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One of the most famous sportsmen of the 90s is undoubtedly former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson.
However, on June 28, 1997, one of the most anticipated boxing matches of the decade between Tyson and Evander Holyfield at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas ended like a horror movie.
Dear friends and readers, the fight remains one of the most infamous and shocking in the history of boxing, having been abandoned after just three rounds after Tyson bit both of Holyfield’s ears, leading to Tyson’s disqualification and eventual suspension from the sport.
The world thought that incidents of “vampirism” in sports would never occur again.
But a few days after the 17th anniversary of the infamous Tyson and Holyfield fight, the world was shocked once more after Uruguay soccer player Luis Suarez added his name to the list of famous biting incidents in sports during a World Cup soccer match against Italy.
The Liverpool striker – who has twice before been suspended for biting incidents, appeared to bite Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini. In the player’s defense, in paragraph six of FIFA’s disciplinary committee ruling, seen by the Associated Press, Suarez claimed that after colliding with Chiellini, the impact led him to lose his balance, making his body unstable and he fell on top of his opponent.
“At that moment I hit my face against the player, leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth,” Suárez said.
DELIBERATE
However, the seven-man panel dismissed the argument. The bite was “deliberate, intentional and without provocation”, the ruling stated in paragraph No. 26 of the panel’s conclusions.
Suárez was banned for nine Uruguay matches and four months from all football. He was also fined enough cash to buy a flat in Nairobi.
Let me not bore you further over the incident but allow me to appeal to sportsmen to stop pulling dangerous stunts such as biting in soccer or any other game.
The beautiful game is about tactics, not punching (read Cameroon) and biting. Leave that to women. It simply isn’t the sort of thing a man does.
