By Sean Jones: Promoter Lou DiBella believes that Mike Tyson isn’t serious about his comeback to boxing. DiBella says he’s not worried that the 53-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) will be attempting to return to professional boxing to take on guys like Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
As far as DiBella is concerned, Tyson is only looking to fight exhibition matches for charity, and he’s not going to look to come out of his 15-year retirement to take on the young guns in the sport. DiBella notes that when Tyson retired in 2005, his career was finished. He’d lost consecutive fights to lower-level fighters Kevin McBride and Danny Williams, and he had nothing left.
The boxing world is excited about Tyson potentially coming back after watching a couple of video clips of him working out on the mitts with a trainer. Fans were awed with the speed and power that Tyson showed during the brief 15-second clip. Most of the heavyweights that are the top of the game now are big and slow fighters, who use their size to wear down their opponents.
None of them are explosive and fast like Tyson, although Wilder has power similar to him, if not better.
The only thing Tyson has talked about is wanting to fight exhibition matches for charity, and that’s gotten a lot of fans excited. Many of them believe that if Tyson looks good, he could opt to come out of retirement to take on Fury, Joshua, or Wilder.
DiBella: Mike Tyson isn’t coming back for a serious career
“Some form or another is the operative term,” said Dibella to Seconds out. “He owns a huge weed company. He owns the ‘Weed Resort.’ Look, I smoke week, but Mike smokes exponentially than I do. He’s not coming back to have a serious boxing career.
“He’s coming back for exhibitions and coming back for charity. Coming back may just mean that he’s back in the gym. I mean, Mike also has a brand and looking sensational at 55-years-old or on a heavy bag or hitting mitts, that’s still impressive and still good for business. That’s good for the brand.
“I don’t know what Mike’s thinking. He’s not thinking seriously about boxing. Mike is a huge superstar; he’s a celebrity. If he wants to hit the bag, that’s fine. And if he wants to do an exhibition that a State OK’s under certain guidelines, and if he wants to raise money for charities, I think he’ll have opportunities depends on what he’s hoping for,” said DiBella.
Part of the reason boxing fans want Mike Tyson to come back is the sad state of the heavyweight division. The U.S no longer rules the division the way it used during Tyson’s reign in the 1980s. Deontay recently lost his WBC title to Tyson Fury earlier this year, and the British heavyweights have taken over the top spots in the division.
These are some of the top heavyweights that are from the UK:
- Anthony Joshua
- Tyson Fury
- Dillian Whyte
- Daniel Dubois
- Joe Joyce
The U.S saw both of their heavyweight champions lose recently in IBF/WBA/WBO champion Andy Ruiz Jr. losing to Joshua last December, and WBC champ Wilder getting stopped by Fury last February.
Tyson won’t be fighting Wilder or Fury
“I don’t think he’s thinking about Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder or any of this stuff,” said DiBella. “Mike knows he was on the tail-end of his career when he retired and wasn’t beating the best in the game. You don’t get better when the years pass by.
“Mike’s not nuts. He knows what he’s doing. I’m not worried about Mike Tyson, nor am I taking this seriously as a boxing comeback.
“Mike’s smarter than any of us, and Mike has people around him that care about him. So I’m not worried about Mike. I don’t think it’s a real comeback. Maybe Dana [White] knows something more than I know. But if he wants to do an exhibition. Guys like Tyson and guys like Evander [Holyfield] are back in the gym.
“If they want to do a few rounds and do an exhibition, they can do it in a private gym. They don’t need our permission. They’re men. If they want to do that, they can do that. If they want to do that, they can raise $50 million for a charity, which can change the world, God bless them. I’m not jumping out to criticize anything.
“If somebody told me that he’d signed a new promotional agreement with whoever and was coming back to regain the heavyweight championship of the world, I would say, ‘Go f*** off. Come on, stop.’ But there’s a lot of things he can do if he wants to fulfill some kind of boxing Jones. There might be a lot of things he can do that would be perfectly OK,” said DiBella.
Tyson hasn’t said anything about wanting to return to the sport to face the top heavyweights.
DiBella reacts to Dana White not wanting Tyson to return
“He’s [Dana White] entitled to talk about boxing, and I’m entitled to talk about UFC or MMA,” DiBella said. “We’re entitled to say what we want. I don’t agree with this guy abut a lot of stuff, but I don’t dislike the guy. I disagree with him on a lot of stuff, but I think he respects me and I respect him.
“We can talk. I don’t go out there to hate-on what he does. I wasn’t going to jump on Dana for the decision he made in bringing the UFC back. He had a lot of people urging him on. There’s a great demand. I don’t think there’s any clear-cut right or wrong now.
“He [White] has enough issues. He needs to keep his franchise on top. They’re going through tough times. Dana’s not worried about taking over a new business now. By the way, he took a couple of years, taking a good look at boxing. It would be a lot of work now to roll up boxing and make something sensible of it.
“And right now, not a lot of people would have the time or the inclination at this moment. So I don’t fault him for looking at boxing and not rushing into it. He can talk about what he wants, and he’s entitled to his own opinion. He’s a smart man,” said DiBella.
UFC president Dana White said he doesn’t want Tyson to come out of retirement, and mentioned that might have to try and jump in to persuade him not to.