EVANDER Holyfield insists he is not in talks about a third fight with Mike Tyson in Abu Dhabi in October, despite claims he has agreed to the £50m clash.
Instead, the former world heavyweight champion, 46, says he is planning an April rematch with WBA champion Nicolai Valuev.
Holyfield’s manager Ken Sanders said: “Right now Evander is discussing another meeting with Valuev.”
Former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Evander Holyfield has said that 280 pounds, his main rival Mike Tyson cannot fight even if he wants to.
Tyson is walking around at something like 280lbs and couldnt fight if he wanted to. Anyway hes a coward, The Sun quoted Holyfield, who beat Tyson twice, as saying.
The ex-world heavyweight champ has said that he wont quit the boxing ring until he wins the title for a fifth time. He recently lost on points to the Beast from the East Nikolay Valuev.
A third fight between Holyfield, 46, and Tyson has been dismissed by Holyfields manager Ken Sanders. (ANI)
Mike Tyson through his management team has released the following statement on his website officialmiketyson.com:
“The rumors about me fighting Evander Holyfield are just that, rumors. Last week the rumors had me making a marriage proposal to a girl from England and this week they have me fighting Evander in October. The facts are I am promoting my documentary, TYSON, which comes out April 24th on the big screen, working on a book and looking forward to the release of the new EA Sports Fight Night 4 video game. ”
So you want to climb into the head of Head of Mike Tyson? Well get in line because Tyson the movie is coming to a theater near you.
The fallen champ may just have hit a bottom with a trampoline like floor. Mike Tyson packed quite a punch at this year’s Sundance Film festival in Park City, Utah.
There was no talk of eating children or fornicating with female news reporters when the recluse Tyson spoke to viewers about the documentary, “Tyson” which premiered this past Saturday to rave reviews.
The incredibly humbled Tyson showed up to Sundance as a seemingly changed man or at least a man who has found some peace within himself. Tyson, now 42 told the crowd of 450 viewers that he fears looking back on his life as the pain could spark him to use drugs again.
James Toback’s film attempts to redeem a bipolar-coaster ride of professional success and emotional failures throughout the life of ”Iron Mike” .
“I work real hard on being humble, because if I dwell on what I’ve accomplished in the past and who that guy was and what kind of person I was, I may use again. I can’t express my appreciation and gratitude for this moment” Tyson told the crowd.
As one boxing fan put it to me
“I believe the sport of boxing needs the iconic champion Mike Tyson in its corner in one form of another. We don’t need the Tabloid Mike. When Mike Tyson was on Pay Per View nobody bitched about the ticket price like nowadays. We looked forward to it because we knew something special was happening. Hell, for the most part we were paying $20-$50 for one round of boxing! No complaints from me. “
The questioned still remains if Iron Mike has finally wrapped his arms around those demons that have made him such a fascinating character for all the wrong reasons.
Whether he has or not one thing is for sure, Tyson the movie is coming. Will it be a Cinderella story or as Peter Mc Neely would say, a Cocoon of horror?
Visitors to TV.com have chosen Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson as the celebrity they would most want to see compete on the new season of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Mike Tyson took first place with 26% of the votes, followed by Tony Danza who pulled in 19% of the votes. Bob Barker placed third, with 13% of the vote. Roseanne Barr and Scott Baio tied for fourth place, each receiving 11% of the votes.
Other celebrities trailed behind, with Kevin Federline nabbing 9%, singer Tiffany managed 7% and Dustin Diamond only managed 4% of the votes.
Members of TV.com recently chose “Dancing with the Stars” as the “Best Reality Series” in 2008. The show’s online fan base made their voices heard again with almost 4,000 votes in this poll.
Boxing legends Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield will stage an epic third fight in Abu Dhabi this October, Arabian Business can reveal.
Full details of the historic fight will be announced on Feb. 1. It is understood that the bout will be held at the open air Zayed Sports City Stadium in front of 25,000 boxing fans, with sources indicating it will be the “richest fight in history.”
The Tyson/Holyfield fight will be the finale to an evening that will first feature two separate world title bouts. One tentative date is Oct. 31, the night before the first ever Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Tyson, the 42 year old former world heavyweight champion - facing financial troubles - last stepped into the ring in November 2005, when he lost to Ireland’s Kevin McBride.
