Jack Massey vs Mohammad Ali Bayat Farid, eight rounds, cruiserweights

9 min readNov 28, 2020

Mike Tyson said a psychedelic drug known as toad venom played a part in his return to boxing at the age of 54 and his taking on Roy Jones Jr. Saturday night in an eight-round exhibition match.

“I took the medicine and the medicine told me to get into shape,’’ Tyson said Friday, referring to psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT during an interview on the day of the official weigh-in. “It really blew my mind. It told me to come back and start getting in shape.’’

The fight will be Tyson’s first first in 15 years. His pro career had ended on June 11, 2005 when he refused to come out for the seventh round against journeyman Kevin McBride.

Tyson and Jones will fight at Staples Center in Los Angeles but without spectators because of COVID-19 restrictions. The fight is available on pay-per-view for $49.99 and can be watched at tysonontriller.com.

Tyson weighed in at 220 pounds and Jones weighed in at 210 pounds.

Jones, 51, said he expects Tyson to be formidable “because he’s rejuvenated.”

“He’s been out 15 years and he knows what it’s like to miss boxing,’’ said Jones, a four-time champion in four weight classes. “He realizes what he had and he’s seeking to get that back now. … Now he has a desire to want to come out and be who he once was and do what he could once do.’’

Tyson said that road back, which involved psychedelic drugs, has tested him. He indicated he has lost 100 pounds during his training regimen, which started with 15 minutes a day on the treadmill. He called his first day of sparring “disastrous.’’

“During that session of boxing when I was getting shellacked, never once did I say, ‘What the (expletive) am I doing here?’ I said, ‘Woo, I belong here.’ ”

Tyson’s fight against Jones has been sanctioned by the California State Athletic Association and because it is an exhibition, it will have different rules. That has dampened some enthusiasm around the fight.

For example, the rounds will be two minutes rather than the standard three.

The fight will be stopped if there is a cut, according to information released by Triller, promoter of the fight. There also will be no ringside judges and no winner will be declared.

But the World Boxing Council (WBC) will score the fight and a winner will be determined by those scores or announcing the outcome of a KO/TKO/DQ. The results will not be reflected on their fight record, said Michael Goldberg, a publicist working with Triller.

Tyson sounded apprehensive about making a prediction in light of the restrictions.

“It’s going to be entertaining,’’ Tyson said, “because I’m a fighter, he’s a fighter. And of course you know we’re going to in there throwing punches and during that process anything can happen.’’

“Just as long as I hit him good, listen, I don’t know,’’ Tyson added. “Maybe I don’t know how to go easy. I don’t want to say the wrong things because some people get angry.’’

It all started because of a question, an idea from his brother-in-law and an appearance by a Hollywood executive on his podcast, recorded earlier this year.

To fully understand how and why Mike Tyson is getting back in the ring Saturday for the first time in 14 years — in an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr. — start there.

Tyson said that back in March, Azheem Spicer, the brother of Tyson’s wife, Lakiha, approached him with an idea. Spicer knew Tyson didn’t want to fight at the time, but would he entertain a bout against mixed martial artist Bob Sapp? The idea piqued Tyson’s interest.

“I said, ‘How would he want to fight me?’ I was in good, decent shape. I looked well. I wasn’t in shape, but I looked like it because I was working out a little,” Tyson told ESPN. “He said he’ll box you Marquess of Queensberry, and so I said, ‘I’ll do it.’”

The fight with Sapp fell through. Then, Tyson said, other fights fell through, too. Around that time, Tyson had Sophie Watts, a longtime boxing fan and former president of STX Entertainment, on his podcast. Watts asked Tyson if there is any sort of sports league for icons who are larger than their particular sports.

Tyson told her that nothing like that existed, but that it was an idea he had in the past, that he’d like to do it and that he’d like to start it with a fight featuring him. The idea became the Legends Only League, and Tyson-Jones Jr. is the first event.

“You surpassed your sport into being a global icon, and it’s our belief that audiences — not just sports fans but audiences united — really want to engage with those icons and understand the story that made them a legend,” Watts said. “Mike is a legendary, legendary boxer, but he’s also a legendary figure in lots of different ways.”

They still needed to find Tyson someone to fight.

The idea of Jones Jr. came up in the spring. Tyson said he thinks it was Spicer who made the connection again, and the fight was agreed upon. Tyson said the two had discussed fighting in the early 2000s before Jones Jr. fought John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title, but it never happened.

Now, in a different way, it will.

“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s so awesome,’” Tyson said. “It’s always something I wanted to do, but it never happened. We both wanted to do it.”

It won’t look quite like what you’re expecting on Saturday at Staples Center. It is an eight-round exhibition with two-minute rounds, no headgear, 12-ounce gloves instead of 10-ounce gloves and no legalized betting in the United States — because it is an exhibition fight. Tyson said his money from the fight will go to charity.

