Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Caleb Plant came to blows this week ahead of their super-middleweight showdown.
The Mexican pound-for-pound king shoved his American rival, who promptly threw a punch – only for Canelo to dodge it and throw a left which drew blood.
It was a feisty start to the build-up to their November fight in Las Vegas.
But it certainly had nothing on the infamous press conference brawl between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.
Having waited years to meet, Lewis vs Tyson was set to be boxing’s richest fight as the heavyweight showdown headed for the fight capital of the world.
Ahead of the scheduled Las Vegas bout in April 2002, a meeting in New York was arranged in January where the two would come face-to-face.
Chaos duly ensued as punches were thrown and Tyson bit Lewis’ leg.
“There was tension when we got to New York,” Courtney Shand, Lewis’ long time friend explained in the documentary ‘Lennox: The Untold Story’.
“The night before the press conference, he said ‘If Mike makes a move for me, forget all the money – I’m not backing down from him, I’m not backing up from him.'”
In many ways, it was good vs evil, with Tyson – the former undisputed champion – painted as the villain, which was a role he had become used to.
It all started when Lewis walked onto his small podium on stage. It was expected both men would trade insults for the cameras – standard stuff. But no.
“All of a sudden I saw him take his hat off, throw it on the ground and start marching towards me,” Lewis recalled of the moment he realised the fight was happening sooner than scheduled.
Lewis then threw a right hand at Tyson, who bit his rival’s leg, which surprised nobody given his previous.
“Boom. I was on it – the first three punches were mine and the first bite was his,” Lewis added.
The fight had been years in the making, stretching back to their sparring sessions as kids where the future champions had to be separated by Tyson’s legendary trainer, Cus D’Amato.
Shock defeats and prison time simply delayed the inevitable.
Fast forward to January 2002 as they finally arranged a showdown – and Tyson seemed to just lose the plot.
After the brawl at the press conference, he directed foul mouthed insults at the crowd, which included racist and sexual threats and seemed to aim them at one particular journalist who shouted ‘put him in a straightjacket’.
That very nearly put paid to the fight going ahead, with promoters forced to find an alternative to Vegas for the scheduled April bout as the Nevada State Athletic Commission decided not to re-license Tyson.
Tyson was also forced to agree to pay Lewis $335,000 for biting his leg.
Memphis eventually played host – in June 2002 – and before the fighters entered the ring, a dozen yellow-shirted security guards formed a barrier from corner to corner to keep them apart.
The press conference tear up, meanwhile, won the Ring Magazine Event of the Year.
Eight rounds later Tyson was on his backside and bleeding after the beating Lewis dished out. His WBC, IBO and IBF belts were never in danger.
Lewis boxed until 2003, with his last fight being a win against Vitali Klitschko, losing just twice in 44 fights.
Tyson retired after losing to Kevin McBride in 2005, but returned for an ‘exhibition’ against Roy Jones Jr in 2020.
There was no lingering bad blood between Tyson and Lewis and the pair are now good friends.
“When you understand our era of boxing, then you understand the gangsta side,” Lewis recalled about the incident in 2020.
“We don’t stage press conference fights. Our era was not for the feint of heart.”
