Heavyweight legend Mike Tyson is dead serious about returning to the ring for exhibition fights, says fellow boxing great and close friend Jeff Fenech.
Fenech, the Australian triple world champion, was with Tyson in the US earlier this year as the exhibition plan was being hatched.
Footage emerged last week of Tyson hitting the pads in training - still a terrifying spectacle even at age 53. Fenech claimed that 'Iron Mike' would knock out recent world champion Deontay Wilder in one minute and could certainly handle exhibitions.
"I knew what was happening, I was over there with Mike a couple of weeks before any of this came out," Fenech told Wide World of Sports.
"It's really exciting. I know he's not going to fight for the world title again - but listen, while I would never let one of my friends get hurt, I would let him fight Deontay Wilder. Give me three months training with him, I'd have no problem at all with Mike fighting.
"But he doesn't really want to fight [professionally] now, he's just going to do some exhibitions. He's really making some great money for charity, him and his foundation.
"But watching him on the pads the other day, wow, pretty awesome.
"To see him at 53, doing what he did the other day is pretty amazing. He said to me, 'Jeff, I've only trained for three days and I feel great again'."
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_qAaOHFtwj/?utm_source=ig_embed&Tyson confirmed that he was keen on fighting exhibitions to "make some money to help some homeless and drug-affected motherf---ers like me". Four-round fights are being discussed but no potential opponents have yet been named.
Tyson (50-6, 44 KO) has not fought since a series of four-round exhibition bouts against Corey Sanders in 2006 and his last professional fight was a loss to Kevin McBride in 2005. Fenech trained him for that fight, throwing in the towel after six rounds with 'Iron Mike' clearly spent.
"At 53, if he trains properly and everything goes right, I think he'll look sensational," Fenech said.
"He's excited and when he's excited, I know he works hard. It's not about making a comeback, it's about a couple of exhibitions.
https://twitter.com/espnmma/status/1257444903107416067?s=20"The people that are going to help him - and hopefully if this [pandemic] is over soon I might be one of those - we've just got to get the right opponent and make them work great, make it look great. Make the people enjoy it and raise as much money for the great causes as we can.
"I think it will be a great experience for him as well, to be able to relax and enjoy himself, rather than be full-on and try to kill someone, and think someone's going to try to kill you. It will be new to him as well.
"They were talking about four rounds ... I don't think the people are going to really care. As long as it's Mike Tyson, he puts bums on seats and gets a lot of people interested. You see the amount of views on that 10 seconds of him punching, it's gone crazy, it's gone viral."
Fenech said he remained convinced that Tyson could knock out most current heavyweights inside one round. Tyson Fury, the clever Briton who dethroned Wilder, might be the exception.
"I'm sure that Mike would beat Wilder tomorrow, but Fury's a different kettle of fish," Fenech said.
"He's one of those guys, he's big, he's strong and he's smart. He has a plan, where Wilder just says, I hit you, you're going to get knocked out.
"I don't think that's a plan for fighting Mike Tyson. But against Fury, that would be very, very tough for Mike.
"In his prime, I think he beats them all. But at this stage, exhibitions sound great to me."
Fenech said that Tyson's enduring fame and popularity was no surprise. The boxing icon is in a remarkable new phase of life, which includes a legal marijuana empire.
"I was one of the guys who was blessed to travel the world with him," Fenech said.
"In the morning, he'd move his curtain and all the people that were outside waiting for him would be screaming. When we'd get in the car, in London or in Scotland, people would jog for a kilometre by the car touching the window.
"I've never been around The Beatles ... but he was very similar. He's one of the most popular guys in history in his sport. And good luck to him, especially now his life's done a full turnaround and he's doing great things for people.
"I've always known him to be generous and help people and he's never gotten credit for it. He doesn't do it for that reason, he just does it because he wants to do it."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/news/mike-tyson-exhibition-fights-training-video-jeff-fenech/083a3e7d-8167-412b-a596-a6710fb5e880
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