“I wanted to do it the first time just for fun to have fun and then some people took it to another level and made it financial, and then the fun went out of it.”
Heavyweight legend Mike Tyson will not be returning to the boxing ring despite initial reports about a potential comeback against YouTube star Logan Paul.
Tyson, 55, revealed on a recent episode of the Nelk Boys podcast that he was offered ‘100 million bucks’ to fight again but says the money sucked the fun out of his comeback.
“You know something that’s interesting,” Tyson said (h/t Ryan Harkness of MMA Mania). “I think it was Jake, the youngest one.”
“I’m not even interested in doing this stuff,” he added. “It was just fun at first. If it was back when I first started, yes, and we were both fighting on the same card and both active, yeah, we could do it. But it just turned … it just turned bad. It didn’t turn out right.”
“Every, they say it’s 10, but it’s like every 12, or 13 months … boom, something’s missing,” Tyson said. “Like something’s missing. I give it to … boom, I’m losing muscle mass. Boom, it’s something. It’s always something different. And I don’t know, I’m just … guys want to fight me for 100 million bucks. I don’t think I’ll ever do stuff like that anymore.”
“I wanted to do it the first time just for fun to have fun and then some people took it to another level and made it financial, and then the fun went out of it.”
UFC president Dana White, who was also a guest on the podcast, then asserted that he didn’t want to see Tyson fight again, to which ‘Iron Mike’ responded: “I don’t think I will either. But you never know, again.”
Tyson later revealed his ongoing contract dispute with Triller was also part of the reason he didn’t want to fight again.
“But still a bunch of it is held up … I can’t even say anything about that,” Tyson said of Triller not paying him in full following the Roy Jones Jr. exhibition. “But yeah it was really tricky.”
“Yeah they should call them ‘Tricky’ instead of ‘Triller,’” White added.
Tyson was last seen in action on Nov. 28, 2020 when he fought Roy Jones Jr. to a split draw in an exhibition match at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time.