‘Everybody makes money’ – Mike Tyson completely disagrees with Floyd Mayweather’s point about what’s wrong with boxing today

Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson have very different views on what is wrong with modern boxing.

The 50-0 former pound-for-pound king spoke out after his retirement on the proliferation of “world title” belts in the sport.

Speaking in late 2020, Mayweather said: “There are too many champions in the sport of boxing right now.

“Too many champions. There is no such thing as a “super” champion, not at all. And I’m not taking anything away from any fighter. There are too many belts.

“And the reason why there are too many, let me tell people what’s going on in the sport of boxing, why there are so many different titles and so many different belts.

“People don’t know you have to pay, for every belt you win there’s a sanctioning fee.

“If a fighter only has the ‘normal’ belt, he has to pay a sanction fee. If a fighter is a ‘super’ champion, he has to pay a sanction fee. This is not good for the sport of boxing.

“Every fighter is now a champion. Belts are now like a fighter winning an amateur trophy.

“We need to clean up the sport of boxing. This shit, it doesn’t look good.”

When asked about this, Tyson disagreed.

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He replied: “Boxing can never have too many belts because every time there is a championship fight it makes the fighter more money. There are never enough belts.

“Let’s say there’s one champion and ten guys (competitors), how long is it going to take to face these ten guys? Plus, they have to compete against each other.

“It’s good to have three champions because every time there’s a fight, everyone can get paid. Everyone makes money.

“That’s what this business is all about. Money.”

Tyson knows this better than anyone as he will face Jake Paul in his next fight on July 20. There has been no confirmation yet as to whether a ceremonial belt will be on the line.

It’s unclear what Tyson and Mayweather’s relationship is at present.

In the past, the two men were not on speaking terms, possibly due to a police raid in 2001 – a time when they were both the biggest names in the boxing world, with Tyson being bigger than Mayweather .

A former Iron Mike assistant, Darryl Francis, told USA Today that Tyson’s dislike of Mayweather stemmed from his belief that Floyd had called the raid.

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Police raided Tyson’s Las Vegas home in September of that year after a woman accused Tyson of sexually assaulting her on two occasions.

In his book, Tyson said a friend told him the alleged victim was also dating “another prominent boxer.”

Tyson always insisted he couldn’t prove anything and later said: “I’m OK with that now.” You can forgive, but you must remember.

13 years later, when they met on stage, Tyson rushed towards Mayweather and faked a punch in his direction.

Floyd didn’t flinch and they kissed, a little awkwardly.

Although the incident appeared jovial, comments made just a year later seemed to suggest that was not the case.

In a 2015 interview, Mayweather claimed he was the greatest boxer of all time, ahead of Muhammad Ali and Tyson.

Tyson objected to the comments, not about himself, but about his idol Ali.

“He’s very delusional,” Tyson responded.

“Look, if he was near the kingdom of a great like Mohammed Ali, he would be able to take his children to school by himself.

“Okay, he can’t take his kids to school by himself, and he says he’s great?

“Greatness is not about protecting yourself from people. It is accepted by the population. He cannot take his children to school alone. He’s a bit of a scared man. He is a very small and frightened man.

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