Coming up this evening at 9 p.m., "Piers Morgan Tonight" touches gloves, and comes out fighting, welcoming a pair of former undisputed world heavyweight champions to the program, for an insightful and entertaining two on one primetime interview.
Seated within reaching distance of Piers Morgan, longtime rivals Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield share details of their epic battles between the ropes:"With me, it's never personal. It's a job, and I truly believe that we both have the right to be the very best that we can," says Holyfield, who twice fought Lewis in 1999, the first fight ending in a draw. "I train, he train, we get into who's the best that night. And then, when that night is over, I'm like 'brush it off.'"
For Lewis, the two 12 round matches against Holyfield were over with their respective final bells:
"We solved that all in the ring. We're obviously competitors, and we both feel that we're the best. And we step into the ring to prove it," says the 46-year-old London-native, who won the second bout by unanimous decision. "In the ring, we're trying to kill each other. I'm trying to knock him out, he's trying to knock me out. But afterwards, it's like, okay, we realize the sacrifice it takes just to be in the ring. We realize what we've gone through, and then, we leave it all in the ring."
In addition to their professional records, which include a combined 85 wins, as well as Olympic experiences (Holyfield won bronze in 1984, Lennox won gold in 1988,) the two warriors share an additional common bond, as each count Mike Tyson's teethmarks as battle scars:
"He snagged a piece of it, and it kind of went under the gum, and he spit it out," says Holyfield, of the infamous ear-chomping incident from "The Bite Fight" of 1997. "I was shocked. Out of all the things that could have happened, I never would have thought that would have happened."
Watching one of boxing's most-infamous moments, Lewis was nothing short of stunned:
"I was horrified. I was like, 'you know we're gladiators, man. We don't bite,'" he tells the host.
Though less publicized, and not nearly as dramatic, Lewis does have his own Tyson bite mark tale to tell:
"It was a press conference in New York, and he came walking over to me. And my security stopped him, he threw a punch at my security, and then I hit him. And then all of a sudden he dove at my legs," says Lewis, recalling the moment from 2002. "I was feeling pain, and I was pushing down on the pain, and I see Mike Tyson looking up at me."
Watch the clips, and listen to the interview, then tune in this evening as Morgan goes toe-to-toe, and jab-for-jab, with two of the greatest boxers of all time.
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