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Mike Tyson in PRIDE
By Zach Arnold | August 20, 2006
By Zach Arnold
The front page of Yahoo Japan’s HP has the link to a Sports Nippon newspaper report about Mike Tyson participating in PRIDE. Tyson is being marketed to the Japanese as PRIDE’s “big surprise” for their 10/21 Las Vegas event.
Also in the report, Hidehiko Yoshida continued expressing his desire to open up a new Judo school in the United States.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Unless Pride has convinced him otherwise, Tyson will be sticking to boxing exclusively. I saw a MMA match in which he was the ref, and in a post-fight interview he said that those guys are crazy, and that he would never fight anyone on the ground. Imagine, Mike Tyson calling someone crazy!
Tyson has a lot to learn about fighting on the ground. Whoever he fights, if he does, will immediately go in for a shoot, take him down, and dominate the fight there. It’d be like Royce Gracie’s first fight in UFC 1 all over again against the boxer.
Tyson is cool, but I really could care less about seeing him box again.
He’s done in the US as anything more than a mid-level PPV draw, how can he possibly mean more in Japan where heavyweight boxing isn’t near as big as MMA? Smacks of desperation, maybe Tyson is cheaper now than a lot of Pride regulars.
Ditch – the more logical reason, and one that I’ve stated in the past about Sakakibara, is that Tyson has bigger name value to the Japanese than he does to the American audience at this point. When you are trying to impress financial backers or potential sponsors in Japan to try to support your future ventures, you often do moves (such as bringing in Tyson in an ‘exhibition’ boxing match) to try to get people to cough up money. PRIDE could use some people coughing up money right now.
They could use Tyson against on of their fighters with boxing experience, like Vitor or little Nog.
I don’t think Tyson can get a license fight in Vegas, his last few fights were all in the South in States with weak or non existent Commissions.
This would have been interesting 10 years ago…no longer relevant (boxing and Tyson!)
I think Tyson, with his behavior, was made for MMA. If he learned some decent ‘Cro Cop style’ takedown defense, he could be more impressive than Mark Hunt. Tyson may be a has been in the boxing world, but he can still KTFO 99% of the worlds population.
Zach, Yoshida wants to open a Judo school in the US? Can you get more info on that?
Kaiser, it’s impossible for Tyson to have Cro Cop defense. The reason being, he’s to small and too stocky. Cro Cop can get away with the offense he does in fights (jabs and high kicks) because he is tall and lanky. And most importantly has long legs. Have you ever seen Tyson fight? He had to always close the distance and throw hooks and uppercuts because he was usually smaller than the majority of his opponents. He is about 5’10” or so, and has small legs. If he had to copy anyone’s style, then it would probably have to be Wanderlei Silva, because of the way he throws his kicks and strikes. And Tyson might still be too bulky for anything like that. Maybe he should train with Mark Hunt?
“He’s done in the US as anything more than a mid-level PPV draw, how can he possibly mean more in Japan where heavyweight boxing isn’t near as big as MMA? Smacks of desperation, maybe Tyson is cheaper now than a lot of Pride regulars.”
umm, the Kameda boxing brothers are twice as popular as any Pride or K-1 fighter, so I don’t find it that hard to believe that a legendary boxer like Tyson would be MUCH more famous in Japan than even the top Pride fighters. A lot of Japanese people I’ve talked to don’t even know what Pride is, only K-1. Almost all of them have heard of Tyson.
Tyson has a lot more name value to the Japanese than he does to foreign fans. If you look at all the moves DSE does through the prism of “Japanese first,” then you can understand their M.O. much easier.
Tyson’s gonna get the shit kicked out of him whoever he fight’s
you are talking about the most devestating knockout punch in all of boxing…he at one point had like 18 of the fastest knockouts of all time….even at 50 i think he could destroy anyones face. if anyone stands up with him its over….but tyson is a street fighter….a pitbull…..i think he’ll open some eyes with ground skills…just because of pure strength and lack of fear,morals, and brain cells…..he was bred to rip peoples heads off….this is a guy who pissed off…will do anything to pummel the opposing force….you cant deny the right hook…bottom line
i hate seeing old idols beeing demolished in mma, like ramon dekker (former thai-box-champion). tyson simply doesn´t know the game..and like he said a few weeks ago: “his fighting days are over”. i really hope that this is just a pride-PR-gag and no one will see him choked out ore arm-bared..let´s keep him in mind like he was fuckin´up peoples ass in the late 80ies. this jail-shit broke his mind and he never had a trainer who could bring him on a healthy level to survive in the ring.
Tyson will land atleast one punch. whoever he fights will get hit atleast once and when they do they will get ktfo