Mike Tyson Bites His Gloves During Fights, but Where Does That Tick Come From?

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson's much-hyped Netflix boxing event went about the way many expected it would. Jake Paul, who is more than 30 years younger than Mike, won by unanimous decision and landed twice as many blows on Mike as Mike landed on him.

The fight was, at least by some estimates, a surprisingly dull affair, which led some to notice things that might have otherwise gone unmentioned. Among those things is the fact that Mike appears to have a habit of biting his gloves during matches. Here's what we know about why he does it.

Anyone who has watched Mike fight knows that the boxer has had a habit of biting his gloves for basically his whole career. The most obvious explanation for this habit is that it's a way for Mike to keep his mouthguard tight against his teeth, and that might be why it started.

When he was asked about the biting habit after the fight, though, Mike gave a slightly different answer.

"I have a habit of biting my glove when I'm fighting, yes," he said. When he was asked why that was, though, he said simply "I have a biting fixation."

While that might have been the truth, it's also a reference to his second fight with Evander Holyfield in 1997, when he famously bit his opponent's ear in the ring. Clearly, Mike has a reputation for biting.

While some speculated that Mike's decision to bite his glove was somehow strategic, it seems more likely that his biting fixation is something he does simply out of habit. Like many great fighters, Mike likely enters some sort of zone during fights, and one of the habits he's developed when he's in that zone is to bite his gloves. There may be no deeper reason than that it's comforting or familiar to him.

Although Netflix has made conscious efforts to make live events a more regular part of their lineup, they have yet to perfect the technology required to make sure that millions of people can actually watch the same thing at the same time without any issues. The broadcast cut in and out for many users, and some even had to log back into their devices in order to watch the fight.

These kinds of technical issues were also a problem when Netflix attempted to livestream the reunion for a season of the reality show Love Is Blind. As Netflix moves more and more into the world of sports, though, there are justifiable concerns that the streamer might not have the technical capability to pull these events off.

If Netflix was hosting something like the Super Bowl, there would be genuine outrage if the stream was glitching. The fight between Mike and Jake was big, but it may have been just a test run for even bigger events to come.