Mike Tyson biting his gloves vs. Jake Paul explained

On November 16, 2024By Littum

In an unsurprising twist, 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 tell 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 close to Paul.

Keen viewers also noticed other patterns, most notably Tyson’s tendency to bite his glove during the fight. While peculiar, this is nothing new for Tyson. Here is a quick explanation.

Mike Tyson has bitten his gloves before

While close-ups of Mike Tyson in his prime are hard to come by, we can go back to his exhibition fight against Roy Jones Jr. in November 2020 to get some evidence.

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

Why does Tyson bite his gloves?

While this could be a maneuver Tyson is doing to keep his mouthguard tight, Mike Tyson’s response to Ariel Helwani’s post-fight question is a much funnier answer.

This is of course in reference to when Tyson infamously bit Evander Holyfield’s ear during their second fight in 1997. Everyone laughed; Holyfield probably shrank.

As crazy as it sounds, Tyson’s joke response 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, fighters sometimes get caught up in the moment and don’t think straight. They act without realizing what they are doing, so maybe Tyson’s tendency to bite his glove was just a tick that he does regularly.