Holyfield, now 46 years old, fought for the WBO heayweight belt in October 2007 when he was outpointed by Russian holder Sultan Ibragimov.
Holyfield won both the previous two encounters with Tyson, including the famous “bitten ear” incident during their second meeting in 1997.
Holyfield, who knocked out Tyson when they first met in 1996, was paid a record $34 million for their second meeting. Sources suggest that each fighter will earn more than $34 million for the Abu Dhabi clash, which is expected to be televised world-wide.
It is also understood that a chunk of the earnings from the October event will be donated to an Autism charity.
The fight is being put together by Hydra Properties CEO, Sulaiman Al Fahim, who said in a telephone interview on Sunday: “We have agreement from everyone needed and will make the official announcement next week.
The idea is to stage the biggest ever fight in boxing history and to do it in Abu Dhabi, which would be a great global event for the UAE capital.”
Quoted recently by Garth Pearce in the Timesonline.co.uk, Tyson is searching for redemption and admits he has messed up badly in the past. Being brutally honest about his life, one that gives him shame at times, Tyson admitted to abusing drugs and alcohol as well as sleeping with other men’s wives. Quoted
by the publication, Tyson stated: “I’ve done the lot. Drink, drugs; I’ve screwed other men’s wives; I have been threatened, chased and survived. I’ve been on the streets, in jail and have done things that have not been pretty.”
Tyson’s highs and lows include being broke and rich, to feeling like and being treated like an animal to meeting Presidents and Leaders. “I’ve been broke and I have been rich. I have also earned a fortune – several fortunes – and spent them. I have been called an animal. I have been treated as an animal. But I have also met presidents and leaders and been given the best of hospitality,” said Tyson.
Tyson hopes people will accept him for what he is, stating: “I have to live my life and hope that people can accept me as I am – my highs and lows and vulnerability and who I am as a human being. I am an individual and this is what you get.”
LAS VEGAS — Word on the hot Vegas streets is that Mike Tyson is training again, but for what? The former heavyweight boxing champion and “Baddest Man on the Planet” has long been a source of speculation among MMA fans.
A source, who asked to remain anonymous, informed Sherdog.com that Tyson has been quietly “training his ass off” with a prominent strength and conditioning coach in the area. The source also stated that Tyson “is not going to do boxing anymore,” but when asked if “Iron Mike” was going to try MMA, the source shrugged, “I don’t know, I can’t say.”
In recent years, the rumor mill linked the 41-year-old Tyson with EliteXC heavyweight Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, Quinton Jackson (Pictures) and Tito Ortiz (Pictures) among others. In 2006, he was a guest referee at a World Cage Fighting Championship bout in Manchester, England and signed an appearances-only contract with the now-defunct Pride Fighting Championships.
My personal favorite website for Mixed Martial Arts news, Sherdog.com is reporting that Mike Tyson is in some serious training, in which the former boxer is training his butt off with a respected strength and conditioning coach.
Sherdog quotes a source, who wishes to stay anonymous, that Tyson has been privately “training his ass off,” the source went on to add that Tyson will not be doing boxing anymore.
The source was then asked if Tyson was in training to take a stab at MMA? The source would only tell Sherdog, “I don’t know, I can’t say.”
How long before the rumors start?
How long before some promoter with deep pockets or, more likely, some promoter with pockets that are inside out but who knows how to talk and how to tap dance, gives Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson a call?
How long before he or she suggests Tyson-Holyfield III as a way to erase the debts that today seem to have both of them encircled in the kind of way only the IRS and mortgage holders can do?
Mike Tyson is presently the subject of a documentary that makes him look like the most forlorn figure in fisticuffs, a poor guy who didn’t lose his way because he never knew the way in the first place.
He is broke, beaten down and bewildered by it all, except to repeat periodically that he’s sorry he was a bad boy in addition to being a BAAADDDD MAN.
Evander Holyfield denied his mansion in Atlanta was being foreclosed on, even though that’s kind of hard to argue when it was being offered for sale on July 1 by Washington Mutual, the holder of a $10 million mortgage on the property. That forced sale has since been called off but no one is ready to say why, and the fact is Holyfield reportedly has three mortgages on the $20 million property that total over $15 million in debts.
He also claims one of the women who mothered one of his nine children is being unreasonable over the matter of $3000 a month in child support that has been missing for a time. When you pay a reported $45,000 a month in child support one can see how the check might have gotten lost in the paperwork.
