Boxingnews24.com has learned that former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) is reportedly interested in a third bout with former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (42-9-2, 27 KOs), according to boxingtalk website. Tyson, 41, said that he’d only take on a third fight with the 45 year-old Holyfield “if the money’s right,” meaning that Tyson would be looking to get a million plus payday for the the bout. Tyson went on to say that he’d be looking to “knock him out,” perhaps a signal that he would want to ensure that the fight doesn’t get into the later rounds like their first bout, a fight where Tyson ran out of gas and was ultimately stopped in the 11th round.
It’s doubtful that Tyson could fight hard for more than several rounds, judging by his last two fights against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride, both of whom stopped Tyson after he started quickly in the first two rounds and then almost immediately tired out. Tyson said that he’s not interested in taking on any preliminary bouts, and wants to “go straight at him.” Again, at this stage in his career, even a journeyman fighter would be a threat to Tyson if the bout was to beyond three rounds. It’s understandable that Tyson would want to avoid this happening, and possibly ruining a shot at Holyfield.
It remains to be seen whether the fans would be interested in a third bout between Tyson and Holyfield. However, you can never overestimate the publics’ taste for boxing, because if they’re foolish enough to want to pay to see ridiculous fights between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, then certainly they would eat up a fight between Tyson and Holyfield. Even at Holyfield and Tyson’s advanced age, they would still easily make for a much more exciting fight than watching Mayweather pot shot De La Hoya all night or witness Mayweather beating a fighter out of his weight class in his stoppage of Ricky Hatton.
Tyson, who retired from boxing after his 6th round stoppage loss to C-class fighter Kevin McBride in June 2005, has previously said that he’s not interested in boxing anymore. However, time has a way of changing all that, as Tyson said this to boxingtalk, “I’m ready to have a love affair for a few months.” Hopefully, Holyfield, who recently lost a 12-round lopsided unanimous decision to Sutan Ibragimov on October 13, 2007. Before that, Holyfield had fought exclusively marginal fighters since coming back after a two year lay off, beating Jeremy Bates, Fres Oquendo, Vinny Maddalone and Lou Savarese to earn the shot at WBO champion Ibragimov.
Never once did Holyfield face a top 10 fighter before facing Ibragimov, so it’s hard to gauge how good he still is. Against Ibragimov, Holyfield looked terrible, about the same as he did in his his consecutive losses to Chris Byrd, James Toney and Larry Donald between 2002-2004. If Holyfield looks the same as he did in those fights, including his loss to Ibragimov, I’d give Tyson an excellent chance at knocking him out early. Holyfield doesn’t seem to have the chin he used to have, as he was stunned by Bates in their fight and didn’t react well when getting hit with a few hard shots from Savarese.
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