Video: Olympic Boxer Tries To Bite Off Opponent’s Ear Like Mike Tyson

A Moroccan boxer was disqualified from his Tokyo Olympics bout earlier this week after he attempted to bite his opponent's ear off during their match, reminiscent of Mike Tyson's infamous bite in 1997 that took a chunk off Evander Holyfield's right ear.

Youness Baalla, 22, had been disqualified following his fight with New Zealand's David Nyika in Kokugikan Arena Tuesday for the former's "intolerable action," Stuff reported, citing Olympic officials.

It had been determined that Baalla "very clearly intended to bite the ear/face of his opponent" during the third and final round of their 81-91-kilogram (178 lbs - 200 lbs) preliminary match, according to the New Zealand outlet.

Nyika, 25, ended up winning the match by unanimous decision regardless of Baalla's bite attempt and advanced to the men's quarterfinals, a report by The New York Times said. He will face Belarus' Uladzislau Smiahlikau next after his 5-0 victory, The Guardian has learned.

The two-time Commonwealth games medalist - who made his Olympics heavyweight debut on the match against Baalla - had been surprised that the referee missed his opponent's bite attempt.

"Did you see that? I don’t think the ref saw it. She was the closest one," Nyika was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Television cameras, however, were able to catch the bite attempt.

"He didn’t get a full mouthful. Luckily, he had his mouthguard in and I was a bit sweaty. I don’t remember what I said to him but I gave him a little bit of a cheek. I have been bitten once on the chest before at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. But c’mon man, this is the Olympics," Stuff quoted Nyika as saying.

Nyika had been bitten on the chest by Antigua and Barbuda's Yakita Aska in the opening fight of his Commonwealth Games campaign on the Gold Coast in 2018, according to the Stuff report. Nyika's coach, Billy Meehan, said he could not believe Baalla would go for a similar stunt at the Olympics.

"Not at this level. You don't expect to see that," Meehan said.

Nyika would later joke about the incident on Instagram, where he posted a photo of Baalla's bite attempt with the caption, "Somebody's got a sweet-tooth."

Baalla, who is from Casablanca, also took to Instagram after his Tokyo Games exit and declared he would not answer messages he had been receiving from New Zealanders.

"To all the people coming from New Zealand... with all my respect to this country but you’re not showing respect to yourselves," Baalla wrote in one of his Instagram Stories, as per Stuff. "I will not answer any bad DM or comment from you and sorry I have big things waiting for me."

Nyika attempted to defend Baalla's actions and told his 28,000 followers to not message the Moroccan boxer "if you have nothing nice to say."

"The heat of battle can bring the best AND the worst out of people. This is part of sport. I have nothing but respect for my opponent and can appreciate the frustration he must have felt," Nyika wrote.

In a later post, Nyika teased fans about his match against Smiahlikau on Friday.

"This one will be to guarantee an Olympic Bronze medal," he said in the post.