Despite his protestations, Holyfield too seems broke, beaten down and bewildered by it all, except to repeat like a personal mantra that A) he isn’t in any sort of financial trouble and B) one day he will again be unified heavyweight champion.
“I’m not broke,’’ Holyfield told the Atlanta Constitution last week. “I’m just not liquid.’’
This is what it has come down to for the two highest grossing heavyweights in boxing history. Between them they grossed over $1 billion in fight related income on pay-per-view alone with Tyson’s gross at $545 million and Holyfield’s at $543 million. Together they did the second most PPV buys in history at 1.99 million for the Tyson-Holyfield II Ear Bite Fight on June 28, 1997. Holyfield’s purses exceeded $240 million and Tyson’s purses exceeded that.
While obviously neither took home all that money, the two of them made more than the gross national product of most countries, Holyfield himself earning $34 million for the second Tyson fight alone. So how did they end up broke?
Bad luck? Bad judgment? Born under a bad sign? How about hard work?
Regardless of your circumstances you have to work pretty hard at it to blow that kind of money. That’s true even if you have unscrupulous promoters, lousy managers, many marriages, too many kids and too few friends. Even with all of those problems blowing that kind of money without having waged war on a small nation is damn near impossible.
Yet they did it, which gets us back to my original premise. How long before we start hearing rumblings of Tyson-Holyfield III? Not long because Holyfield has already brought up the subject himself, although there hasn’t been much of a response yet from Tyson.
Would Vegas sanction it? You better believe it. Would some place like Dubai love to buy it to put that country on the map for something other than $5 gasoline? For sure.
Are there any heartless promoters out there still willing to make a buck off the backs of two spent shells that are down on their luck? You want to start with the letter A and go through the list alphabetically?
Some purists might say, “These are two shot guys in their mid-40s. No way will anyone buy it.’’ To that I say, “Trinidad vs. Jones.’’ I say, “Jack Johnson on his back in the Havana sunshine. Joe Louis past his prime his head knocked into press row. Ray Robinson when all the sugar was gone, Ray Leonard when the story was the same. Duran against a lot of guys and Henry Armstrong too.’’
Exploitation at the end is the story of boxing and too often the person doing the exploiting is the fighter exploiting himself. There are reasons this is an old tune though, and it is the same reason Holyfield-Tyson III seems more likely every time they make a new headline, because the headlines they make now are about personal train wrecks, unpaid bills or lingering tax liens, not glorious chronicles of victory.
The news has not been good for Tyson or Holyfield for quite some time, but in the latter’s case the bad news usually only involved another night in a ring, where his reflexes are gone and his performances substandard. For Tyson it was always worse. Legal hassles, back taxes, drug problems.
But now the headlines say Holyfield is broke too, a victim of a 109-room house no one could afford to keep up, too much child support, bad business deals and Lord knows what else. So why wouldn’t he look to wipe out those problems the only way he has ever known?
Why wouldn’t Evander Holyfield come back one last time to take on the man he beat twice before at a time when so many people believed he never could? Why wouldn’t he come back to fight Tyson in an age-old rerun of old age fighters fighting over money not titles or even pride?
Given the chance, he would.
Which brings us back to Mike Tyson. One of his long-time advisors said recently Tyson has no desire to train and will never come back again. The first half has been true for years. His desire to do the work required to win faded long ago, which is how he ended up on the floor against a less-than-journeyman named Kevin McBride in perhaps the biggest embarrassment of his professional career.
More to the point, the same man said Tyson wanted no part of Holyfield, who broke him down physically and mentally in their first fight and totally in their rematch, and perhaps he doesn’t. But he may also soon tire of being the world’s houseguest.
One can see why Mike Tyson wouldn’t want to take a chance of being embarrassed for a third time by Holyfield. One can certainly see why he doesn’t want to live the Spartan fighter’s existence any more, even if it’s only for six or eight weeks in training camp one last time. But the history of boxing also shows that if the numbers are right, or at least the fighters believe they are, a lot of other matters don’t matter.
At the moment, Evander Holyfield has already brought up the subject. Mike Tyson has remained mum on the matter and no promoter has begun publicly beating the drum for Tyson-Holyfield III. Maybe things will stay that way, as they should for boxing’s sake and their own.