Deontay Wilder and Mike Tyson met in Saudi Arabia recently, and it was all smiles despite past tension.
Wilder and Tyson have, naturally, been asked about one another in the media – one being a fearsome heavyweight from a past generation and the other taking up that role in the modern era.
It turns out that somewhere along the way, those comments got Wilder’s back up.
In a recent chat with ES News, Wilder’s trainer and former opponent, Malik Scott, said that the animosity between the pair goes back years, however everything seemed squashed in Saudi Arabia.
“The tension that was there was [because] Deontay’s his own man, and he’s very ‘come forward’ with anybody … He felt as though Mike said something to him – this was years ago – so Deontay responded.
But, the good thing is, when they met in Abu Dhabi, I was really happy to see those pictures. I was really happy to see them smiling with each other.”
Wilder – who held the WBC Heavyweight title for half a decade – is on record criticising Tyson’s resume – or at least the perception of it – as far back as 2017.
It’s unclear what exactly ‘Iron’ Mike, himself a former undisputed champion, has said in the past to irritate Wilder, however an interview does show him using the Alabama fighter to highlight what he saw as a wider problem in the sport.
Tyson claimed that boxing was failing because the best were’t fighting the best, and used Wilder as an example, saying he was fighting guys who ‘were not rated’ and that he was supposed to win against.
There’s always been a base-level of respect between the two, though. When Wilder claimed that he would beat a prime Tyson, the heavyweight legend praised him for his confidence and said that it was how a champion should be acting.