The former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is widely regarded as one of the greatest combat sports athletes. Thus, despite hanging up his gloves back in 2005, he still remains quite a prominent figure in the sport and fans would always be excited to see him back in the ring. Three years ago, Tyson made a surprising comeback in the boxing ring against Roy Jones Jr. Interestingly, in the same year, as per reports, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship offered the heavyweight a whopping $20 million deal to fight for the promotion, which he rejected. However, he has now changed tunes on bare-knuckle fighting in a recent episode of ‘Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson.’
In recent years, BKFC has brought the spotlight to a relatively new genre of MMA, bare-knuckle fighting. Several MMA stars like Mike Perry, Luke Rockhold, Paige VanZant, and Artem Lobov have entered the bare-knuckle fighting waters. Now, Mike Tyson has kept his condition, which, if fulfilled, might see him join the bracket.
Mike Tyson expresses interest in bare-knuckle
Recently, former UFC BMF champion Jorge Masvidal sat down for an interesting conversation with Mike Tyson on ‘Hotboxin’ podcast. During their conversation, they started discussing Masvidal’s own bare-knuckle fighting promotion, ‘Gamebred FC.’
At one point, ‘Gamebred’ and the co-host asked Tyson about entering the bare-knuckle bracket. Surprisingly, the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet‘ showed his eagerness to join the raw fighting sport only if they paid him well enough. Tyson said:
“As long as they paid me. I’d do anything if they paid me.“
According to the former heavyweight boxer, a financially lucrative deal would be enough to persuade him to join bare-knuckle fighting. However, he had earlier rejected a similar offer of over $20 million. What’s more, a WWE and MMA star also revealed that he was offered an opportunity to fight the boxing legend in a bare-knuckle fight.
BKFC’s offer to Tyson and potential Bobby Lashley fight
Before Mike Tyson’s decision to come back and fight Roy Jones Jr., he had a lucrative $20 million offer from BKFC. According to a report from RingTV, BKFC President Paul Feldman revealed the details about it. It was a huge financial deal at that point in time and also had some extra perks. He said:
“We offered Tyson $20 million and some additional benefits, but he turned it down.”
Afterwards, WWE star Bobby Lashley who made a name for himself in MMA from his Bellator FC stint, also revealed that BKFC offered him the Tyson fight. The WWE star was looking forward to the fight, but it never became panned out.
Tyson is way past his fighting days and has nothing left to prove in his career. Thus, entering a fighting arena without gloves might not be a wise decision for the boxing legend, irrespective of the money offered.