Mike Tyson almost ended up facing a UFC legend in his return to the ring after a 2020 exhibition was a massive box office hit.
The legendary former heavyweight champion is currently set to face Jake Paul at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, with over 60,000 expected to attend. But prior to signing up for his boxing comeback, he was often offered exhibitions and opportunities to fight again.
His initial comeback against Roy Jones Jr became one of the highest selling pay-per-view events in history in November of 2020. But he hasn’t opted to return over the past four years, until the Paul offer came up.
UFC legend Chael Sonnen claims he was due to fight Mike Tyson
During a recent YouTube video discussing Paul vs Tyson, legendary former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen made the claim that he was initially due to face the boxing icon. Sonnen is one of the most beloved fighters in MMA history, and fought for world titles at two weights.
And while he is known to occasionally spin a yarn, his story is a new one regarding the fight with Tyson. He says that the bout would have taken place in Saudi Arabia, and that he got to the stage of signing a letter of intent.
“I am also much younger than Mike Tyson and I was to a letter of intent phase of fighting Mike Tyson,” Sonnen claimed while discussing Paul’s recent lie detector video. “It was some rooftop in Saudi Arabia, it was this thing.
“I remember how I felt inside, I was signing it and I was doing my part and I was excited, it was Mike Tyson, it was going to be a big thing. I ended up boxing with Anderson Silva instead, but I’m just sharing with you from a very personal standpoint, I didn’t think about his age.
“I told coach Clayton, I asked could I beat this guy? Same question I asked before every fight and he said ‘of course, champ this guy is 55-years-old’. But it didn’t give me a lot of confidence, I must tell you, I still see him as a certain way.
“I know how important the approach is. If Jake Paul also views Tyson that way I think that’s very respectful, it lets us into the mindset of Jake Paul.”
Chael Sonnen loved Jake Paul’s lie detector stunt
Sonnen was discussing a YouTube video in which Logan Paul hooked his younger brother Jake up to a lie detector test. He was asked a number of questions, and even showed up as lying when he claimed that he was confident of beating Tyson.
“Jake Paul is very unique in the things that he does,” he explained. “He just is, he has a different set of skills and he brought that set of skills, here’s what he did today and I was blown away by the creativeness of this.
“I was blown away from a performance art standpoint; Jake and his brother work. And one of the reasons they work is Logan is big brother, and Jake is to a point where he is not crazy about that like ‘I am a legit bada**, doing legit dangerous things and you’re a very tough guy too’.
“Logan is doing the performance [in WWE], I should be the one that’s viewed that way. But Logan won’t let him have it, that’s Logan’s little brother, and it comes through and it’s cool, it’s a cool dynamic between these two!”