On Saturday night, the 54-year-old former heavyweight champion returned to the ring for the first time in 15 years and put on a stunning performance over eight rounds while battling with Roy Jones Jr. in a special exhibition bout. Not only was Tyson in incredible shape but he looked sharp with his boxing, both offensively and defensively while simultaneously silencing a lot of critics who were baffled by his return to action.
Still, Tyson felt like he could have done so much more and he plans to show improvements in his next exhibition bout in the near future.
“I say I’ll be better the next one,” Tyson said at the post-fight press conference. “I could have done everything better. Everything I was doing, I could have done it better. God willing, I’ll be better the next exhibition.”
While the road back was anything but easy as Tyson dropped 100 pounds to get back into fight shape, he says that the entire experience rejuvenated his passion for the sport.
Even during the hardest moments of his training camp where Tyson was sparring for the first time in many years, he was also loving every minute of it.
“This is where I belong,” Tyson said. “I never once, even when my first day sparring and I got my rib cracked and a guy was just smashing my jaw, I never once said ‘what the hell am I doing here? Am I crazy?’ I just said I’m in the right place. I said I’m in the right place.
“Very happy I did this. I will do it again. The sky’s the limit with this place. We have so many great legends that are interested in jumping on board and being involved with this program.”
According to Tyson, he wants to stay very busy now that he’s active again and he has no plans to return to the version of himself that required the boxing Hall of Famer to drop a dramatic amount of weight just to be able to get back into the gym again.
“I’m going to workout,” Tyson said about his immediate plans after Saturday night. “It’s become my lifestyle now. I’m never going to be that guy ‘Fat Mike’ and stuff, ‘Cokehead Mike.’ I ain’t going to be that guy no more.
“I had 15 fights in one year. Let’s just try to work closer to that. It has to be competitive where it’s constant, nobody can get out of shape because everyone’s fighting. It would be consistent. I would like to have once every two months, my personal opinion. I’d like to fight every two months.”
One fight that has constantly been mentioned since Tyson announced his return was a showdown with former rival Evander Holyfield, who previously announced his intention to fight again earlier this year.
Tyson says his team actually reached out to Holyfield as a potential opponent but the two sides could never come to an agreement. That said, Tyson is still open to the idea of running it back with Holyfield if the former champion is interested.
“Maybe Evander needs to talk to me because every time my business associates talk to his business associates, it doesn’t turn out well,” Tyson revealed. “So I don’t know. If you could see what we made tonight, if these guys really care about the welfare of Evander they would have had this fight with Evander.
“Maybe we’ll do another but whoever’s he’s with who’s handling him is totally wrong.”
Whether it’s Holyfield, a rematch with Jones Jr. or facing off with other legends of the game, Tyson is excited about the future with limitless possibilities for what comes next for him.
“Anything’s possible. The sky’s the limit,” Tyson said. “I believe we broke all the records on pay-per-view concerning boxing. We did really kick butt on there. I just want to continue to do this from a humanitarian perspective.”
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