Matchroom CEO Frank Smith is not convinced the exhibition fight between boxing legends Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather Jr will go ahead as planned next year.
Tyson, who will turn 60 next year, will join five-weight world champion Mayweather, 48, in a meeting between two of the best to ever step into the ring.
CSI Sports/Fight Sports announced the bout on Friday with no other details regarding a date, venue or rules disclosed at this stage.
Tyson will be in action for the first time since ending his 19-year retirement to fight Jake Paul last November in a farcical fight that was widely derided by boxing fans with the heavyweight legend suffering with various health problems in the lead-up to the bout.
Mayweather retired from boxing in 2017 after going extending his record to 50-0 with victory over Conor McGregor. Since then, he has competed in a string of money-spinning exhibition bouts with opponents including Logan Paul, former Geordie Shore star Aaron Chalmers and John Gotti III, the grandson of the famed New York mobster by the same name.
Tyson fought exclusively as a heavyweight in his rollercoaster career with Mayweather dominating boxing’s smaller weight classes.
While the exhibition status of the fight means there will be no real winner declared, Tyson and Mayweather have had their issues over the years with the trash-talking already underway.
But Smith believes that might be as far as it gets.
‘I actually don’t think it will happen when it comes around to it,’ Smith told Metro, speaking ahead of the launch of ‘Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen’ on Netflix later this month. ‘It is what it is, I don’t really think too much about it.
‘Whatever it turns out to be, it is not going to be real, is it? It’s a 60-year-old man against Mayweather in an exhibition. I don’t know, but I don’t think it will happen. I am not sure who is going to put up the money for that. It is very strange.’
Tyson has also fought in exhibition fights, sharing the ring with another ring legend in Roy Jones Jr in 2020. But this latest decision will reignite concerns for his health after admitting he ‘almost died’ months before the Paul fight last year.
‘The difficulty is, it is an individual making a decision,’ Smith continued. ‘Our job is to make the sport as safe as possible. But the reality is it is a dangerous sport and we have to accept it. We can put all the measures in to make sure the sport is as safe as possible.
‘In professional boxing, the onus is on us to make it safe as possible. But that also involves the fighter making decisions to make it as safe as possible for themselves.
‘But when it comes to these exhibition fights, a lot of them aren’t real. When it’s an exhibition, they go and have a little cuddle and throw a few pinches. It is not real.’
Should it go ahead, Tyson vs Mayweather will follow another outrageous exhibition bout taking place in November between Jake Paul and Gervonta Davis. Davis is a three-weight world champion and one of the most devastating punchers in the sport but is eight inches shorter than ‘The Problem Child. Paul has fought at weights in excess of 200lbs while Davis currently campaigns 135lbs in the lightweight division.
‘That one definitely happens,’ Smith said. ‘The reality is Gervonta Davis is an elite level fighter. He is much smaller, yes, but an elite fighter and he can probably stay out his way for six rounds.
‘But the truth is, that is the world we live in now. People want to see these kind of things. And if people want to see it and people are going to be paid a lot of money, fair play of them. None of us have to watch it. If you’re not interested, don’t watch it. But there’s a huge audience who will be watching that. Mike Tyson couldn’t really walk properly against Jake Paul and millions still watched that. But that’s the world we live in.’
Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen’ screens globally on Netflix exclusively from Wednesday, September 17.
