By Jeff Aronow: Former heavyweight champion ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson says he’ll be facing Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield on May 29th in their long-awaited trilogy match.
This is a bit of a surprise because on Monday, the 54-year-old Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) had turned down an offer of $25 million to face the 58-year-old former two-division world champion Holyfield 44-10-2, 29 KOs).
If the fight does happen, what’s unknown is if this will be a real professional fight or another exhibition bout like the one we saw from Tyson against 52-year-old Roy Jones Jr in a Triller card last November at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. That was a pay-per-view exhibition match.
The match was scored an eight-round draw despite many boxing fans believing that Tyson deserved the win. Many boxing fans were upset about Tyson and Jones appeared to pull their punches so as not to hurt each other.
It looked like a slow-motion sparring session for two old guys, and it fell short of being entertaining. Nevertheless, the event brought in a lot of pay-per-view buys from nostalgic fans, who were excited about seeing the two famous fighters, Jones and Tyson.
“I just want to tell people that the fight between Holyfield and I will be done,” said Mike Tyson during an Instagram chat with Haute Living. “Holyfield is a humble guy, I know, he is a man of God, but I am the man of God.
“And we are going to be very successful on the 29th of May “, Tyson said. “I see it happening, the fight is going to happen, the only thing we have to check is small fundamental things in the contract and we are going to be Evander and I.”
Regardless of Tyson and Holyfield both being in their 50s, their trilogy match could bring in a massive number of pay-per-view buys in the United States.
Indeed, it’s fair to say that it’ll bring in my PPV buys in the States than the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight in June, which is viewed by some as the biggest fight in boxing.
Tyson-Holyfield might be the biggest in the U.S, whereas Joshua vs. Fury would be likely bigger outside of the U.S.
Those two British heavyweights aren’t super popular in the States, unfortunately. It’s quite possible that if Tyson and Holyfield bring in a massive amount of pay-per-view buys, could see a fourth fight between them.
But right now, it’s too early to know if that’ll be possible. The fight will need to be entertaining for the boxing fans, and it would be a good idea for them to keep it clean.
It wouldn’t be good if we get a repeat of the Tyson ear-biting episode that we saw in their rematch in 1997.
If Tyson comes in excellent shape, he’s got an excellent champion of defeating Holyfield, who will be turning 59 in October.
Holyfield twice beat Tyson earlier in his career, stopping him in the 11th round in their first fight in November 1996, and then beating him a second time in their rematch by a third-round disqualification in June 1997.
This wasn’t the prime version of Tyson that Holyfield beat, not even close. Most boxing fans would agree that Tyson was at his best from 1985 to 1988.
Anything after that, he was getting by on power and speed, but he wasn’t the same fighter he’d been before started making the big money.
By the time Holyfield met up with Tyson for the first time in 1996, he was a mere shell of the fighter he’d been in the mid-1980s, and it was sad to see. Tyson’s career was slowly disintegrating by that point
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