Fought in Hampden Park and won just 38 seconds, knocking the referee to the ground before requiring police protection to leave
The most bizarre conclusion to any of Mike Tyson's entertaining fights occurred when he visited Glasgow in 2000, knocked out Lou Savarese, and floored the referee, all in the span of one chaotic minute. Mike Tyson has had some bizarre fights in an eventful career, from biting Evander Holyfield's ear to trying to snap Frans Botha's arm.
After the fight's first round stoppage, Tyson attempted to land vicious haymakers, knocked down UK official John Coyle, managed to avoid being disqualified, and said in an unforgettable post-fight interview that he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis' children. He was then given a police escort straight to the airport to get him out of Scotland.
In January 2000, Tyson fought for the first time in Britain, and the match was a financial success. When he arrived in Brixton, he was greeted like a hero, and in Manchester, he defeated Julius Francis in two rounds. However, Tyson's attitude had changed by the time promoter Frank Warren invited him to Hampden Park in the summer. Warren subsequently remembered, "I realized this was a different beast I was dealing with as soon as he landed."
Tyson had been greatly impacted by the murder of his friend and former security, Darryl Baum. Additionally, there were unconfirmed rumors of Warren and him physically fighting over a $2.5 million jewelry bill during his first trip to the UK. When a grimacing Tyson entered the ring in the rain on fight night, Warren had a noticeably bloodshot eye.
Savarese was a capable opponent who had battled a seasoned George Foreman over the course of 12 rounds. While dodging under a pawing jab and jumping up to score a left hook high on the temple that sent Savarese reeling, 33-year-old Tyson displayed some of his classic talent to knock the Italian-American to the ground with his very first strike.
Tyson went on him like a shark craving blood when he bravely stood up, and his barrage of hooks and uppercuts forced referee Coyle to rush between them to stop the fight. Unsettlingly, the violence continued after this. Tyson continued to throw punches and attempted to maneuver around the referee. He then launched a left hook that missed Savarese and caught Coyle, temporarily knocking him to the ground.
Iron-jaw However, after just 38 seconds, John leaped to his feet and successfully put a stop to the struggle. The 22nd first-round knockout of Tyson's career was his second-fastest KO, although his cornermen first appeared concerned that he was about to be disqualified when Coyle finally raised a growling Tyson's hand.
"I was going to cut out his heart. The finest ever is me. I'm the most violent, vicious, and cunning champion that has ever existed. Nobody can stop me; I am unstoppable. Is Lennox a victor? I'm Alexander [the Great], not you. My defense is unbreakable, my style is impulsive, and I'm just vicious. I desire your affection. I want to devour his kids. Allah is to be praised.
Lord knows what Lewis, who was then childless, thought of that, but at least he had a concrete chin. Coyle carefully downplayed the uproar around the conclusion. He laughed, "Mike said he didn't hear me, but he plainly couldn't see me either. I yelled halt and dove in.
Although he had stopped the fight prior to Tyson's post-fight strikes, the referee acknowledged that disqualifying Tyson had never crossed his mind. The fight was ended the moment he cried "stop boxing" and dove in, he said.
Barry McGuigan, a prominent sports pundit for Sky Sports, was having none of it and insisted Tyson ought to have lost. McGuigan raged, saying, "He might have - and should have - been dismissed here. "He smashed the referee with his arm and struck him in the head. It was shameful that [Coyle] spent five seconds attempting to separate them. He's out of control outside the ring, and it appears that he is also out of control within the ring.
Jim Watt, a fellow former world champion with McGuigan, always spoke sense, saying, "That man is not a sportsman, he is a demon."
Jim, keep going. Although he acknowledged taking cocaine and marijuana at the time, Tyson's own perspective in his book, Undisputed Truth, was more positive about his trip to Scotland.
"The response for me was enormous," he alleged, referring to the Glasgow bout. Before the bout, I smoked some marijuana while practicing my blows. The blow was OK since it immediately leaves your system, but for the marijuana, which stays in your system, I had to use my whizzer, a fake penis that you fill with someone else's pure pee to pass a drug test. The day before the battle, I was on a high. I hailed the audience from the top of a Mercedes-Benz after being suited up in a kilt.
Warren passionately disputes the tale of the artificial penis, calling it "trash" that Tyson fabricated for his book. But it's obvious that Tyson was in a volatile mood at Hampden 22 years ago, regardless of whether his friend's passing or any other factors played a role. It makes sense that he was reportedly driven straight to the airport before his flight back to the USA.
It was Tyson's final fight in Britain when he defeated Savarese via KO1 and added a knockout of Coyle. In October, he stopped Andrew Golota (who was subsequently declared a no contest because Tyson tested positive for drugs), and he finally faced Lewis in 2002, losing by eighth-round KO. However, given that the Glasgow bout was only supposed to run for less than 40 seconds, "Iron Mike" actually packed a year's worth of destruction into his brief but insane stay in Scotland.
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