Iron Mike has got himself, says: I want to fight Joshua, says Mike Tyson
BOXING legend Mike Tyson is eyeing a shock showdown with Anthony Joshua.
The former undisputed heavyweight champion is set to return to the ring in November for a controversial crossover clash with Jake Paul.
Iron Mike has got himself in tip-top shape for his first foray to the ring since his Covid clash with Roy Jones Jr in November 2020.
And the International Boxing Hall of Famer, 57, has grand plans to share the ring with Joshua – albeit in a charity bout.
When asked about the prospect of sharing the ring with AJ for a good cause, he told TMZ, “I’m very interested.
“If doing that means we can have a bigger charity exponent, well so be it, I’m down to do that, too.
“I would love to (fight Joshua). That would be mind-blowing.”
Before he can think of a charity clash with Joshua, Tyson must first get through YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul – who will be 31 years his junior on fight night.
And former two-time unified heavyweight champion Joshua admits he has concerns for Tyson’s health.
During an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, the 34-year-old said, “He’s (Mike Tyson) older now.
“I pray that he comes out healthy. I think Jake Paul because of youth – that’s the only thing.”
The booking of Tyson vs Paul sparked outrage in the boxing community, with fans publicly venting their disgust at the latter.
But Joshua, surprisingly, is a fan of Paul’s gimmick-driven fights.
“He can’t stay ” In rescheduled bout Mike Tyson, 57, wants to fight A J if he knocks out Jake Paul
The former undisputed heavyweight champion is set to return to the ring in November for a controversial crossover clash with Jake Paul.
Iron Mike has got himself in tip-top shape for his first foray to the ring since his Covid clash with Roy Jones Jr in November 2020.
And the International Boxing Hall of Famer, 57, has grand plans to share the ring with Joshua – albeit in a charity bout.
When asked about the prospect of sharing the ring with AJ for a good cause, he told TMZ: “I’m very interested.
“If doing that means we can have a bigger charity exponent, well so be it, I’m down to do that, too.
“I would love to [fight Joshua]. That would be mind-blowing.”
Before he can think of a charity clash with AJ, Tyson must first get through YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul – who will be 31 YEARS his junior on fight night.
And former two-time unified heavyweight champion Joshua admits he has concerns for Tyson’s health.
During an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, the 34-year-old said: “He’s [Mike Tyson] older now.
“I pray that he comes out healthy. I think Jake Paul because of youth – that’s the only thing.”
The booking of Tyson vs Paul sparked outrage in the boxing community, with fans publicly venting their disgust at the latter.
But Joshua, surprisingly, is a fan of Paul’s gimmick-driven fights.
He said: “I personally think it’s really good.
“I think the boxing hardcores, they don’t like it because they think, ‘Why are they disrespecting our sport?’
“But I think that person brings all these people into boxing which benefits everyone else. Everyone viewing helps.”
Tyson and Paul were due to trade blows on July 20 but their Texas tussle was pushed back to November 15 following a medical emergency for the former.
Joshua, meanwhile, was last in action in March, brutally knocking out former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in the second round of their Saudi showdown.
The retired boxer’s foray into the cannabis market in New York is a test of how far a celebrity can carry a brand.
On a recent weekend, fans of Mike Tyson, one of the greatest boxers ever, lined up by the hundreds at dispensaries in New York for a chance to meet him and to support his latest business move: selling weed in his home state.
With the recent release of his Tyson 2.0 line, Mr. Tyson, 57, has become the most visible newcomer of the celebrity wave in the state’s cannabis industry. Although actors, athletes and musicians have been cashing in on weed with product lines and endorsement deals over the last decade as legalization has swept the United States, the tide is just rising in New York. And Mr. Tyson is one of the biggest names yet to test how far fame can carry a brand in a market that is shaping up to be one of the largest and most competitive in the world.
At the Conbud dispensary on the Lower East Side, he greeted fans with handshakes and hugs as they bought from a selection of smokable flower packaged with names like Tiger Mintz and Knockout OG. He playfully barked as he posed with a dog named Dottie and her owner, and he complimented a woman who, against the advice of her sons, wore a “Chrithmith” shirt making light of his lisp.
Within a few hours, the pair of dispensaries that introduced his cannabis brand to New York had sold more than $40,000 of his flower and expanded their foothold in a market dominated by unlicensed competitors. And that was without the popular gummies shaped to look like Evander Holyfield’s ear, which Mr. Tyson infamously bit during a 1997 bout — one of only six fights that he lost.
