Mike Tyson, shown in 2019, is coming back to boxing at age 54. The former heavyweight champion will meet four-division champion Roy Jones Jr. in an eight-round exhibition match on Sept. 12. Noam Galai/Getty Images/TNS
For months, Mike Tyson had been tantalizing the boxing world with talk of perhaps reentering the ring for an exhibition match benefiting charity, including posting workout videos showing the chiseled physique and hand speed of the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
Now a comeback fight appears imminent, according to multiple reports indicating Tyson, 54, will face another legend, Roy Jones Jr., Sept 12 in an eight-round bout billed as the “Frontline Battle” and available on pay-per-view and the entertainment and social media platform Triller.
The fight will take place in California, TMZ Sports reported Thursday afternoon.
Tyson (50-6, 44 knockouts) last fought in 2005 in Washington, D.C., where he lost to Kevin McBride in a forgettable swan song.
Jones (66-9, 47 KOs) fought as recently as two years ago, beating Scott Sigmon in a cruiserweight title bout. Considered among the top pound-for-pound fighters in history, Jones, 51, has held world championships in four weight classes.
The former U.S. Olympian also served as a boxing analyst for HBO until 2018.
Tyson, meanwhile, has dabbled in acting, most notably playing himself in “The Hangover”; collaborated with director Spike Lee for a one-man show on Broadway; and voiced himself in the animated “Mike Tyson Mysteries.”
Several months ago, Tyson revealed during an Instagram Live interview with rapper T.I. that he had been training again, not with an official comeback bid in mind but instead for a worthy cause.
“I want to go to the gym and get in shape to be able to box three- or four-round exhibitions for some charities and stuff,” Tyson said. “Some charity exhibition, make some money, help some homeless and drug-affected (person) like me.”
Tyson grew up in some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York and by his 13th birthday had been arrested 38 times, according to an interview in Rolling Stone in December 2013.
He served prison time after being found guilty by a jury in March 1992 of raping Desiree Washington in an Indianapolis hotel room nearly a year earlier.
Tyson, 25 at the time of his conviction, served less than three years of six-year sentence before his first comeback fight, defeating Peter McNeeley in a first-round disqualification.
At the peak of his professional career, Tyson was can’t-miss viewing, transcending the sport as one of the most famous athletes in the world. Each time he stepped into the ring, there was the possibility of another brutal knockout, perhaps even within the first 30 seconds.
On Nov. 22, 1986, when he was 20, Tyson scored a second-round technical knockout of Trevor Berbick to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history by capturing the World Boxing Council title.
But as dramatic as his victories often were, so too was a defining loss to James “Buster” Douglas on Feb. 11, 1990, in Tokyo. Douglas was a 42-1 underdog on the way to scoring a 10th-round technical knockout in one of the most memorable upsets in sports history.
Tyson had won his first 19 fights by knockout, with 12 coming in the first round. He brought a 37-0 record, with 33 knockouts, to the Tokyo Dome, including a 91-second dismantling of previously undefeated Michael Spinks a year and a half earlier.
Tyson also infamously bit the ear of Evander Holyfield in the 11th round during their 1997 title bout and lost when referee Mills Lane stopped the fight before the start of the 12th.
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