Evander Holyfield’s fights have never been dull.

There was the time his clash with Riddick Bowe was gatecrashed by ‘The Fan Man’ in 1993, his controversial draw with Lennox Lewis in 1999 is still talked about more than 20 years later and, last but not least, Mike Tyson bit him – not once, but twice.

The self-styled ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ stunned everyone by ripping the top of Holyfield’s ear off during their heavyweight title fight in June 1997.

It was one of the most shocking moments in sport and talk of a third fight between the pair has conjured up memories of their rivalry.

Holyfield, now 58 years old, has revealed he was ready to take a chuck out of Tyson too had he been given a chance.

“I was getting ready to bite the daylights out of him and I was going to bite his face!” he told Joe Rogan on the UFC commentator’s podcast.

“When you’re from the ghetto, they say that when you have something done to you, you’ve got to do it worse back,” he added. However, Tyson was saved by referee Mills Lane, who called a time out.

The boxers were meeting for the second time, their first fight ending with Holyfield producing an upset to stop Tyson in the 11th round.

And ahead of the rematch seven months later, ‘The Real Deal’ says he was warned Tyson would do something outrageous.

“This prophet before the fight said ‘he’ll do something in your face area but you’ve got to stay focused’.

“I thought it was going to be an elbow or a headbutt, but I never ever thought in my life he would bite me on the ear.

“Did you see how high I jumped?” he asked rhetorically in an attempt to highlight how much pain he was in.

The fight wasn’t immediately stopped, though Lane appeared like he was about to call it it off. Holyfield was cleared to continue and Tyson was deducted two points before eventually being disqualified in round three… for taking another nibble.

Holyfield just wanted to restart the fight so he could at least land one on Tyson.

“When we went back in, he thought I was going to be scared, but I caught him with a couple of shots and he bit me again! I was just getting ready to kick him in the balls and the bell rung.

“I was so mad in the corner, then they stopped the fight and I was mad [at that]!”

Lane had seen enough, the fight was over, but there was still chaos as an enraged Tyson attempted to launch himself at Holyfield’s corner and threw punches at anyone who tried to stop him.

Holyfield, despite his initial fury, revealed he’d forgiven Tyson by the time he’d reached the MGM Grand’s locker room and joked his mangled ear was now a form of identification.

“Everybody [in his backroom team] was complaining and I asked them: ‘Did he bite you?’

“No. He bit me, so I said I’m going to forgive him and that means all of you have to,” adding the incident made his life better all over the world.

“Mike and I do a lot of things together [now] because of that.

“It’s two people who came from the ghetto who boxed – that and football were the only things I was good at – and look how much money we made by doing something properly.”

They’re both still in great shape and Holyfield is being targeted by Britain’s Glenn McCrory for an exhibition akin to Tyson’s entertaining night against Roy Jones Jr.

However, Holyfield appears keen to rekindle his rivalry with the American.

“Let’s get in the ring and dance one more time Mike,” he wrote on Instagram. “Time to give the world what they really want to see.”