Boxing champ Mike Tyson fought to a draw against Roy Jones Jr. in a pay-per-view boxing exhibition bout on Triller that seemed to resonate with the entire world last month. Now the 51-year-old former heavyweight champion could be on his way to securing a superfight rematch against 57-year-old ex-champ Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield.
“We’ve definitely had conversations, and … it looks like it’s gonna happen!” Holyfield said in an interview with TMZ Sports. “… I’m a very confident person, so I think it’s gonna happen.”
When asked what message he wanted to send Tyson about a possible third fight, Holyfield kept it short and sweet.
“Let’s do it, baby,” Holyfield said. “Simple as that, let’s do it.”
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Holyfield Beat Tyson Twice
Holyfield twice defeated Tyson during the 1990s.
The two-division champion stopped Tyson in the 11th round in 1996 in one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight championship history and via disqualification the next year in the infamous “Bite Fight.”
Holyfield hasn’t fought since 2011. But the popular boxing icon and Hall of Famer believes the third fight with Tyson is something fans want to see, so Holyfield is on board with doing it.
“That’s the only guy I see that the people want,” Holyfield told TMZ Sports. “If it wasn’t for the people wanting it, I wouldn’t be saying nothing to him. I think we’ll come together, I think just a little more time. And I’m very thankful that I’m getting to put it out there that I’m ready.”
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Tyson vs. Holyfield 3?
Holyfield is one of the most decorated fighters in boxing history.
Holyfield was the first cruiserweight champion in boxing history to move up to win titles in the heavyweight ranks, too.
He’s also the only fighter in boxing history to recapture at least a portion of the heavyweight championship three more times after he originally lost his belts to Riddick Bowe in 1992.
Like Tyson, Holyfield is also in incredible shape. In fact, it’s almost as if as soon as he saw Tyson getting back in shape for another fight, Holyfield started to do the same thing, too.
While the two men were bitter rivals at one point, Tyson and Holyfield have since buried the hatchet about Tyson biting pieces of Holyfield’s ears off in 1997 and the alleged intentional headbutts Tyson believes Holyfield was using against him.
Now, the two boxing legends could fight one more time.
PPV Numbers Suggest Massive Third Fight
Both Tyson vs. Holyfield bouts were huge successes at the box office. According to Business Insider, both were among the top-selling boxing pay-per-view events in history.
The first fight sold 1.59 million PPVs, and the second fight hit 1.99 million.
By comparison, the top-selling UFC pay-per-view event during 2020 was UFC 255: Usman vs. Masvidal, which totaled 1.3 million PPV buys.
Meanwhile, the Tyson vs. Jones PPV event on Triller generated at least 1.6 million PPV buys, according to Boxing Scene.
That makes the fight the biggest combat sports event of 2020, and the best-selling combat sports event since 2017’s Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor superfight (4.3 million buys).
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Superfight vs. Mike Tyson: ‘It’s Gonna Happen!’