Mike Tyson has said he would have “embraced” fighting the current IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk.
He has also stated that his old nemesis Evander Holyfield would have given Usyk a good run for his money with the fantasy matchups being posed to him.
Tyson, who is currently in training for an exhibition with Floyd Mayweather Jr., hung up his gloves in 2005. However, what should be considered an exhibition bout with Jake Paul was recorded as a professional fight despite them wearing 14oz gloves in 2024.
“I would have absolutely embraced fighting Usyk,” Tyson told The Ring Magazine. “Holyfield would have given him a great fight. That’s a different era. You have to kill those guys to beat them. It’s hard to beat these guys without getting a scratch on your face.”
Tyson and Holyfield met back-to-back in 1996 and 1997. Holyfield handed Tyson his second career knockout defeat in the eleventh round at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The rematch famously ended with Tyson biting a chunk of Holyfield’s ear off, leading to a disqualification in the third round.
“We’re different fighters,” Tyson added. “The fighters in this era should see that. We were more active than they were. We were defending titles four times a year in my era. Now these guys are defending their title once every two years. Usyk is pretty active for a modern-day heavyweight, though. We were war horses fighting until the finish. Whatever derogatory things I said were because I was fighting them. I had the highest amount of respect for those guys that I fought.”
Tyson’s exhibition with Mayweather is scheduled for April 25 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Usyk will collide with kickboxing legend and former Glory heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
