By Eric Thomas: In an article on Arabianbusiness.com, it’s reported that former heavyweight champions Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield will meet for a third time, possibly on October 31st, in Abu Dhabi. The fight would reportedly earn each of them $34 million. The fight, which is said will be announced on February 1st, will be held at the Zayed Sports City Stadium. The stadium only holds 25,000 people.
Abu Dhabi is the capital and second most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. The fight would likely be PPV and would be shown all throughout the United Arab Emirates. However, it’s unknown whether Tyson – or Holyfield – are a big enough draw to make this thing come off.
Tyson and Holyfield have met twice before, once in November 1996, in which Holyfield stopped a weary and beaten Tyson in the 11th round. The two met again in a rematch a year later in June 1997, which ended with a 3rd round disqualification for Tyson after he bit Holyfield on both ears.
Tyson, 42, hasn’t seen action in the ring in four years, since losing by a 6th round TKO to Kevin McBride in June 2005. A bout before that, Tyson had been stopped in a 4th round TKO to Danny Williams in July 2004. That’s not a comforting thought when you imagine him fighting now four years later. Tyson is said to be badly in debt. If this fight does end up getting made, he could perhaps erase much if not all of his debt if he does end up receiving $34 million for the fight.
Hydra Properties CEO, Sulaiman Al Fahim, is reportedly the one putting the Tyson-Holyfield fight together, with the goal of creating the “biggest fight in boxing history and to do it in Abu Dhabi.” There will be two other world title bouts paired with the Tyson-Holyfield bout, according to the article.
Holyfield, 46, has lost back to back title challenges against Sultan Ibragimov and Nikolay Valuev. However, many people outside of Germany feel that Holyfield should have been given the decision victory over Valuev in their bout in December in Germany. The fight ended up a 12-round majority decision win for Valuev. Though there was talk of Valuev giving Holyfield a rematch to quiet the controversy of the questionable decision, many people doubt that Valuev will ever do so.
Without a rematch against Valuev, it remains unlikely that Holyfield will get another chance at winning a 5th heavyweight world title – a stated goal for him among others. Based on his activity, it would seem logical to assume that Holyfield would probably make easy work of Tyson at this point in time. Tyson has looked very heavy in recent photos of him, looking well above his former fighting weight of 223.
If the fight does take place, it would probably require an extensive weight loss program for Tyson to reduce the tonnage that he’s put on in his four-year retirement. If he has the discipline, it’s possible for him to take it all off but even then, it’s going to take him a long time to take all of it off.
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