The Return and Lewis

In January 1999, Tyson returned to the ring to fight the South African Francois Botha, in another fight that ended in controversy. While Botha initially controlled the fight, Tyson allegedly attempted to break Botha’s arms during a tie-up and both boxers were cautioned by the referee in the ill-tempered bout. Botha was ahead on points on all scorecards and was confident enough to mock Tyson as the fight continued. Nonetheless, Tyson landed a straight right-hand in the fifth round that knocked out Botha.

Legal problems caught up with Tyson once again. On February 5, 1999, Tyson was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment, fined $5,000, and ordered to serve two years probation and perform 200 hours of community service for assaulting two motorists after a traffic accident on August 31, 1998. He served nine months of that sentence. After his release, he fought Orlin Norris on October 23, 1999. Tyson knocked down Norris with a left hook thrown after the bell sounded to end the first round. Norris injured his knee from the off-the-clinch-punch when he went down and said he was unable to continue the fight. Consequently, the bout was ruled a no contest.

In 2000, Tyson had three fights. The first was staged at the MEN Arena, Manchester, England against Julius Francis. Following controversy as to whether Tyson should be allowed into the country, he took four minutes to knock out Francis, ending the bout in the second round. He also fought Lou Savarese in June 2000 in Glasgow, winning in the first round the fight lasted only 38 seconds. Tyson continued punching after the referee had stopped the fight, knocking the referee to the floor as he tried to separate the boxers. In October, Tyson fought the similarly controversial Andrzej Golota, winning in round three after Golota refused to continue after his jaw was broken. The result was later changed to no contest after Tyson refused to take a pre-fight drug test and then tested positive for marijuana in a post-fight urine test. Tyson fought only once in 2001, beating Brian Nielsen in Copenhagen with a seventh round TKO.

Tyson then decided to take on the Big Brit Lennox Lewis :

Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson was a boxing match that took place on June 8, 2002, at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee, between WBC, IBO and IBF heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and former WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. The fight was for Lewis’ Heavyweight championship titles. Lewis defeated Tyson by KO in the eighth round.

The referee for the fight was Eddie Cotton, making it his 20th World title bout. Alfred Buqwana of South Africa, Anek Hongtongkam of Thailand and Bob Logist of Belgium judged the contest, both the WBC and the Tennessee Athletic Commission wanted judges from different continents. Lewis weighed in at 249.25lb and Tyson at 234lb.

The fight was promoted by Main Events and was a pay-per-view shown as a joint collaboration between HBO and Showtime in the United States and on Sky Box Office in the United Kingdom. It was the highest-grossing event in pay-per-view history, generating US$106.9 million from 1.95 million buys in the USA, until it was surpassed by De La Hoya vs. Mayweather in 2007.

However, the ticket sales were slow because they were priced as high as US$2,400, but a crowd of 15,327 turned up to see the biggest sporting event ever in the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

The fight was originally scheduled for April 6, 2002 in Las Vegas. However, Las Vegas rejected the fight and several other states refused Tyson a license before Memphis finally bid US$12 million in order to host the fight.
In attendance were such stars as Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Clint Eastwood, Ben Affleck, Hugh Hefner, Halle Berry, Richard Gere, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Vince McMahon, The Undertaker, LL Cool J, Wesley Snipes, Kevin Bacon, Chris Webber and fellow heavyweight boxer Evander Holyfield.

On January 22, 2002, a brawl involving the two boxers and their entourages occurred at a press conference held in New York to publicise the bout.

Tyson went on stage at the Hudson Theatre and stared in the direction of where Lewis was to appear. As soon as Lewis appeared, Tyson quickly walked toward him and appeared to be about to assault Lewis. One of Lewis’ bodyguards attempted to block Tyson’s access to Lewis before Tyson threw a left hook in the bodyguard’s direction.

The two boxers rolled on the floor with personnel from both camps getting involved.

During the melee WBC president José Sulaimán claimed to be knocked out when he hit his head on the table. He later filed a US$56 million lawsuit against Lewis and Tyson for injuries caused in the scuffle. Sulaiman claims he was spat on and Tyson threatened to kill him, when he got up after being knocked out.