Casting his new release as a homecoming of sorts, Mr. Tyson, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, joined other New Yorkers banking on their local bona fides. They include Method Man, a member of the influential hip-hop collective known as the Wu-Tang Clan, and Abby Rockefeller, an ecologist and the scioness of one of the most powerful families in America. Ms. Rockefeller is among the biggest investors in Hudson Cannabis, the producer that grows Mr. Tyson’s weed on her farm in the Hudson Valley.
Cannabis brands backed by big names have drawn mixed reception. While they tend to outsell traditional brands, they cannot compete with the biggest brands that are selling millions of dollars of weed each month. In California, the nation’s largest market, just nine of the 30 best-selling brands are owned or backed by celebrities, including Tyson 2.0, Houseplant by the actor Seth Rogen and Mirayo by the musician Carlos Santana, according to Headset, a data firm specializing in cannabis.
Mitchell Laferla, one of the firm’s analysts, said that what ultimately drives consumers in newer markets like New York is value, and that’s where celebrity brands struggle. The consumers who are the biggest spenders are looking for the highest potency at the lowest price, and celebrity brands vary in quality while generally carrying a higher price tag. In California, the average cost of a typical 3.5 gram bag of flower is around $23.14, while Tyson 2.0 sells for about $28.44, a 23 percent difference.
Tyson 2.0’s success can be credited to Mr. Tyson’s hands-on approach to customers and his company, the business’s aggressive expansion into new markets like New York and Maryland, and its product quality, Mr. Laferla said.
“Your name may get someone to try it once,” he said. “But your brand and the quality of your product is what’s going to get people coming back.”
Yuvraj Singh, the president and chief executive of Strain Stars on Long Island, said customers are already returning for Mr. Tyson’s weed. His customers bought $30,000 of Tyson 2.0 flower on the first day of sales, and the cannabis line is already one of the store’s five best-sellers.
“The word’s gotten out that it’s a very nice, clean high,” he said.
Coss Marte, the co-owner and chief executive of Conbud, said his dispensary has also had repeat customers after selling $10,000 of Tyson 2.0 in an hour, roughly as much as the dispensary typically makes in a day.
Mr. Tyson has emphasized the therapeutic role of cannabis in his transformation from a brash boxing champion to a disciplined businessman. Less than 10 years ago, he said in an interview, he was broke and struggling with a cocaine addiction. Now, he owns one of the most successful celebrity cannabis brands in the country.
He said his goal is to solidify his legacy as a trailblazer in cannabis. “That’s more important to me than making money,” he said.
Mr. Tyson was born poor in Brooklyn before he discovered a talent for boxing at a reform school upstate. He quickly became a teenage phenomenon, and ultimately won 50 of his professional bouts, mostly by knockout.
But his reputation was sullied by his antics in the ring, like biting Mr. Holyfield’s ear, and legal troubles, including a three-year stint in prison for a rape that he still denies. He revealed his cocaine addiction in 2014, and has credited cannabis with helping him to get clean. He now lives in Las Vegas and owns a cannabis ranch in California.
His personal narrative appeals to many of his fans, who seem eager to support him. “He’s had a hard time, and I resonate with that,” said Tony Pedroza, 26, a boxing fan from Brooklyn who lined up to see Mr. Tyson in Manhattan.
Moneefa Jones Tucker and her husband, Troy Tucker, drove from Bethlehem, Pa., to support him. She said they had followed Mr. Tyson since the start of his boxing career, and they admired how he had evolved.
“His head is now nice and calm with the weed,” she said. “This fits him, and he looks great, too.”
Kristina Lopez, the co-founder and chief executive of House of Puff, an artistic accessories brand, said celebrities can have an effect in cannabis far beyond the cash register as “secret weapons” in the fight to legalize and normalize cannabis use.
The rapper Jay-Z, for instance, has helped the public to reimagine cannabis as part of a life well lived with Monogram, his line of luxury weed, she said. And Cynthia Nixon, the actress most famous for her role on “Sex and the City,” was a quintessential force in promoting legalization as a racial justice issue during her primary campaign against former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2018.
“Their real power isn’t just in sales figures,” Ms. Lopez said. “It’s in how they can change the game about what people think about cannabis, and influence market dynamics, and even potentially influence legislation.”
