11 - 9 Sports History Holyfield - Tyson 1 - a podcast by Mike Damergis

The matchup that everyone wanted to see, even if most fight fans suspected they knew what the outcome would be, was scheduled to take place on Nov. 8, 1991. It spoke well of the oddsmakers’ high regard for Holyfield that he was only a 2-1 opening-line underdog, but the wagering gap figured to widen as deep-pocketed backers of Tyson – who had followed the loss to Douglas with first-round stoppages of Henry Tillman and Alex Stewart and two wins over Donovan “Razor” Ruddock, one inside the distance — bet the house on someone they had always regarded, until Douglas, as a sure thing.

But the fight never took place, not on the originally scheduled date. It would remain on hold for five long years. Tyson sustained an injury to his ribcage in training on Oct. 7, forcing a postponement until sometime in January 1992, but whatever new date might have been selected also evaporated like morning dew when Tyson was convicted of raping a teenaged beauty pageant contestant in Indianapolis and was sentenced to a six-year prison term, of which he served three years.

Following his parole, Tyson scraped off as much accumulated ring rust as he could, revealing snippets of his devastating best in blowout victories over Peter McNeeley, Buster Mathis Jr., Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon. The one-round romp past Seldon gained Tyson the WBA title, which he would attempt to defend in the Nov. 9, 1996, pairing with Holyfield at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first Tyson-Holyfield clash, which demonstrated, as did Tyson-Douglas, that those who fail to factor variables into the equation are apt to be reminded that apparent surprises sometimes are not all that surprising. The 30-year-old Tyson who entered the ring that night surely was not all that he once had been, but he nonetheless was a huge 25-1 opening-line choice over Holyfield, 34, just 6-3 in the interim since he was first slated to swap punches with Tyson. Holyfield had appeared sluggish and badly faded in his most recent bout, a fifth-round stoppage of Bobby Czyz on May 10, 1996, in Madison Square Garden.

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