Fans of boxing are convinced that someone must’ve travelled back through time, as a crowd member was holding something resembling a smartphone during Mike Tyson versus Pat McNeeley in 1995.
As we all know, Tyson is one of the most dominant heavyweight boxers of all time, with an impressive 50-6 professional record to his name.
He had blinding speed and a devastating ability to knock out his opponents with such earth-shattering power, meaning most fights were already over before they’d even begun.
Today we’re going to take a look at one of his lesser known clashes, but it has an intriguing side story which has been picked up on in recent weeks.
Mike Tyson vs Pat McNeeley in 1995
The fight in question just so happens to be Tyson’s victory over McNeeley, so let’s dive into it shall we?
This was Tyson’s first bout after he had served his sentence in prison, one which he won via disqualification after his opponent’s manager stepped into the ring to interfere.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 28: Mike Tyson exits the ring after receiving a split draw against Roy Jones Jr. during Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. presented by Triller at Staples Center on November 28, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Triller)
Iron Mike was his typical destructive self, brutally dismantling McNeeley from the opening bell at the MGM Grand Arena.
While the fight isn’t necessarily one of Tyson’s most memorable or talked about by fans, an event which occurred outside the ring caught by the HBO camera crew most certainly is.
Was there a 'time traveller' at Mike Tyson vs Pat McNeeley?
As the fight is about to begin, a person in attendance holds up what appears to be a smartphone vertically in order to capture the moment in the form of an image.
What’s really interesting, however, is that the first smartphone wasn’t released until the year after the fight when Nokia released their Nokia 2110 phone.
In the present day, Nokia aren’t as dominant as they once were as the likes of Apple and Samsung rule the smartphone market with an iron fist, with more sophisticated designs and operating systems.
Video: Fan appears to use camera phone at Mike Tyson vs Pat McNeeley
The one found in a YouTube video doesn’t look anything like these, as it shaped more or less like a brick – a common joke made by today’s generation about phones twenty-something years ago!
Fans respond to baffling footage of 'time-traveller' at Tyson vs McNeeley
The video itself was released by Inside Edition, with it boasting over one million views and it had fans squabbling in the comments section.
One individual rather hilariously wrote: “I’m surprised the government hasn’t done a Men in Black and erased our memory of this.”
A second who was obviously a young person during the 1995 bout commented: “I remember watching this live and wondering what it was.”
Another on Twitter said: “Has the time traveller pulled the wool over everyone’s eye?”
A fourth who wants a different perspective from the time traveller in question stated: “Whoever filmed this needs to upload it.”
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HBO themselves had their own explanation for what it was, one which immediately put the myth to bed.
Meanwhile, Inside Edition thought it may have been an early version of the Dycam Logitech camcorder.
Experts debunk Mike Tyson time-traveller conspiracy
Conspiracy theory website Snopes, one known for debunking even the most popular of conspiracies, said:
“Although the photographic device does resemble a type of camera phone not sold until several years after 1995, it also resembles any one of a number of handheld cameras that were in fact widely available in 1995.
“The resolution and size of the original video make it difficult to determine specific features of the device glimpsed here, but we found a number of cameras that are both similar to what’s seen in the video and were commonly available in 1995, most notably the Casio QV-10A, the Casio QV-100 and the Logitech Fotoman.”