piece of Holyfield's right ear, spitting it on the canvas, and getting disqualified after trying for a second helping on the other ear, his place in history will certainly be on the pages with the villains and cowards."

Sports Illustrated's Richard Hoffer may have been even more harsh: "Watching him bite Evander Holyfield's ears, actually chewing off and spitting out a piece, as he did in their rematch, was to be plunged farther back in our evolution than is comfortable for anybody. It will be a long time before boxing recovers from this horror. Tyson, who had been knocked out by Holyfield last November, was desperate to restore his mystique. The circus wasn't much good without his threat of brutality."

The New York Times' Tom Friend said it simply: "MikeTyson could not beat him, so he bit him."

The Las Vegas Sun's Steve Carp compared the event to a professional wrestling match, instead of a prizefight, writing "controversy took a back seat to the absurd."

The Philadelphia Inquirer's sports section the next morning included one of a slew of pun headlines, with "Bite of the Century."