There might be a chance former heavyweight king Mike Tyson gets a share of the vast Saudi money that fighters are currently picking up. According to a story from the MMA pack, 57 year old Tyson is “in talks” regarding a fight with MMA star Fedor Emelianenko of Russia, the fight, or exhibition, to take place later this year in Saudi Arabia.
Tyson – who has been invited to return as co-trainer of Francis Ngannou as the former UFC heavyweight champ prepares for his huge fight with Anthony Joshua, this set for March 8 in Riyadh – last took to the ring back in 2020, when “Iron Mike” boxed an entertaining and very successful at the box-office exhibition with fellow great Roy Jones Jr.
Now it seems Tyson may lace ’em up one more time, this in a fight (or exhibition) with the 47 year old Emelianenko. The report says the fight (or exhibition) would be a boxing match, not an MMA bout. Tyson, who enjoys a good spliff now and then (to put it mildly) has kept himself in good physical shape nonetheless, and maybe he is keen to let some punches fly one more time?
Emelianenko, who is famous in MMA for having rumbled with the likes of Mirko Cro Cop, Mark Hunt, Tim Sylvia, Dan Henderson, and Frank Mir, recently told The MMA Hour how MMA is “done” for him, with him stating he wants to try boxing. “MMA is done. 100 percent. I’m not going back,” he said. “I want to try myself in boxing. I think that’s going to be interesting. Mike Tyson would be an interesting fight.”
It is possible that this fight, if it did happen, would attract a good deal of fan attention and would pull in good P-P-V numbers. Tyson remains a genuine star, despite his age and the fact that he has not had a real fight since way back in 2005.
Emelianenko is not a huge guy at 6-feet tall and around 240 pounds. Tyson as we know is 5′ 10” and in the Jones bout he came in at 220 pounds.
Who knows, maybe this one will go down? Will You watch if it does happen?
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