Домой United States USA — Sport It’s 2020, So of Course Mike Tyson Is Boxing Again

It’s 2020, So of Course Mike Tyson Is Boxing Again

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The return offers started coming when videos of Tyson sparring at 54 gained steam online. They landed on a bout with Roy Jones Jr., another champion from long ago.
Mike Tyson is back for a pay-per-view fight. Well, not exactly a fight. (“It’s an exhibition bout between two former champions,” said a seemingly exasperated Andy Foster, the California State Athletic Commission executive officer. “I don’t know another way to put it.”) Somehow, Tyson being back in the ring is a natural cap to 2020. A documentary series in the spring allowed millions to watch Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls run it back. The Fresh Prince recently returned to Bel-Air alongside the original Aunt Viv. Prince Akeem will soon be coming back to America from Zamunda, courtesy of Eddie Murphy. We reside in an era saturated in nostalgia, rampant with reruns in service of our need for safe, constant pandemic entertainment. Relentless news cycles make it difficult to imagine a hopeful tomorrow. We hug the familiarity of what we know. None of those previous revivals, of course, required much physicality. Jordan only had to lace up his shoes to sit down for interviews. Tyson is 54. Ronald Reagan worked from the Oval Office when Tyson destroyed Trevor Berbick in 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion at the age of 20. George W. Bush was president during Tyson’s final official boxing match, a biting loss to journeyman Kevin McBride that made clear that at 39, Tyson was no longer “Iron Mike” to serious pugilists. On Saturday, he will fight Roy Jones Jr.,51, another once-skilled boxer long past being past his prime (“This exhibition, I can understand the appeal for it,” said Steve Farhood, a Showtime boxing analyst, adding: “You can’t expect much. You can train your body as much as you want, you’re still 50-something years old.”). But nostalgia sells and Tyson always proved a draw. And if you’re thinking Tyson needs the money, no, that is apparently not the case. His cannabis company appears lucrative. The fight (“If you know anything about his fighting career, he’s been done for a while,” said Louis Moore, a boxing historian and professor at Grand Valley State University. “A long time.”) will earn funds for several charities under the umbrella of the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation. “Why can’t I do something bigger than me? ” Tyson said during a recent telephone call, while acknowledging that he is known to be selfish. “Like I said, ‘Why do I always have to think about me? Why can’t I think about somebody else for one in my life?’” The roots of the exhibition, scheduled at Staples Center in Los Angeles, began with the same catalyst that has caused many a man to fall. “Ego,” Tyson said and not “temporary insanity” as the former champion George Foreman claimed. “Everything is a reason in my life,” Tyson said. “I do everything for a reason.

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