The highly anticipated bout between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. is only days away, and now we know how much each fighter will pocket for participating in a spectacle that one boxing bigwig essentially characterized as a glorified sparring session.
Tyson, now 54 and whose last action in the ring was an an exhibition bout in 2006 against Corey Sanders following a 2005 loss to Kevin McBride, will receive a reported $10 million pay day, per Yahoo’s Kevin Iole, for Saturday’s exhibition.
Jones, meanwhile, is expected to make a guaranteed $1 million, according to what the fighter told boxing insider Dan Rafael earlier this week.
In light of the lopsided distribution of the purse, it merits noting that Tyson previously said he intends to donate his portion to charity.
“It’s going to be for various charities, so nobody’s gonna have to worry about me getting rich or being jealous and saying I’m doing this for money,” Tyson said on TMZ Live in July. “I’m not getting anything and I just feel good doing this because I can.”
Despite an exhibition that Andy Foster, the executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, unflatteringly called nothing more than a “hard sparring session,” the Tyson-Jones bout is scheduled as an eight-round fight that is fully sanctioned by his organization.
Further, the Nov. 28 bout will be scored by a recognized sanctioning body, and the winner will also receive a specially commissioned belt.
Much of the buildup to Saturday’s exhibition has been the frequent Tyson training videos that have surfaced over the past several months.
Each one that has hit social media, whether it documents a sparring session or general workout, has provided irrefutable evidence that Tyson remains in stunningly phenomenal shape and somehow still possesses impressive speed and intimidating power despite being well into his 50s.
Interestingly enough, Tyson has even hinted in recent weeks that additional fights might be in his future regardless of how the Jones bout plays out.
The main card of Saturday’s night of boxing at Staples Center in Los Angeles is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET. The pay-per-view price is $49.99.
More must-reads: