Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. has quickly turned from exciting into a farcical event the closer we come to the opening bell of the exhibition.
Initially touted as ‘the return of The Baddest Man on the Planet’ and accompanying a warning that ‘Tyson is ready to knock Jones out,’ it’s becoming more apparent that this isn’t the case at all.
More and more barriers have been put in the way of Tyson and Jones actually trading proper blows. It seems to be that a glorified sparring session is truly on the cards.
Is that really worth fifty bucks? – I don’t think so.
It’s bad enough that a YouTuber who plays boxing is appearing on the undercard. That was just about manageable when we thought Tyson would be able to be unleashed on Jones.
We wanted to see if Jones still had the magical defenses of old to keep Tyson off. It was set to be an intriguing affair.
But now, the pair have a clause in the contract that they cannot try to knock each other out, that’s if you believe the reports on the fight. So what is the point of this exercise?
If we want to watch Tyson basically training, there has been plenty of footage leaked out already. All in an apparent rouse to make fans buy the Pay Per View.
The closer the event gets, the more evident it becomes that this is just a money grab by organizers offering Tyson upwards of $10 million to get himself into shape, basically.
Drug testing measures were added but were not completely fool-proof. While scoring initially brought legitimacy, it is now void as they won’t even matter.
The WBC offered a championship belt for the winner. However, that’s now been changed to a belt each. So what is the point?
MIKE TYSON PAYCHECK
I’ll tell you what it is. Purely cold hard cash. Two fifty-somethings who will be blowing and tired after 60 seconds of action spending the other minute of the round thinking of the massive paycheck they are getting to pull the wool over the fans’ eyes.
I mean, if you’re going to put on this kind of showcase, and try to sell a league of it in the process, give it some sort of validity at least.
Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. seemed a good idea then. With just days to go, it doesn’t seem worth the effort.
We certainly won’t be paying for the Pay Per View. The highlights themselves could be few and far between.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Twitter @WorldBoxingNews.