Even high-profile politicians have joined the industry as advisers, investors and lobbyists. In 2018, John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who once served as speaker of the United States House of Representatives, joined the board of Acreage Holdings, a multistate cannabis company with four medical dispensaries in New York. Mr. Boehner, who was firmly against legalizing cannabis during his 12 terms in Congress, has said it was time for a shift in federal policy. (At the time, such a change would have netted him a $20 million payday.)
It was the opportunity to raise awareness about how the criminalization of marijuana fueled racial inequality that drew Fred Brathwaite, better known as Fab 5 Freddy, to the industry. In the 1980s he was a street artist who counted Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol as friends, and he later became the host of “Yo! MTV Raps,” a popular cable show that took hip-hop from the streets and broadcast it into millions of American households.
Now, he is a co-owner and the chief executive officer of B Noble, a weed brand named after Bernard Noble. Mr. Noble, who is Black, became a national symbol of the nation’s draconian drug laws after he was sentenced to 13 years in prison in Louisiana over the equivalent of two joints.
B Noble, created in partnership with Curaleaf, the largest cannabis company in the country, sells weed packaged as a pair of pre-rolled joints in a nod to Mr. Noble’s arrest. Ten percent of the profits go to organizations serving people who are re-entering society from prison. Mr. Brathwaite said the company has donated $400,000 so far.
“This is how I think more people should function,” he said. “It could make the world a better place, as trite as that sounds.”
JEFF POWELL: Anthony Joshua has relatively easy work ahead to return to a world title as he looks more like the old AJ… and now will he fight Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk next winter?
Anthony Joshua looked back to the old AJ in beating Otto Wallin on Saturday
2024 could see two Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk fights – before a date for AJ
Anthony Joshua rolled back the years. Deontay Wilder rolled up the carpet.
So complex are the ironies of big-time boxing that AJ – instead of pocketing one hundred million dollars from two sand-shoe shuffles with the broken Bronze Bomber – will be offered a shortcut to a third world heavyweight title.
Deep down – since he already has ten times more millions to his account than the 15 children Wilder and Tyson Fury have sired between them – this is what Joshua may prefer.
In the final reckoning legacy, respect, history and all that come down to all you put into the record books. Not how much into your bank.
If in Riyadh on Saturday night Wilder had continued proving himself the most lethal puncher since Iron Mike Tyson instead of feebly losing all 12 rounds to Kiwi Joseph Parker, then the desert sun would have risen over a very different landscape.
Now the two-fight contract with Wilder lies gathering dust in the Saudi Kingdom while Joshua contemplates the prospect of meeting one Filip Hrgovic for a vacant IBF world championship.
So contrary is this particular sanctioning body that they are expected to strip their belt from the winner of the February 17 fight between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed world heavyweight championship for which boxing has been begging the last two decades.
While those two go back to Saudi for a rematch in the summer, the IBF will insist on their mandatory challenger getting his shot.
Step up Croatia’s Hrgovic, who kept his nose clean on Saturday with an instant stoppage of hapless Australian fall guy Mark De Mori. More relatively easy work for Joshua, now he has got his mojo back.
No, Otto Wallin is no longer the same Swedish basher who once gave Fury a gashed eye and a headache. But yes, Joshua did look more like the old AJ who pounded his way to Olympic gold and two world heavyweight titles.
The aggression which evaporated after he was knocked out by Mexico’s roly-poly Andy Ruiz Jr returned. As did the fluency of forward movement, the ramrod left jab, the bone-shaking rights. Most importantly of all the confidence as he bullied his way through the first four rounds before referee Steve Gray and Wallin’s corner men agreed their man had suffered punishment enough.
The trainers played significant roles in the bill-topping fights. Ben Davison coaxed Joshua out of his negative mindset and on to the front once more. Andy Lee not only brought former world champion Parker back to title contention but also into the best performance of his life.
It gives hope to us all that the likeable New Zealander benefited mentally also from sharing a few Jagermeisters as well invaluable sparring with his idol and friend Fury.
As for Wilder, after his retreat into Costa Rica’s eco jungle to sample the mystic powers of psychedelic drugs he boxed as if still in a nirvana trance.
When he raised an arm at the final bell as if expecting the gods to declare him triumphant he was still gazing at the moon. Parker won every round on one official card as well as mine and many others.
Not until the twelfth did he make any significant effort to land his right bazooka. Even then his timing was so far off that he couldn’t have punched his way out of a cobweb. Not even rust after only 50 seconds in the ring, for his last stoppage victory win since the third of his wars with Fury, can explain this away.
