Moroccan Boxer Tries To Bite Opponent’s Ear At Tokyo Olympics

Moroccan boxer Youness Baalla had bit of a Mike Tyson moment at the Tokyo Olympics, having been seen biting his opponent's ear earlier today.

Baalla, 22, was up against New Zealand's David Nyika, a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist - who had won the first two rounds.

During the hold in the third round of their heavyweight clash, Baalla opted for an unexpected tactic by suddenly biting Nyika's ear.

BBC

Thankfully, Nyika was able to wriggle free before too much harm was done - and went on to win 5-0 to land a place in the quarter finals, when he will take on Uladzislau Smiahlikau of Belarus.

Despite coming out of the incident relatively unscathed, thanks to Baalla's mouth guard, Nyika understandably wasn't too happy.

After the fight, he seemed frustrated that the referee missed what happened, saying: "Did you see that? I don't think the ref saw it. She was the closest one.

"He didn't get a full mouthful. Luckily he had his mouthguard in and I was a bit sweaty. I don't remember what I said to him but I gave him a little bit of a cheek.

"I have been bitten once on the chest before at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

"But come on man, this is the Olympics!"

Viewers watching from home couldn't believe what they'd seen, with one dubbing Baalla a 'Mike Tyson wannabe'.

"Could he not have eaten beforehand?" they added.

Someone else tweeted: "This guy really tried to pull a Mike Tyson..."

A third wrote: "What a disgrace."

PA

The moment served as a bit of a throwback to Tyson's infamous 1997 fight, in which he took a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear.

Speaking to Fox News last year, Tyson reflected on the incident - revealing that he bit Holyfield's ear because he had 'wanted to kill him' in the heat of the moment.

Tyson said: "I bit him because I wanted to kill him. I was really mad about my head being bumped and everything.

"I really lost consciousness of the whole fight. It took me out of my fight plan and everything."

When asked if he'd ever do it again, Tyson replied: "I hope not.

"I say, 'No, never ever again'. But I might do it again.

"Well if he does what he was doing to get bitten, I would bite him again. Yeah."

Topics: SPORT, olympics, News, Tokyo Olympics, Boxing

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman