After months of hype and modification, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. will finally face off in an intriguing exhibition fight in California on Saturday.
Tyson and Jones are now 54 and 51, respectively, and former undisputed heavyweight champion Tyson hopes to launch a full-fledged sporting legends project off the back of this eight-round attraction.
It's easy to assume that both men have been out of the ring for years before making this highly publicized return. However, that's actually the case for only one of them.
Here's what happened the last time Tyson and Jones laced on the gloves.
Kevin McBride def. Mike Tyson (RTD Round 6), June 11, 2005
Tyson's final years as a licenced professional weren't pretty, though they certainly weren't dull, either. Following his infamous disqualification loss to Evander Holyfield for biting off a chunk of the defending WBA heavyweight champion's ear, he added four more wins to his record between 1999 and 2001, as well as two No Contests, with Tyson responsible for both fights being thrown out. After a final, failed, world title fight against Lennox Lewis in 2002, calls for the former "Baddest Man On The Planet" to retire intensified.
Unfortunately, that wasn't what happened. After wiping out Clifford Etienne in just 49 seconds, Tyson was then knocked out by Britain's Danny Williams before signing up for his last fight, 15 years ago, against Kevin McBride. Held at the MCI Center in Washington D.C., Tyson gave up almost 40 pounds on the scales to the Irish journeyman, but spent the run-up to fight night trashing McBridge and promising to "gut him like a fish".
Nonetheless, the 38-year-old Tyson showed little signs of the aggression or movement of his prime, and was kept on the end of the larger man's jab for much of the first two rounds. When Tyson found more success connecting in Rounds 3 and 4, McBride would clinch and lean to spoil, and the tactic succeeded in tiring the American.
In the sixth, Tyson lost patience with the bout, and his last professional round saw him attempt to break McBride's left arm while they were in a clinch before splitting his foe's eyebrow with an intentional headbutt. The former received a warning and the latter led to a two-point deduction from referee Joe Cortez. "Iron Mike" did not get up for the seventh round, quitting on his stool and finishing his career in a suitably controversial manner.
Roy Jones Jr. def. Scott Sigmon (10-round unanimous decision), Feb. 8, 2018
Conversely, Jones remained active all the way to the age of 49, participating in at least one professional fight in every calendar year of his run until 2018. That last fight was against Scott Sigmon in Jones' home town of Pensacola, Florida, at cruiserweight, and came after Jones initially claimed he had retired after stopping Canada's Bobby Gunn the previous year.
The 30-year-old Sigmon was outmatched by Jones, who even with a 19-year age gap was in a different class. Jones' hand speed and ring generalship were too much for the Virginia native, and Jones won on three identical scorecards of 98-92 following their 10-rounder.
In typical fashion, Jones immediately hinted after the victory that he would fight again, despite the bout being marketed as his last. Better yet, he called out mixed martial arts legend Anderson Silva.
"Dana [White, UFC president], I know you're listening," said Jones. "I know Anderson's suspended. But that's the only other fight Roy Jones will return to the ring for. Other than that, chapter's closed."
He had been considering exhibitions against fellow senior fighters such as former super-middleweight champion Steve Collins, and on Saturday Nov. 28, will do exactly that against Tyson.