Confirming much speculation inside the fight media, Dream Stage Entertainment have officially announced their plans to have Mike Tyson fight in Macau on New Year's Eve.
DSE has revealed that their partnership 40 year old former heavyweight boxing champion will be further materialized on December 31st, as they plan to have Tyson compete against a PRIDE fighter in a boxing match, in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The locale serves two purposes for DSE: Tyson is unable to compete in Japan due to his felony rapsheet, whilst Macau is one of the world's hottest gambling venues, which could net revenue for DSE abroad.
DSE representatives say that Tyson's bout will be slotted into the live telecast of Otoko Matsuri, and will be seen by the live crowd at Saitama Super Arena in Japan on the video screens in the arena. It is the goal of DSE to have this year's Otoko Matsuri broadcast worldwide, including mainland China, Africa and the Middle East via internet stream.
Also, the announcement of Tyson's participation on New Year's Eve may be the key to restoring PRIDE's status on Japanese television. Despite losing their deal with Fuji Television in June, those in the television industry have stated that if DSE were able to get Tyson to fight on New Year's Eve, that Nippon Television and tv asahi would both be interested in acquiring the broadcasting rights for the event. According to broadcasting insiders, Nippon TV would be the frontrunner in acquiring PRIDE's broadcasting rights, due to higher spending power.
I heard something about it on ESPN earlier. They said something about "Mike Tyson takes on the world...after these messages..." but I forgot and changed the channel. I didn't get to see the actual piece.
I would definitely say that "Mike Tyson fighting for Pride" has already come further than "Mike Tyson fighting for K-1" ever came. The closest we ever saw Tyson come with K-1 was showing up on a video screen at one of their events. I honestly don't ever recall K-1 confirming that he was fighting in K-1... and to the best of my recollection... all the "Tyson vs." talk was just speculation by us and the North American MMA media.
I know a lot of you will hate this idea... but I'd love to see Tyson have the chance to actually WIN the fight and hopefully have him fight 2 or 3 more bouts in Pride over the course of 2007. So... I really wouldn't be upset if they gave him a scrub on NYE.
"I know a lot of you will hate this idea... but I'd love to see Tyson have the chance to actually WIN the fight and hopefully have him fight 2 or 3 more bouts in Pride over the course of 2007. So... I really wouldn't be upset if they gave him a scrub on NYE."
Agreed, I'd love to see him knock some fools out again, 1986 style!
O.K. This is my first post after reading mma.tv for a little over a year. I know all of the "newbies" get a lot of crap on this site but I figured "what the hell."
Tyson has several exhibition fights scheduled. The first is to be Oct. 20, in Youngstown, OH. There is still some speculation as to if this fight will happen because of his deal with Showtime. He is still under contract to fight one more time. The article never mentioned Pride. Check it out.