If Mike Tyson’s comeback tour continues, it won’t be against longtime rival Evander Holyfield. “The Real Deal’s” representatives claim that despite “intense negotiations for several months,” Tyson ultimately turned down a $25 million offer to meet on May 29th at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
“Team Holyfield sincerely believed a deal was imminent, especially after the Hard Rock threw its support behind the project, and there were multiple other offers conveyed to Team Tyson,” Holyfield’s camp said in a statement.
“However, Team Tyson’s demands recently became untenable, and not what Mike Tyson had originally agreed on in direct conversations with Holyfield.”
Though he did not address Team Holyfield’s claims, Tyson took to Instagram over the weekend to definitively state that he would never work with Triller again.
Tyson and Holyfield met twice as professionals, once in 1996 and again the following year. In the first, Holyfield steadily overpowered the favored WBA champion en route to an 11th-round TKO. The second, infamously known as the “Bite Fight,” saw Tyson respond to Holyfield’s legendary headbutts by biting a chunk out of his ear.
Holyfield, 58, hasn’t fought since a 2011 finish of Brian Nielsen. Tyson, 54, made his first appearance since 2005 when he fought Roy Jones Jr. to a draw in last November’s exhibition. A third fight between the two wouldn’t prove anything and would do nothing for either man’s legacy. Still, it’d probably sell a lot.