After launching a comeback in his fifties, Mike Tyson aimed to land a $620 million pot for a shot at the heavyweight championship.
During his rebirth at 52, Tyson hoped to land astonishing cash to trade blows with the heavyweight champion. At the time, the WBC ruler, Tyson Fury, revealed the demands laid down in a Zoom call regarding a possible exhibition between the two as Tyson trained for his clash with Jones Jr.
“The Gypsy King” was open to sharing a ring with Tyson, whom his father John named him after in the 1980s. Despite his advanced years, Tyson looked to get back in action and saw Fury as high-profile enough to discuss it. Fury’s interview points to Tyson looking to put together a huge payday in a publicity stunt-type event.
“There was talk of it,” Fury said to iFL TV. “His people contacted me. Mike and I had a phone call. It was all real but never materialized. Whoever was offering the comeback money to Mike offered us peanuts.
“Mike was talking about £500 million [$620 million] figures, but what came back to us on paper was a joke. It was crazy. I did have a $10m offer from ESPN to do the fight as an exhibition, but I think everyone has moved on now.
“I would have loved to share the ring with him and move around. But if he had won, then people would have said I was rubbish because a 53-year-old beat me. If I had beaten him, then I would have been a bully. It was a lose-lose situation for me. It was money; I didn’t need to fight a man past his best.” – If you use these WBN quotes, please link back to the source: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/mike-tyson-heavyweight-champion-huge-pot/
Instead, Fury fought Deontay Wilder again. He defeated Dillian Whyte, Derek Chisora [again], and Francis Ngannou in a low-key run. Fury eventually ran into a top contender and was soundly beaten twice.
The clash with Oleksandr Usyk saw the Ukrainian win on points twice and almost knock Fury into next week in the first bout. In the rematch, Usyk cemented his place at the top heavyweight and pound-for-pound number one.
In contrast, Mike Tyson had nothing in his locker for the Jones stalemate and four years later against Paul. Training videos proved to be a smokescreen, and it’s doubtful that Tyson will want another exhibition or have the reputation to pull it off.
His first attempt made 1.5 million sales and was a novelty against Jones. The Triller cracked the Top 10 United States Pay Per Views but left a bad taste in Tyson’s mouth after falling out with the broadcasters. Tyson and Jones still claim there are untoward dealings with the payments from that fight.
In his last and hopefully final outing, Tyson eventually made a paycheck big enough to keep him out of the ring. However, it was nowhere near the half a billion dollars he sought for the Fury fight.
– If you use these WBN quotes, please link back to the source: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/mike-tyson-heavyweight-champion-huge-pot/