Watts, who is part of the group with Tyson that created this new league and produced the fight, said, “Safety, for us, is of absolute paramount importance.” That is part of why they had the WBC and commission involved. Watts also said they are trusting and relying on the California State Athletic Commission to protect the fighters.

The unique nature of this fight and the changes involved haven’t stopped Tyson from training with intensity because he wasn’t in the best shape. He isn’t at the level he went to when fighting in his prime, but he has been putting in the work.

“Training’s been hell from the beginning,” Tyson said. “I anticipated it would be hard, but I never anticipated that I would be, like, starting over in the thinking process. I took my youth totally for granted.

“That’s what I realized during this process: I took my youth totally for granted.”

Watts said the pay-per-view will look different than what boxing fans might be used to. There are no fans allowed, and the producers are working music acts, including Lil Wayne, YG and Wiz Khalifa, into the telecast, along with undercard fights and the main event of Tyson-Jones Jr. Not having fans, Watts said, allows them to do things differently.

“It is an interesting moment where you say, OK, how do you not distinguish between hosts and fights and music acts? How do you bring this together in one comprehensive event?” Watts said. “Media companies aren’t built that way. They are built to do sports, or they are built to do movies, or they are built to do a live music show. Weaving that together has been about breaking down barriers and recreating how this could be done.”

For Tyson, the focus is on kick-starting his organization with an entertaining fight against Jones Jr. This is his chance to show that people 50 and over “can still be very active physically and psychologically. This is a return to glory.” He’s talking about the fight — and also about his new sports venture.

He insists that this is “no one-off.” It’s the start of an organization that he believes will change the sports landscape. He mentioned the idea of John McEnroe playing Serena Williams in tennis or Dennis Rodman facing Metta World Peace in one-on-one basketball.

He anticipates Saturday feeling like he’s going into the gym again — albeit a bigger one in a massive arena. He figures there will be nerves, too. “If there weren’t, I wouldn’t participate,” Tyson said. “That’s just how it is. That’s just how I want to feel.” — Michael Rothstein

Both Tyson and Jones have talked tough to promote this bout, but it is very much an exhibition, per regulators. No knockouts are expected (though one could happen), and there won’t be a winner announced, according to California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) executive officer Andy Foster. No judges will be assigned.

Per Foster, Tyson vs. Jones will fight over eight two-minutes rounds, and if either man suffers a bad cut, the exhibition will be called off by referee Ray Corona. The two boxers will not have to wear headgear, and they will wear 12-ounce gloves, rather than the 10-ounce gloves typically used in professional fights. Corona will have discretion when it comes to any instances of a fighter being rocked or dropped, Foster said.

Foster said the bout will basically amount to “hard sparring” inside a gym.

“I want to make sure the public understands that this is an exhibition,” Foster said. “It’s about entertainment — it’s not about competition.”

Tyson and Jones did complete out-of-competition drug testing administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA), and both passed, Foster said. They will be tested again by VADA on fight night. The only exception to standardized drug testing is the exclusion of marijuana.

The semi-main event between YouTuber Jake Paul and former NBA star Nate Robinson will be a legitimate pro boxing match of six three-minute rounds, according to Foster. The card is being promoted by Jimmy Burchfield Jr., who is best known as the head of the regional MMA promotion CES out of Rhode Island. — Marc Raimondi

Nate Robinson certainly had a memorable NBA career. The three-time Slam Dunk Contest winner was a first-round draft pick in 2005, and he spent five seasons with the New York Knicks, including a career-best campaign in 2008–09 in which he averaged 17.2 points and 4.1 assists. He went on to play for the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans before continuing his basketball career in a variety of international leagues and the NBA D-League.

How did he end up as one of the featured fighters on the Tyson-Jones undercard, taking on 1–0 YouTube persona Jake Paul? Other than a chance meeting between Robinson’s manager, Napoleon “Polo” Kerber, and Paul, Robinson’s connection with boxing dates to his childhood.

“I’ve been a fan of boxing my whole life. Me and my brother, we used to slap box and use boxing gloves in the backyard with my dad. So it’s nothing new. It’s just real business now,” Robinson said. “I’ve played in front of thousands of people my whole life hooping, so just being able to step into a realm that I’ve never been in before is challenging for me, but it’s also fun to try to see how far I really can go with this.

Tyson’s career has crested with the highest of highs and fallen to the lowest of lows. He was the heavyweight champion of the world, one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, and then it all fell apart, as he was convicted of rape and imprisoned for three-and-a-half years during the prime of his career. Tyson has slowly become a pop culture figure again over the past decade, thanks in large part to his cameos in “The Hangover” and “The Hangover Part II.” He has had a growing presence with his “cannabis resort,” a starring role in an animated series, his Broadway show and a podcast, among other endeavors.

Jack Massey vs Mohammad Ali Bayat Farid, eight rounds, cruiserweights

Written by Babajanamer

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