Mike Tyson has reportedly been offered $1 million to fight former New Zealand All Black Sonny Bill Williams in Australia.
The 53-year-old former undisputed heavyweight champion has recently revealed last month that he is training for a return to the boxing arena to take part in four-round exhibition fights for charity.
The iconic American heavyweight certainly proved he has not lost any of his formidable punching power as he recently uploaded an Instagram video of him hitting the mitts being held by MMA legend Rafael Cordeiro, who has been training with Tyson for the past three weeks.
The training videos subsequently caught the attention of a number of boxing fans, Melbourne boxing promoter Brain Amatruda being among them, and Amatruda said: “He might be 53 years old, but he’s still a huge name and any of these blokes including former AFL star Barry Hall, retired NRL player Paul Gallen or Sony Bill would jump at the chance to get in the ring with The Baddest Man on the Planet.”
When asked where the fight would take place, Amatruda said: “I’d hold it at Melbourne Arena where we’d get over 10,000 or even Princes Park where they got 30,000 for Jeff Fenech versus Azumach Nelson.”
Williams, who has now gone back to playing rugby league following his retirement from rugby union, has won all seven of his previous pro boxing fights, but has not fought since 2015.
The biggest win of Williams’ boxing career to date has been against former South African world champion Francois Botha, who Williams controversially beat in 2013.
When asked when the fight might take place, Amatruda said: “We’d have to wait until the coronavirus shutdowns are over of course so the fight probably wouldn’t be until early next year – as long as we can get the visa.”
One thing is certainly clear, following the announcement of Tyson’s potential return to the ring, 'The Baddest Man on the Planet’ is not going to be short of offers, and some even think he could still mix it with some of the top heavyweights of today.