Los Angeles (AFP)
Heavyweight legend Mike Tyson announced Thursday that he will return to the ring at 54 to play an exhibition bout against compatriot Roy Jones Jr, 51, on September 12 in Los Angeles.
It is through a poster on the home page of the website of his new sports project "Legends Only League", a league inviting big names in sport, whatever their specialty, to participate in exhibition events, that Tyson has formalized his return.
The former terror of the heavyweights, who has been posting very impressive videos of his training sessions on social networks for several weeks, has not boxed for fifteen years.
No details have yet been released on the conditions of this fight against Jones Jr, who was world champion in four categories between 1993 and 2004, first in middleweight and super middleweight, then long enough in midweights. heavyweight, before finally owning the WBA heavyweight belt.
Faced with this opponent with a record of 66 victory for 9 defeats, Tyson will try to show another image than his pathetic final defeat fifteen years ago against a virtually unknown, Kevin Mc Bride, ringing the bell that we believed to be final of a career made of very highs and very lows during which he dominated the premier class for a long time between the 80s and 90s.
However, this fight is not official and its so-called exhibition nature means that the knockout will not be sought. According to Yahoo Sport, the gloves will be smaller and the clash should last 8 rounds instead of the usual 12.
The appointment is set in less than two months at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, county town of Los Angeles, in a room that can accommodate 27,000 people. But given the galloping spread of the coronavirus, it could be in camera.
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