The rebirth of Iron Mike

What a time to be alive if you're a boxing fan and have only heard of legendary tales of world-class fighters like Ali and Sugar Ray, but never got so witness their dominance in the ring. Because THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE'RE GETTING. Well, erm, not exactly but pretty close.

Recently, Iron Mike himself Mike Tyson announced that he's starting a legends only league for some of the greatest retired boxers. It's kind of like the Big-3 league which was started by Ice Cube for retired NBA players who weren't ready to hang up the boots yet. And to top that, it's inauguration is going to be headlined by an 8-round exhibition between Roy Jones Jr. and Mike Tyson on 12th September 2020. Yes, I said Mike Tyson Vs Roy Jones Jr. and 2020 in the same sentence. This year has been truly weird.

The boxing world, to be fair, did have a lot of great fights upcoming like the biggest Heavyweight fight in recent memory of Anthony Joshua against Tyson Fury, which would answer the question for who is unanimously the best heavyweight. Also the groundwork was in place for the newly rising Ryan Garcia vs Devin Haney who had gotten the better of this matchup on multiple occasions before the both went pro. Even in the YouTube boxing world, where it had finally reached the possible last fight to show who the best YouTube boxer was between KSI and Jake Paul.

Also now that we're on the topic of Jake Paul, who in their right mind thought a fight against him and 5 foot 8 dunk champion Nate Robison would be a great fight on the undercard on the Tyson-Jones fight. I get the entertainment factor but it's a truly one sided fight and I truly feel there could have been a doze, maybe more fights I'd rather see before that. Like I keep reiterating, 2020 is truly a mind-boggling year and I don't know if I want it to end or see what other weird things the universe has in store for us.

Back to the topic in question, if you had been following Mike Tyson on his socials you would've probably seen quite a bit of training videos. Some would definitely interpret that as a possible comeback from the fighter but it was all just speculation. At that point there wasn't even an idea on who his opponent would be. So the boxing world was definitely in awe when the fight was announced. Some people even doubted this because of the age factor and the risk involved and to that I would say one thing, I don't care what Mike Tyson's age is or how good of a boxer I am, I would not and I mean NOT ever want to get punched by that man.

Now, who do I think would win? For the sake of the fact that this would be the inauguration and his is the only training clips that have surfaced, I wouldn't be surprised that Mike Tyson would be the favorite to win. On the other hand, Roy Jones has been more recently in the ring for a competitive fight dating back to 2018 which he won. Roy Jones Jr. has won world titles in 4 different weight classes and truly a force to be reckoned with. I don't know who is going to win this exhibition but the one thing I can guarantee is an absolute masterclass of boxing from all time greats and hopefully it's just as entertaining and both men come out the other side safe and a whole lot richer.