In a hopeless dream, Mike Tyson says he’s interested in exhibition fights for charity purposes against Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, and Deontay Wilder in the future.
If Tyson lures active fighters to face him in exhibition fights for charity, he’ll probably need to aim lower towards regular contenders, who might be willing to fight for free to get the publicity for their careers.
Getting those heavyweights to fight Tyson will likely be impossible, as they have too much respect for him. It would also be a no-win situation for Fury, Joshua, and Wilder in taking on Tyson in an exhibition fight. No matter what, they’ll come out of the fight tarnished.
Additionally, the idea of Wilder, Fury, and Joshua fighting for free against Tyson might not interest them, as they’re accustomed to making a lot of money each time they fight.
The former IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight champion ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) is fighting Roy Jones Jr (66-9, 47 KOs) in the first of what he plans to be many exhibition fights.
The 54-year-old Tyson and 51-year-old Jones Jr will be fighting an eight-round exhibition match at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
“I think they’re brilliant, man, I think they’re brilliant fighters. They could do so much for society and have exhibitions, and take the money from exhibitions because they’re big crowd pleasers,” he said to Steve Bunce.
“They could help so many people — the homeless, the drug infected. There are just so many people out there that we can do so much for, and that wouldn’t even be a tenth of their charitable heart to do something like that.
“Matter of fact, fight exhibitions with me. All of our charity or most of our charity would go to people who really desperately need it. We can help people.”
Tyson would likely have more luck in getting Fury, Joshua, or Wilder to face him in exhibition matches if he left out the part where the money would go to charity. Those guys might be interested in facing Tyson if they knew they could make a career-high payday fighting him.
If Joshua were willing to fight for free or take a massive pay cut, he would be doing so during the pandemic to help out boxing fans.
We’re certainly not seeing that with Joshua’s next fight against his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev on December 12th at the Wembley Arena in London, England. Boxing fans will be paying £24.95 to watch AJ fight the 39-year-old Pulev on Sky Box Office.
Boxing fans can order Tyson vs. Jones on Saturday for $49.99 from FITE TV. The fight card begins at 9:00 p.m. ET.