Zab Judah says Mike Tyson is playing for keeps his eight-round exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr this Saturday night on November 28th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The former two-division world champion Judah reveals that the 54-year-old former IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight champion Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) knocked a tooth out of one of the guys that he trained with in preparing for the 51-year-old Jones Jr.
Judah maintains that Tyson is taking the exhibition match with former four-division world champion Roy Jones Jr (66-9, 47 KOs) seriously, and he wants to win emphatically.
With this just the beginning of Tyson’s exhibition matches, it’s important that he wins and looks good doing so.
Tyson knocked a guy’s tooth out training
“I just finished a training camp with Mike Tyson. I’m here to tell the world that Mike Tyson is coming in the ring to bring a lot of pain,” said Zab Judah on social media.
“This is not a game. I understand that he’s playing around and throwing the rule book around. My bro [Mike Tyson] is coming to hurt somebody.
“I want everyone to know this is not going to be a game. The Mike Tyson we’ve known from the past is back. Let me tell you why. The guy [sparring partner] that came to the training camp came with a full set of teeth.
“He left with one tooth missing. That’s due to the intensity of what Mike is doing again. My bro is on it. It’s going to be crazy, so tune in, don’t miss it. Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones, it’s not going to be a joke,” said Judah.
Zab didn’t say what the circumstances were behind Tyson knocking out a tooth of one of his training patterns. It wouldn’t be surprising if Tyson did the job against one of his trainers holding mitts for him.
In some of the video clips of Tyson working out on the mitts, his punches came dangerously close to tagging his trainer to the head.
It’s no secret that Tyson has more than enough power to knock Jones Jr out if he lands cleanly, even with the 12 oz gloves they’ll be wearing on Saturday night.
Jones has been knocked out by these fighters since 2004:
- Antonio Tarver
- Glen Johnson
- Danny Green
- Denis Lebedev
- Enzo Maccarinelli
Tyson hits harder than all of those guys with either hand, which makes him dangerous for a fragile-chinned guy like Jones. What we don’t know is if Jones’ punch resistance will be improved now that he’s at a higher weight for this fight. It’s not likely to improve.
If Tyson lands anything big in this fight, Jones will go to sleep if it connects cleanly.
Jones will have a big edge in stamina and sharpness due to him having fought up until 2018. Tyson hasn’t fought since 2005, and he looked terrible in losing to Kevin McBride.
Tyson NOT getting $10 million for Jones fight
“I’m looking forward to making everything sensational and having a great show,” Mike Tyson said. “Everybody knows me,
“I’m coming to entertain the audience. It’s going to be what it’s going to be,” Tyson said about whether there’s going to be a winner.
“I trained for three [minute rounds], but it doesn’t matter. 220 maybe, 225,” Tyson said about what he figures to weigh-in on Friday.
“Absolutely, I’ll be nervous because that’s who I am. I’m looking forward to throwing punches at my opponent. Yeah,” Mike said when asked if he was a fan of Roy Jones Jr in the past.
“It was going to happen a long time ago, but it just didn’t happen [Tyson fighting Jones]. Most of my stuff is for charity and grassroots,” Tyson said when told that he’s supposedly getting $10 million for the Jones fight. “I haven’t got no $10 million either,” Tyson said.
We don’t know what Tyson is getting for his fight with Jones. Although they say it’s a charity fight, what’s unknown is what percentage of the money is going to charity. Even if it’s 80%, Tyson will still get a nice payday for the fight.
Tyson says he wants to back soon with another exhibition fight, and he wants to do a lot of these events.
There’s a possibility of Tyson making huge money from these exhibition matches if he doesn’t give away 100% to charity.
For Tyson to get top fighters to agree to these fights, he’s probably going to need to agree for them to make money from them. There aren’t too many fighters that will want to get nailed to the head by a still powerful Tyson.
Cus D’Amato would have wanted Tyson to come back sooner
“I don’t know anything about that. I just perform. I go in the ring and do my job,” said Tyson when asked how many pay-per-view buys his fight with Jones will bring in.
“He would say, ‘Why did you take so damn long?'” said Tyson when asked what his former mentor Cus D’Amato would say about him making a comeback at 54.
“He would say, ‘You lose one fight to this guy, and you get discouraged and throw everything away. You should have continued doing it.’
“He would have told me not to allow my feelings to get the best of me, and then I give up. He would say that.
“My feelings and how I felt about myself prevented me from making a living from my family and the people I love and myself,” said Tyson.
It was a major mistake for Tyson to retire after his loss to McBride in 2005. He still had a lot left at the time, but he clearly wasn’t training the right way by that point in his career.
If Tyson continued to train the way he was back then, he would have many fights, and his earning potential would have dropped off.
What Tyson needed back then was a trainer that would motivate him enough to dedicate himself to the training that he needed to be successful. Tyson has become more mature as he’s gotten older, but it’s too bad he didn’t have the dedication earlier.
