Everyone watching the Netflix mega-event between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul kept asking the same thing. Why on earth was Mike Tyson biting his glove every five seconds? It looked weird. It looked like a nervous tic. Some people on social media even joked that he was hungry for more than just a win, referencing the infamous Holyfield "Ear Bite" from 1997. But if you actually know boxing—or if you’ve followed Mike’s career for forty years—you know there was a lot more going on in that ring than just a weird habit.
He’s Iron Mike. He’s sixty. He hasn't fought a sanctioned pro bout since 2005.
The sight of the former heavyweight champion of the world gnawing on his leather thumb left fans confused. Commentary mentioned it. The referee noticed it. But for Mike, it was a practical solution to a very physical problem.
The Reality of Why Mike Was Biting His Glove
When asked about it after the fight, Tyson gave a classic, blunt Mike Tyson answer. He told Mauro Ranallo, "I have a habit of biting my gloves when I fight. I have a biting fixation." While that sounds like a typical Tyson soundbite—leaning into his "Baddest Man on the Planet" persona—it’s actually rooted in the mechanics of boxing.
Most boxers use their mouthguard as a primary point of stability. If your mouthguard isn't seated perfectly, or if your jaw is starting to fatigue, you naturally look for ways to reset. By biting down on the thumb of the glove, Mike was likely doing a few things at once. First, it’s a way to keep the mouthpiece jammed up against the top teeth. If that guard slips even a millimeter, a punch to the chin can result in a shattered jaw or a severely bitten tongue.
Mike has always fought with a high-peek-a-boo guard. His hands stay close to his face. When your hands are already there, catching the thumb with your teeth to reposition your jaw is just... efficient. It’s muscle memory.
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A Lifetime of Ring Habits
It’s not just about the mouthpiece, though. Let’s talk about the psychological side of being Mike Tyson.
Watching the tape of the Tyson vs. Paul fight, you can see the intensity in his eyes, even if the legs weren't moving the way they did in 1986. Biting the glove is a "grounding" mechanism. In sports psychology, athletes often have "triggers" or "stims" that bring them back to the present moment. For a man who has spent more time in a boxing ring than almost any living human, that specific sensation of leather on his teeth is a comfort. It's a signal to his brain that it's time to work.
He's done it before. It just wasn't as noticeable when he was finishing fights in ninety seconds.
Honestly, when you’re sixty years old and you’re standing in front of a guy thirty years younger who is trying to take your head off, you do whatever you need to do to stay focused. For Mike, that meant biting down. It was a physical manifestation of his restlessness.
The Equipment Factor
Modern gloves are different from the ones Mike wore in the eighties. The padding is distributed differently, and the thumb attachment—designed to prevent eye pokes—is often stiffer.
If Tyson felt his glove was slipping or if the laces/velcro under the tape felt loose, biting the thumb and pulling upward is a common "old school" way to tighten the fit without stopping the action. You'll see veteran fighters do this during clinches. They use their teeth as a third hand. Since the referee was staying fairly hands-off for large portions of the Paul fight, Mike had to manage his own equipment.
Also, consider the physical toll.
Tyson was wearing a knee brace. He was dealing with significant mobility issues. When the body starts to fail or tire, the mind latches onto small, repetitive motions to manage the pain or the exhaustion. The biting became a rhythm.
- Step 1: Throw a jab.
- Step 2: Reset the high guard.
- Step 3: Bite the glove to center the jaw.
- Step 4: Repeat.
Addressing the Holyfield Comparisons
People immediately jumped to the 1997 "Bite Fight." It’s the easiest joke to make.
"Oh, Mike’s hungry for ears again!"
But this wasn't frustration. When he bit Evander Holyfield, it was a reaction to constant headbutts and a perceived lack of control by the referee. It was an explosion of rage. What we saw against Jake Paul was the opposite. It was a controlled, almost sedative habit. It didn't involve anyone else. It was Mike vs. Mike.
