Evander Holyfield wants Mike Tyson to lend him an ear on boxing each other again.
This is not a tit for tat for when Tyson bit a chunk from Holyfield’s ear in a 1997 bout, the second of two heavyweight fights that Holyfield won against Tyson. But after seeing Tyson raise money for charity with a $1 million guarantee and estimated $10 million haul for the pay-per-view bout against Roy Jones Jr., Holyfield wants back in on the action.
The 58-year-old Holyfield said “the only fight that anyone wants to see” is him against the 54-year-old Tyson.
“My side tried to make the fight happen and we got nothing but excuses,” Holyfield said in a news release that sounded like a 1990s press conference with Don King at his side. “Now I can see why he wanted a tuneup fight before thinking about me.
“No more excuses. This is the fight that must happen for both our legacies. Saturday night you said you were ready to fight me, so sign the contract and get in the ring, Tyson. The world is waiting and it’s on you now. I’m ready.”
Tyson was surprisingly effective in a fight scored as a draw Saturday against Jones. Most onlookers believed Tyson won with sharper skills and stamina than expected. The prospect of fighting Holyfield came up after the fight when Tyson pledged to box again.
Holyfield told the “I Am Athlete” podcast that he needed at least $25 million to box again.
“Maybe Evander needs to talk to me because every time my business associates talk to his business associates, it doesn’t turn out well,” Tyson said. “If you could see what we made tonight, if these guys really care about the welfare of Evander, they would have had this fight with Evander.”
We might regret wanting to see this, but this begs for one more fight to complete a trilogy.
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