Former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has a lot of respect for Floyd Mayweather’s shrewdness as a businessman.
Mayweather, who retired back in August 2017 after stopping UFC superstar Conor McGregor in the rounds at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, is now making moves to be involved in big money exhibition fights.
Tyson, 54-year-old, retired from the sport in 2005.
Last November, he returned to the ring for an exhibition bout and fought Roy Jones to an eight draw on pay-per-view.
The event generated big business – with 1.6 million PPV purchases.
Tyson is not surprised with Mayweather’s decision to enter the exhibition market.
“This is the time where I see more fighters, even like Floyd, I have to give him this, they’re more enterprise-oriented than we were when we were fighting. There’s so much enterprise and they have a connection. We had connections, but we were playing the game we’re playing,” Tyson stated on his Hotboxin podcast.
Mayweather had an exhibition fight in December 2018, when he traveled to Japan and demolished undefeated kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa in one round.
He was scheduled to face Youtube star Logan Paul on February 20. Earlier this week, the pay-per-view contest was officially pushed back with new date to be announced in the near future.
Mayweather revealed on Thursday that he plans to take part in several exhibition fights.
He wants to face Paul, his younger brother Jake Paul – and even expressed interest in a bout with rapper 50 Cent.
“This year I will focus on several exhibitions. I will have an exhibition in Tokyo, Japan again. Of course the one with Logan Paul and I, and if Jake Paul can get past his next opponent Ben Askren, I will have an exhibition with him as well,” Mayweather stated.
“I also heard that 50 Cent would fight me but claims I’m too small. If he wants to lace up at the end of the year, we can do an exhibition then. I don’t care about weight class with any of these guys. The Paul brothers will make great money with the events, but with 50 Cent it has to be ‘Winner Take All’.”