The 2002 match between the two great heavyweights Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson seemed to be the most lucrative boxing match of all time. But it became a farce, because of the scandals that happened before the showdown.

In the documentary about “The Lion King” Lewis titled “Lennox: The Untold Story”, the British boxing legend’s close friend, Courtney Shand, shed light on the tension that led to the infamous brawl. This.

“There was tension when we got to New York. The night before the press conference, Lennox said: ‘If Mike walks up to me, forget about the bonus, I won’t back down from him. Never,'” Shand recounted.

At the press conference, when Mike Tyson took off his hat, threw it on the ground and started walking towards Lewis, he almost immediately received 3 powerful punches and 1 bite. When a bodyguard of Lewis tried to stop Mike Tyson, he immediately threw a punch at this guy, leading to a fight on stage.

As a result, Tyson had to pay nearly $350,000 in compensation for biting Lewis’ leg. Recently, the British legend revealed to Revolt TV: “I didn’t go to that press conference to fight. I don’t want that to happen. I honestly don’t believe it happened like that. Why did Mike attack me? It was a terrible move. We will make millions of dollars so why do it? At that time, I could not accept Mike biting my leg.”

Initially, Las Vegas was the venue for the match. However, this plan was forced to be canceled because the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to re-issue Mike’s boxing license. For that reason, the managers were forced to find another location. In the end, the city of Memphis (USA) was chosen and the event only had to be postponed for 2 months.

Before the bell rang to signal the start of the match, both sides showed such hatred that the security team had to set up a fence to prevent them from getting close to each other.

At that time, Mike was in quite good form, having not suffered any defeat since being disqualified for biting Holyfield’s ear. However, Lewis at his peak was too difficult a challenge for Mike. The champion absolutely dominated most of the time before defeating “Iron Fist” in round 8.

A year later, Lewis went on to defeat Vitaly Klitschko, before he retired as champion. Meanwhile, Mike also had a victory over Clifford Etienne in 2003. However, two losses to Brit Danny Williams and Kevin McBride made “Iron Fist” decide to hang up his gloves in 2005.