Floyd Mayweather says the obstacles in front of his exhibition with Mike Tyson have been cleared, and he’s put a new date on the table. talkSPORT reported Wednesday that Mayweather set a fresh date for the Tyson fight and hinted that the issues hanging over it are resolved. The details out so far don’t name the date, the venue or what the problems actually were. For now this is Floyd telling the world the fight is back on. It’s still waiting on a signed contract and a commission approval.
It was a busy news cycle for Mayweather. Earlier the same day, MMA Mania ran his comments from the PBD Podcast, where he floated a second fight with Conor McGregor. “Actually, I think me and Conor McGregor may lock up again,” Mayweather said. “Yeah, absolutely. He didn’t break his hand, he broke his foot, right? Okay, well, we going from the shoulders. We going from the shoulders.”
That 2017 boxing match ended with Mayweather stopping McGregor by TKO in the 10th round, and MMA Mania put the event’s take at more than half a billion dollars. Mayweather also needled McGregor for riding the fight to bigger stardom. “The guy that took my whole swag and took it over there to the UFC,” he said, before adding, “I think I made about $300 [million]. I don’t like to count another man’s pocket, but he ate good.” MMA Mania tied the rematch talk to Mayweather’s current financial situation. Any rematch looks a long way off. McGregor is out with a knee injury and has one fight left on his UFC contract, and Dana White has already shut the idea down. “There was nothing about the Mayweather fight that makes me say,” White said, before explaining that he doesn’t see a second fight producing a different outcome.
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Tyson’s name kept turning up around combat sports this week anyway. Gaston Reyno posted footage of him at 20 on X on Sunday with the caption “Mike Tyson con 20 años.” Jose Aldo, talking to MMA Fighting about Alex Pereira, reached for Tyson as the gold standard for pure violence. “But the guy is a Mike Tyson,” Aldo said. “He goes in there and knocks people out.” MMA Fighting’s mailbag also used Tyson vs. Jake Paul as its yardstick for a physical mismatch while picking apart a hypothetical Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn boxing match.
This is my problem with the whole thing. Mayweather pitched two different superfights in a single news cycle, and only one of them came with any claim of a date. Until he says the date out loud, with a city and a weight attached, I’m filing the Tyson fight next to the McGregor rematch under Floyd talking. And if it does happen, I want it set to real rounds with real intent. Two legends trading jabs at half speed for a pay-per-view price would be worse than no fight at all.