He wasn't trying to hurt Paul with his teeth; he was trying to keep his own head in the game.
The commentators, including Roy Jones Jr., noted that Mike looked "regimented." That’s the perfect word for it. The glove biting was part of that regimented, internal process of a legend trying to coax one last performance out of a body that had long since retired.
The Scientific Angle: Oral Fixation and Stress
Psychologists often point to "stimming" in high-stress environments. Boxing is the highest stress environment imaginable.
Some experts suggest that oral fixations are linked to sensory processing. By biting the glove, Tyson was providing his nervous system with sensory input that helped him regulate the massive adrenaline spikes occurring in the ring. It’s not much different from a baseball player chewing seeds or a quarterback constantly adjusting his towel.
The only difference is that Mike’s habit involves a twelve-ounce glove and a history of actually biting people, which makes it way more "on brand" and infinitely more meme-able.
What This Tells Us About the Fight
If you look closely at the rounds where Mike was biting the glove the most, it was usually when he was being out-volumed.
Jake Paul was using his youth to stay on the outside, peppering Mike with jabs. Mike was stuck in a defensive shell. When you’re in a shell, your hands are right there at your mouth. The biting was a sign of a fighter who was perpetually "loading up" but couldn't find the opening to let the hands go. It was a visual representation of his frustration with his own physical limitations.
He wanted to explode. His teeth were engaged, his jaw was set, but the legs just wouldn't provide the spring.
The Aftermath of the Habit
Did it affect the scoring? No. Did it violate any rules? Not really, as long as he wasn't using the glove to rub the laces across Paul's face (a veteran move, but not what Mike was doing).
What it did do was provide the defining image of the fight. It wasn't a knockout. It wasn't a knockdown. It was the image of an aging lion, standing in the center of the ring, gnawing on his own armor, refusing to go down but unable to truly attack.
The "Biting Fixation" as he called it, is just part of the Mike Tyson enigma. It’s a mix of old-school boxing mechanics, personal habit, and a psychological anchor that has probably been there since he was a kid in Catskill training under Cus D'Amato. We just noticed it more because the pace of the fight was slow enough for us to see the small details.
How to Analyze Boxing Habits Like a Pro
If you're watching a fight and see a boxer doing something repetitive with their gear, don't just assume it's a "tell" or a weakness. Look for these specific things to understand the mechanics:
- Check the Mouthpiece: If a fighter is constantly adjusting their jaw, the mouthpiece might be ill-fitted or they might be struggling for breath. Biting down helps open the airway through the nose.
- Watch the Guard: Fighters who use a "Long Guard" rarely bite their gloves because their hands are too far away. High-guard fighters like Mike do it because the "tool" is right there.
- Identify the Trigger: Does the habit happen after they get hit, or when they are moving forward? For Mike, it was a reset trigger after an exchange.
Next time you watch a veteran fighter, look for the small "quirks." They aren't accidents. Every movement in a professional ring—even biting a glove—is usually a survival mechanism honed over thousands of hours of sparring. Mike Tyson didn't need to explain himself, but his explanation gave us a rare peek into the mind of a man who is still, at sixty, a total prisoner to the habits of the ring.
To understand the technical side of this better, you can look into the construction of professional boxing gloves and how the "thumb-tie" affects a fighter's ability to grip. Most fans don't realize that a boxer's hand isn't in a natural fist inside the glove; they have to constantly work to keep that fist clenched. Biting the thumb provides a momentary rest for the hand muscles by allowing the teeth to hold the weight of the glove's upper structure. It's a tiny physical break in a sport where every second of muscle tension counts.
If you're curious about the gear Mike used, look up the specs of the 14-ounce gloves used in the Paul fight compared to standard 10-ounce pro gloves. The extra padding makes the "bite reset" even more common because the glove is bulkier and harder to manage as the rounds go on. Mike was simply managing the tools he had left.