Former undisputed world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson courted controversy throughout his boxing career, but never more so than during his rematch with Evander Holyfield for the WBA Heavyweight Championship at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas on June 28, 1997. In the first meeting between the pair, at the same venue less than eight months earlier, Holyfield had comprehensively outboxed Tyson, eventually winning by technical knockout in the eleventh round. It’s no surprise that the fight was twice held at Vegas, since stateside it’s key to both sports ans casino life. Whereas in the online world today we may instead check out the Online Casino Bluebook, in the late casinos, if just wanted casino or sports based excitement in the flesh, Las Vegas was the place to go.

The rematch started in similar fashion, with Holyfield dominating the first two rounds, but it was a series of shocking incidents in the third round that led the contest to be known as the ‘Bite Fight’. With forty seconds left on the clock, Tyson, incensed by what he believed to be a deliberate headbutt by his opponent, sunk his teeth into Holyfield’s right ear, removing a one-inch chunk of cartilage, which he subsequently spat out onto the canvas.

Referee Mills Lane stopped the contest for Holyfield to be examined by the ringside doctor, who concluded that, despite profuse bleeding from his bitten ear, Holyfield was fit to continue. Tyson narrowly avoided immediate disqualification and was, instead, deducted two points. Barely had the fight resumed, though, when Tyson bit Holyfield on his left ear. The second bite was not discovered until the end of the third round but, at that point, Lane disqualified Tyson, who attempted to attack Holyfield and his entourage and had to be restrained by the police.

Tyson faced a lifetime ban from the sport, but was eventually fined $3 million, given community service and although his boxing licence was revoked, indefinitely, by the Nevada State Athletic Commission – a suspension that, under federal law, had to be honoured throughout the United States – it was restored 15 months later.

So many big fights have been held at the MGM Grand over the years, and indeed at Caesars Palace, both in Las Vegas. . The next big fight for boxing fans will be the third encounter between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada on October 9th. It’s available on PPV if you can’t make it in the flesh of course.  The heady combination of sports (which inevitably results in sports betting) and casinos in Nevada make it both a sports fans and hedonists dream. There are so many options available on the casino side of things from slots machines as far as the eye can see, to roulette, blackjack tables and more. Serious money poker competitions routinely take place in Las Vegas and if you’re looking for somewhere to stay there are more hotel rooms in Vegas than just about anywhere you could care to mention.

In 1848, unfettered by so-called ‘political correctness’, two teams of Greenwich Pensioners, resident at the Royal Hospital for Seamen in Greenwich, took part in a spirited, and well-received, two-day cricket match at the Priory Ground in Lewisham. The names of the teams are, hopefully, self-explanatory, but all the players were retired Royal Navy sailors, who had lost their respective limbs in the cause of duty and, hence, found a permanent home at the Royal Hospital.

In what I suspect was meant as a nod toward camaraderie but also respect for the service of those involved, the match was met with a positive reaction, and depending on how you perceive it could even be said to be ahead of its time. Of course nowadays sporting events for those with certain physical limitations are rightly heralded as inclusion and necessary in rewarding achieve just as they are in the able bodied. The paralympics was of course a recent brilliant example of showcasing sporting achievement in those with additional challenges.

Gone are the days where cricket had a narrow appeal. Branching out beyond the physical, cricket has been dragged into the modern age in varying regards. Take for instance ‘The Hundred’. This new format aimed at appealing to new audiences achieved just that, selling over 500,000 tickets, and reaching a TV audience of 16 million+.  Not only that, 57% of those tuning in had not watched live cricket this year. The key to its success was to involve both mens and womens teams (from various major cities across the country – making it more diverse). It’s a 100 ball tournament and all signs are that it’s bringing a new and younger audience to the sport, which can’t be bad. Of course Cricket already holds mass appeal all around the world, from the UK to India, as sites like https://crictips.com/ attest to,  so hitting on new angles to keep things fresh and interesting is key to continued interest.

The aforementioned One Arm and One Leg cricket match appears to have been something of a ‘jolly’ for the Greenwich Pensioners, each of whom received an allowance of ten shillings, not to mention free transport to and from the Priory Ground. Eating and drinking were high on the agenda, with a generous lunch and dinner served before and after each day’s play and, at the end of the match, both teams marched off, with musical accompaniment, to the Bull Inn in nearby Shooters Hill.

While the players cut a dash in their distinctive veterans’ uniforms, their age and infirmity led to a rather comical, if good-natured, encounter, in which extras made a significant contribution to the totals in all four innings. The One Arm XI bowled 43 wides and the One Legged XI 30, while Mr. Sears, who batted at number five for One Legged XI, top scored with 15 in the second innings. All told, the One Arm XI made 50 and 41 and the One Legged XI made 32 and 44, although the batting was as bad as the bowling, with 21 ducks in the match, including five pairs for the One Legged XI.