‘Perhaps I’ve found too much love in my life,’ Wilder muttered while hinting at retirement. That, he retracted later but whenever he returns to reality he will have to consider that at 38 he is unlikely ever to be the same deadly fighting man again. Highly unlikely, perhaps we should say. For Wilder the magic carpet ride looks to have crash-landed. For good.
With 2024 beginning to look like the last year of the Golden Oldies – with Fury and Usyk fighting each other twice and maybe the winner giving Joshua his hefty cash-out next winter – Daniel Dubois has found redemption just in time to be party to the succession.
Doubts raised about Dynamite Daniel’s stomach for the hardest game after his second taking of a knee, against Usyk, required answers.
He provided them by beating up Jarrell Miller, the man mountain almost as wide as he is tall, then stopping this belligerent and previously undefeated American brawler seconds before the end of the tenth and final round.
Criticism can sometimes be your best friend. A motivator to which a reborn Joshua and a redeemed Dubois have just borne witness.
After a long months of struggling, Tyson Fury finally successfully negotiated a fight. Fury last fought against Derek Chisora back in December 2022. Since that time, he’s been on a long break, mostly because he couldn’t finalize a deal with any of the potential opponents. His deal with Oleksandr Usyk for an April fight collapsed. A similar thing happened later with Anthony Joshua as well. In the end, he shook hands with the former UFC fighter, Francis Ngannou, for a crossover boxing fight.
At first, many considered Ngannou to be an underdog and favored Fury for the fight. That was until Mike Tyson came into the picture. As per the reports, ‘Iron’ Mike agreed to train Ngannou for the fight. This created waves on the internet, and this addition turned the tables for the fight. Recently, in an interview, Mike Tyson revealed his reasons for taking up the offer to train Francis Ngannou.
The interview began with the question, what urged Mike Tyson to take up the offer to train Francis Ngannou? As the MMA fighter wanted to work with ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ for a while now, why did he take him under his wing now? Well, Mike Tyson gave a quite straightforward reply to this, as he stated that it was too much of a big event to ignore.
Tyson said, “How many times do you really get to be at an immortal event? How many in your life would you be able to do something with this magnitude? So of course I’d want to say yes to be a part of it.” However, this decision of Mike Tyson didn’t sit well with Tyson Fury, who vowed to defeat his pupil to prove his might. Even Fury’s father John Fury criticized Mike Tyson over this.
Both fighters, Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury are just almost a week away from their bout. Recently, they had a face-off where Ngannou talked about the importance of Mike Tyson’s presence in his training camp.
In the Face-off with Carl Frampton, recalling his journey from skepticism and humble beginnings, Ngannou radiated confidence. He has defied doubters throughout his career. He also refrained from predicting a knockout against Fury, recognizing his opponent’s intelligence. Later, he was asked by Frampton, whether he acknowledges the weight of Mike Tyson standing in his support for this fight.
Ngannou said, “For me, it’s very important. He has always been very important.” Ngannou also stated how he’ll go into the fight through Mike Tyson’s point of view and emulate his style. He added, “ I’m the smallest guy inside, which is not something that has happened very often. So, I know that I need some techniques from somebody that has been in the smallest size and nobody better than Mike Tyson.”
It’s going to be one of the biggest crossover events in the history of combat sports, being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Who are you supporting in this matchup? Let us know in the comments section.
The run in Tyson’s early career that saw him destroy the likes of Trevor Berbick, Pinklon Thomas and Larry Holmes and featured some of the most impressive performances from a heavyweight that century.
However ‘Iron Mike’ has listed a showing by one of the current champions as perhaps the greatest from a heavyweight the sport has ever seen.
In a recent interview with Daily Mail Sport, Tyson directed some of the highest praise possible towards WBC belt holder Tyson Fury for his victory over Wilder in 2019, in the second of their memorable three fight saga.
“I thought that was one of, if not the greatest performance of all time. These guys are really doing it for boxing, him and Mr Wilder.”
They’re making boxing.”
For all his gushing over Fury, Tyson is currently trying to formulate a plan to defeat him, as he trains former UFC champion Francis Ngannou for his crossover bout with ‘The Gypsy King,’ which takes place in Saudi Arabia on October 28th.
In the eyes of most, Ngannou could have Cus D’Amato, Freddie Roach and Manny Steward in his corner and it would still not be enough to give him a credible chance of beating Fury on what will be his professional boxing debut.
