‘In the morgue’: Legend fears Mike Tyson will ‘kill’ footy greats
Aussie boxing legend Jeff Fenech says Mike Tyson would ‘kill’ any one of the three footballers being touted for a fight against the former heavyweight champion.
While chances are extremely slim that it will ever happen, Sonny Bill Williams, Paul Gallen and Barry Hall have all been named as potential opponents for the 53-year-old Tyson.
Tyson has been training the house down and wants to come out of retirement for some charity fights.
And he’s been offered $1.5 million by a Melbourne promoter to come to Australia.
“I’d hold it at Melbourne Arena where we’d get over 10,000 or even Princes Park where they got 30,000 for Jeff Fenech versus Azumah Nelson,” promoter Brian Amatruda told the Daily Mail.
“He might be 53 years old but he’s still a huge name and any of those blokes Hall, Gallen or Sonny Bill would jump at the chance to get into the ring with him.
“I’d make it part of a card with a world title fight. It would be enormous. Not just a fight, it would be an event.”
However, Fenech – who used to train Tyson in his heyday – has offered a dire warning to the footy greats.
“Let me tell you something. If he hits Sonny Bill Williams or Paul Gallen, he will be up for manslaughter,” Fenech told the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday.
“I’m serious. If he punched Paul Gallen, he could kill him. These guys have never been punched by somebody like Mike.
“You see what he’s doing to the pads, imagine Mike hitting one of those guys with one of those uppercuts. More than likely they will be in the morgue the next day.”
Paul Gallen responds to Mike Tyson fight idea
Gallen was also sceptical when asked by Wide World of Sports.
“How could you not want to get in the ring with Mike Tyson, to be honest? It’s like a young halfback coming up and not wanting to play against Andrew Johns,” he said.
“I’m not trying to put myself in that category … I’m just a bloke who loves the sport.
“But as far as being a legitimate fight or a charity bout, it’s not something you’d do just for charity, jump in the ring with that bloke.”
Tyson sent boxing fans into a spin when he recently announced his plans to make a comeback.
Trainer Rafael Cordeiro recently admitted Tyson still possesses one of the meanest hooks in the business.
“The power is different level,” he told the Ariel Helwani MMA Show.
“I have trained a lot of heavyweights in my career, with not a lot of respect for everybody, but he is almost as powerful as Wanderlei Silva is right now.
“When you talk about power, I held his right hook and thought ‘he is going to kill somebody’.”
— Yahoo sports .
