Los Angeles: Mike Tyson has reportedly rejected a $25 million offer to fight Evander Holyfield on May 29th at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
The claims are being made by Holyfield's representatives.
"We thought this was a done deal, but it quickly fell apart when Tyson's people declined all offers," Holyfield's manager Kris Lawrence said in a press release. "We were negotiating in good faith all along, and it appears we just ended up wasting our time."
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According to the statement, the parties representing Tyson and Holyfield have been in "intense negotiations for several months" with the Holyfield team feeling like a deal was "imminent". However, according to the Holyfield side, Tyson's team kept moving the goal posts, and the demands recently became untenable, and not what Mike Tyson had originally agreed on in direct conversations with Holyfield.
Tyson and Holyfield fought in November 1996, with the latter pulling off the upset, winning via 11th-round TKO to capture the WBA heavyweight title. Seven months later, they met in a rematch that went down in infamy. In the third round, Tyson bit Holyfield's ear. Referee Mills Lane deducted two points for the incident. Moments later, Tyson bit the other ear of Holyfield and was immediately disqualified. A melee ensued inside the ring in what will go down as one of the worst incidents in boxing history.
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The two legends patched things up years later. After Tyson looked good in an exhibition bout in November against Roy Jones Jr., Holyfield expressed interest in running it back on more time with "Iron Mike". Both guys expressed interest, and talks started up.
Neither Tyson nor anyone from his team has commented on the latest development.
