Iron Mike’s sincerity and humility turned what might have been a cynical money grab into an unlikely moment of inspiration that underscored his endurance in our sporting consciousness
When Mike Tyson announced he was fighting an eight-round exhibition against Roy Jones Jr over Thanksgiving weekend after floating the idea of a comeback on Instagram for most of 2020, you’d have been forgiven if you dismissed the whole thing as a cynical money grab.
Nostalgia is a powerful narcotic. And the unspoken allure of old-timers exhibitions like Tyson v Jones is that people are paying not for the product on offer but a memory – a feeling. Embedded in the sales pitch of a Tyson fight was the promise of transporting the customer even briefly to a fairer, better time that mostly exists in our memories.
