Mike Tyson is a money-making machine, but when a return to the big time presented itself recently, his demands were eye-watering.
During his rebirth at fifty-plus, Tyson wanted astonishing cash to trade blows with the current heavyweight champion.
WBC ruler Tyson Fury revealed the demands laid down in a Zoom call by Tyson regarding a possible exhibition between the two as Iron Mike trained for his clash with Roy Jones Jr.
“The Gypsy King” was open to sharing a ring with Tyson, whom his father John named him after in the 1980s.
Mike Tyson
Despite his advanced years, Tyson looked to get back in action and saw Fury as high-profile enough to discuss it.
Fury’s interview points to Tyson wanting a payday in a publicity stunt-type event.
“There was talk of it,” Fury said to iFL TV. “His people contacted me. Mike and I had a phone call. It was all real but never materialized.
“Whoever was offering the comeback money to Mike offered us peanuts.
Half a billion
“Mike was talking about £500 million ($620 million) figures, but what came back to us on paper was a joke. It was crazy.
“I did have a $10m offer from ESPN to do the fight as an exhibition, but I think everyone has moved on now.
“I would have loved to share the ring with him and move around. But if he had won, then people would have said I was rubbish because a 53-year-old beat me. If I had beaten him, then I would have been a bully.
“It was a lose-lose situation for me. It was money; I didn’t need to fight a man past his best.”
Instead, Fury fought Deontay Wilder again. He defeated Dillian Whyte and, more recently, Derek Chisora [again].
A clash with Oleksandr Usyk fell apart despite the Ukrainian bowing to Fury’s contract stipulations more than once.
However, in contrast, Tyson hasn’t fought or even seemed to have another event in his locker since the Jones stalemate.
Training videos still pop up now and again, but there’s no real sense that Tyson will want another exhibition.
His first attempt made 1.5 million sales and cracked the Top 10 United States Pay Per Views. But it left a bad taste in Tyson’s mouth after falling out with Triller.
Tyson’s latest video teases another exhibition, with old foes Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield linked to filling a Pay Per View void.