Should Fury see off ‘The Predator’ in comfortable fashion as is expected, a long awaited undisputed clash against Oleksandr Usyk lays in waiting.
While some fans look forward to seeing World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in the ring with boxing legend Mike Tyson one day, chances are it might never happen.
Tyson Fury, 35, seems to have a different opinion about a fight between him and Mike Tyson, no matter how legendary the fight may sound to fans.
During an interview, Fury discussed the legend he was named after and shared that he thinks that a fight between both icons of the boxing world is a “lose-lose situation”.
Fury said: “I would have loved to share the ring with him and move around. But if he had won, then people would have said I was rubbish because a 53-year-old beat me. If I had beaten him, then I would have been a bully.
“It was a lose-lose situation for me. It was money; I didn’t need to fight a man past his best.”
Instead, Fury, “The Gypsy King”, fought Deontay Wilder again. He defeated Dillian Whyte and, more recently, Derek Chisora again.
A clash with Oleksandr Usyk fell apart despite the Ukrainian bowing to Fury’s contract stipulations more than once.
However, in contrast, Tyson hasn’t fought or even seemed to have another event in his locker since the Jones stalemate. Training videos still pop up now and again, but there’s no real sense that Tyson will want another exhibition, WBN reported.
His first attempt made 1.5 million sales and cracked the Top 10 United States Pay Per Views. But it left a bad taste in Tyson’s mouth after falling out with Triller.
Tyson’s latest video teases another exhibition, with old foes Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield linked to filling a Pay Per View void.
He again enters the lion’s den with Fury in the opposite corner as he coaches Francis Ngannou.
The fight has been questioned with Fury being undefeated against other boxers who have trained in that discipline for decades and that the Cameroonian will simply be out-classed against a master of another discipline, one that he hasn’t trained for.
Particularly in the wake of Fury‘s bouts against Deontay Wilder, a boxer of 15 years who went on to win an Olympic medal and the WBC belt. He is known for his devastating power but still couldn’t KO Fury, leaving others wondering what Ngannou is supposed to do.
His boxing video with the legendary Mike Tyson hasn’t helped calm those thoughts. The 57-year-old attempted to show Ngannou how to jab and follow with a quick body shot and the UFC fighter was anything but fast.
Tyson actually looks faster and more fluid, despite not fighting competitively since 2005 and being 21 years younger than his client.
The video led former IBF super-middleweight Caleb Truax to say, “That’s as awful as a jab can be.”
Further comments included: “Not looking good for Ngannou here. Fury might even have to carry him a few rounds.”
A second read: “Iron Mike would probably put up a better fight in a boxing ring that Ngannou would. This is going to be embarrassing.”
And a third wrote: “Tyson looks quicker and he’s 57.”
Mike Tyson gives blunt six-word reponse to Tyson Fury’s claim he’s going against him by training Francis Ngannou
MIKE TYSON has given a blunt response to Tyson Fury’s disappointment with his decision to coach Francis Ngannou.
Iron Mike has teamed up with the former UFC heavyweight champion ahead of his controversial crossover clash with the Gypsy King next month.
Fury was left saddened by Tyson – whom he was named after – opting to plot his downfall in the Saudi showdown – but the boxing veteran couldn’t care less.
The former undisputed heavyweight champion told TNT Sports: “This is business, and he understands.”
Ngannou’s martial arts journey began with boxing but he was convinced to try his hand at mixed martial arts by his former coach Fernand Lopez.
The Cameroonian clubber – who has never boxed in a professional capacity – has won 70 per cent of his MMA fights via brutal knockout.
And Tyson believes The Predator has the skill set to give Fury a real run for his money.
He said: “I think he’s gonna do very well.
“Listen, it’s all experience, he’s fighting, he just has to remember not to use his feet, which he never really did actually.
“He’s a real power puncher. Real fast for a big guy, 260[lbs].
TYSON FURY VS FRANCIS NGANNOU: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF HUGE CROSSOVER CLASH
“I just think he’s gonna do better than most people believe.”
Fury and Ngannou’s Saudi slugfest will be a professionally sanctioned bout, although the former’s WBC heavyweight title won’t be on the line.
Wythenshawe warrior Fury, 35, will enter the ten-rounder on the back of a one-sided beatdown of fellow Brit Derek Chisora last December.
Ngannou, meanwhile, goes into the lucrative showdown following a 21-month layoff after his final defence of the UFC heavyweight throne against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.
