqualification. I was that sure. I know exactly what happened and I just want it to be called that way.
"I know the nature of this guy. His whole life has been a farce. His whole life has been an edge. His whole life has been having people protect him, having a way out of facing the real thing. When he didn't have that, he found a way to get out and his way of getting out, the reason he faced this fight, was he knew that he was going to do this.
"I told you he might bite him, he might head-butt him, he might elbow him. He knew this. That's why he went forward with this fight. Soon as he saw Holyfield was going to be the same guy and he wasn't going to be lucky with a punch . . . which he tried . . . then he went in and did this, which he planned to do, to get out.
"But, like everything in his life, it will be misread. They'll say he's a savage. They'll say it was retaliating for something Holyfield did. They'll say he's an animal. And he'll be able to live with that. Once again, just like Cus set up all kind of things for him, he'll be able to hide from the truth.
"He'll be able to say yeah he's an animal. He doesn't mind that in his world. That's winning. That's glorification. That really is prestige in his world. It really is. And that's what he planned to do.
"He's a piece of garbage, but more important he's a coward. He's a weak person. He did what weak people do. He found a way out he could live with in his world. He went in there only because he knew this was an option."
The need for that option became clear to Tyson early. His handlers had asked at the rules meeting that the three-knockdown rule be waived, which was certainly not for Holyfield's benefit. The reason why became clearer when Holyfield rocked Tyson with a left hand-right uppercut combination that wobbled his legs late in Round 1 and after it landed, Sugar Ray Leonard said at ringside, "Tyson's in trouble all ready. He has no plan."
He was in further trouble after losing the second round, and when the third round began he suddenly appeared without his mouthpiece when the bell rang.
Lane sent him back to his corner and when Tyson came back with his mouthpiece in he attacked Holyfield with a fury. He landed his most solid punches of their two fights, but when he was spent the champion was still standing, staring at him, punching back. It was then that Tyson knew it was time to act, Atlas believes.
In the next clinch, Tyson tore off a portion of Holyfield's ear like a rabid dog. The fact is, though, that a dog bites when he's afraid, not when he's brave.
Continued Atlas: "When he was 12 years old he was mugging old ladies, saying he'd help them with their groceries and then getting them in an elevator and knocking their teeth out and stealing their money. People forgot about that. That's who he is. He's not Godzilla, like people think."
Reality bites. Under pressure, so do guys like Mike Tyson.