Why was Mike Tyson biting his gloves?

In an unsurprising turn of events, 27-year-old Jake Paul defeated 58-year-old Mike Tyson in the highly-anticipated Netflix fight. Paul won by unanimous decision, landing more than twice as many punches on Tyson than Tyson landed on him. Anyone watching could notice that Tyson was past his prime. He was slow to get up from his corner, stagnant in the center of the ring, and unable to get in close on Paul.

Keen-eyed viewers noticed other patterns as well, most notably Tyson’s tendency to bite his glove during the fight. While peculiar, this isn’t anything new for Tyson. Here’s a quick explanation.

Mike Tyson has bitten his gloves before

While close-up footage of Mike Tyson during his heyday is hard to come by, we can go back to his exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr. in November 2020 for some evidence.

Just as he did against Paul, Tyson can be seen in the video biting his left-hand glove.

Why does Tyson bite his gloves?

While this could be a maneuver Tyson does to keep his mouthguard tight, Mike Tyson’s answer to Ariel Helwani’s question after the match is a much more fun answer.

Of course, this is in reference to when Tyson infamously bit Evander Holyfield’s ear during their second bout in 1997. Everyone laughed; Holyfield probably cringed.

As crazy as it sounds though, Tyson’s joke answer might hold more water than we think. Tyson might just have a tendency to put soft, fleshy, ear-like substances in his mouth and bite down. As he said after the fight, sometimes fighters get caught up in the moment and aren’t thinking straight. They act without realizing what they are doing, so perhaps Tyson’s tendency to bite his glove was merely a tick that he does regularly.