SPORTS SHORTS 51: EVANDER HOLYFIELD VS. MIKE TYSON III CAN EARN $100 MILLION SAYS THE "REAL DEAL"
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 10 Feb 2021
Former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield is looking forward to a mega pay-per-view fight with archfoe Mike Tyson. "I think it will be a lot of money and a lot of millions. I think $100 million. The fight would be big because so many people want the fight,” Holyfield told Brian Custer on the Last Stand Podcast. “We’re the top two guys people want to see. There’s no reason to do it with anybody else other than Tyson."
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"The Real Deal" Holyfield, now age 58 years, of Atmore, Alabama, U.S.A., reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and remains the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the three belt period, namely WBA, WBC, and IBF. Mike Tyson, now age 54 years, of Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.A., reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990. Winning his first title belt at age 20 years, four months, and 22 days, Tyson holds the record as the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title.
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“The only thing that I hear people talking about [is] they want Tyson and myself. And you know, this is what the world wants to see. But you’re not in that situation, so you have to want to do it. So, I guess we have to come together and do it.” On the schedule of the fight in 2021, Holyfield answered, “I would say yes. I think it’s close. I think it’s something that we both want to do. I think it could happen.”
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Former two-division champion Zab Judah is a Tyson confidant and reported that the trilogy match is done. “The fight is made, the fight is done, Mike Tyson versus Evander Holyfield part three, amazing,” Judah told Metro as quoted by Boxing Scene. “Everything about that fight interests me, you just got to look at one and two and there’s no doubt why you wouldn’t want to watch number three, no doubt."
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Judah added that the fight is signed, sealed and delivered and both Mike and Evander are training everyday and both men will be coming atop the ring to do their job, and they are not playing brother. "Mike Tyson versus Evander Holyfield part three, it’s going down, it’s going to be real. It’s going to be a great fight for a third time. It’s going to be in Dubai, that’s what I’m hearing. That’s what the advertisement said," added Judah, the former IBF and WBO junior welterweight champion and the undisputed welterweight title in 2005.
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Holyfield has won his first fight against Tyson by an 11th round TKO win in 1996 and a disqualification win in their second fight in 1997 when Tyson bit a piece of his ear when "The Baddest Man on the Planet" was losing the first three rounds. "In the ring I was getting ready to bite him back, I was going to bite him back in the face, on the cheek, but my trainer was saying keep your mind on the Lord because the prophet told us something was going to happen in there. I thought I was going to get hit with an elbow or a head butt, but never thought about the ear," Holyfield recalled.
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Holyfield said he was ready to forgive Tyson right after the incident. "Once I got into the locker room and some of the people started getting loud saying, 'I can’t believe he did this!' I said we got to forgive him, and they said, 'what you mean you got to forgive him?' I said did he bite you or did he bite me? I said we’re going to forgive him because when I prayed that’s what God said, you have to forgive."
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Ahmet Oner, manager of super middleweight mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim, is confident his fighter is capable of pulling up some surprises on February 27, when he challenges WBC and WBA super middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in Miami, Florida. The betting odds are heavily in favor of Canelo. Many experts remembered Yildirim's loss when Chris Eubank Jr. stopped him in the third round in 2017.
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"Avni is strong and big. Believe in him. I don't know why people think so little about Avni. Maybe because of Chris Eubank's fight, but Avni's improved. Canelo is undoubtedly very strong, but he is not a God, he is a human being and as a human being he has his weak and strong parts. People underestimate my boxer a lot. We'll see what happens in the fight. Maybe we're going to shake the whole world," Oner told George Ebro.
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The bill for the naturalization of Angie Kouame was passed in the second reading in the House of Representatives. The Lower House approved House Bill No. 8632 on Monday which gives Filipino citizenship to the Ivorian center, hoping to become the naturalized player for the Gilas Pilipinas pool in time for the 2023 Fiba World Cup. Principal author was Deputy Speaker Rep. Robbie Puno, who is also the vice chairman of Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), as Kouame aims to become a Filipino during the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup in Indonesia come August. It also has a similar bill in the Senate filed by SBP chairman Sen. Sonny Angara, the Senate Bill No. 1892 still pending in the Upper House. If approved by both Houses, it will only need the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte for Kouame to obtain his Filipino citizenship.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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