Tyson later admitted to biting Lewis’ leg and had to pay him US$335,000.

Following the brawl Tyson came to the edge of the podium, and issued a several minute-long profanity-laden tirade towards freelance journalist Mark Malinowski, who suggested that Tyson should be put in a straitjacket. Tyson punctuated his oration by vowing to introduce Malinowski to the concept of prison romance.

The brawl at the press conference for this fight was named The Ring magazine Event of the Year for 2002.

Tyson and Lewis came out jabbing away. Lewis managed to land two right uppercuts before Tyson missed with a wild left hook. With just under a minute left in the first round, Tyson landed a great left hook. Lewis then holds Tyson pushing him into the ropes and lands another jab.

During the second round, Cotton warns Lewis twice, firstly for throwing an elbow at Tyson and then for holding. Lewis landed a number of punches on Tyson, including three powerful uppercuts.

As the third round opens Tyson headbutted Lewis, however, Lewis manages to cut Tyson on his right eye later in the round.
Again Tyson rushes out in the fourth round and Lewis lands two jabs before landing a big right. With 10 seconds left in the round Lewis lands a couple of punches on Tyson who goes down. Referee, Cotton rules it a slip and deducts a point from Lewis for pushing Tyson down. Tyson’s face has started to swell.

Cotton stopped the fight and talks to Lewis again in the fifth round about pushing. Tyson struggled to land a punch on the champion.

Tyson had cuts above both eyes, and late in the seventh round Lewis puts Tyson off balance landing a heavy right hook. Lewis dominated the round, landing 31 punches compared to Tyson’s four.

In the eighth and final round, Tyson is knocked down after a heavy right hook from Lewis. Tyson lies on his back on the canvas, he is counted out by the referee as he tries to get up.

A month later, Lewis vacated the IBF title deciding not to fight Chris Byrd, who was the mandatory challenger and shortly after vacated the WBA title to avoid fighting mandatory challenger John Ruiz.

The fight was named Ring Magazine Knockout of the Year for 2002.

On February 22, 2003, Tyson beat fringe contender Clifford Etienne 49 seconds into round one, once again in Memphis. The pre-fight was marred by rumors of Tyson’s lack of fitness and that he took time out from training to party in Las Vegas and get a new facial tattoo. This would be Tyson’s final professional victory in the ring.

In August 2003, after years of financial struggles, Tyson finally filed for bankruptcy. In 2003, amid all his economic troubles, he was named by Ring Magazine at number 16, right behind Sonny Liston, among the 100 greatest punchers of all time.

On August 13, 2003, Tyson entered the ring for a face to face confrontation against then K-1 fighting phenom Bob Sapp immediately after Sapp’s win against Kimo Leopoldo in Las Vegas. K-1 signed Tyson to a contract with the hopes of making a fight happen between the two, but Tyson’s status as a convicted felon made him unable to obtain a visa to enter Japan, where the fight would have been most profitable. Alternate locations were discussed, but the fight never came to fruition. It is unknown if he actually profited from this arrangement.

On July 30, 2004, Tyson faced the British boxer Danny Williams in another comeback fight, this time staged in Louisville, Kentucky. Tyson dominated the opening two rounds. The third round was even, with Williams getting in some clean blows and also a few illegal ones, for which he was penalized. In the fourth round, Tyson was unexpectedly knocked out. After the fight, it was revealed that Tyson was trying to fight on one leg, having torn a ligament in his other knee in the first round. This was Tyson’s fifth career defeat. He underwent surgery for the ligament four days after the fight. His manager, Shelly Finkel, claimed that Tyson was unable to throw meaningful right-hand punches after the knee injury.

On June 11, 2005, Tyson stunned the boxing world by quitting before the start of the seventh round in a close bout against journeyman Kevin McBride. After losing the third of his last four fights, Tyson said he would quit boxing because he no longer had “the fighting guts or the heart anymore.”