After an impressive albeit controversial career, Mike Tyson should have been putting his feet up and enjoying retirement. But as is often the case with the world’s top sporting stars, the allure of the ring called out to him yet again. And so Tyson went back. Naturally, there was some serious conditioning work to be done and the boxing champion devoted a great deal of time to working on his fitness, but when a number of charity matches went ahead last year, it was Tyson who participated in them showing that he may have aged, but his talent hadn’t left him yet.
With a number of boxers favouring the charity match as an opportunity to not only get in incredible shape but face off against an opponent they’ve long been wanting to fight, Tyson is no different. On a recent episode of his web series Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson, he and rapper Freddie Gibbs had a discussion about who would make a worthy opponent in the current boxing landscape.
Tyson at first tells Gibbs that he’d love to fight again and go up against the likes of Tyson Fury, which appears to be a mutual match-up as Fury has also expressed that he’d be keen to fight Tyson. As for Deontay Wilder, Tyson wasn’t particularly keen. From there in the conversation though, Tyson makes a rather surprising revelation about the controversial YouTube stars-turned-boxers Logan and Jake Paul.
“I don’t think there’s too many people that could beat you, period,” says Gibbs. “I feel like boxing kind of fell off…I’m sick of seeing all these Jake Paul fights.”
But as Tyson points out, while Gibbs might not be a fan of Paul, it’s these matches that prove highly lucrative. “That’s the money fight,” said Tyson. “Those are the fights that make the money, those guys have got 35 million people watching them.”
When Gibbs then asks Tyson if he’d fight one of the Paul brothers, his response is clear: “Hell yeah.” Tyson then adds that “a lot of money” would be involved, despite Gibbs being sceptical about whether either of the Paul brothers would want to step foot in the ring with Tyson. “He’d do it,” he says. “100 million bucks, they’ll do anything.”
Logan Paul has gone on the record to say that he thinks he has what it takes to beat Tyson in the ring and well, this could just be the opportunity he needs to show off his boxing prowess against one of the all-time greats. As for Gibbs, he backs Tyson all the way, saying he’d love to see the former boxing champion knock one of the brothers out.
