MIKE TYSON has been offered $1million to come out of retirement and face unbeaten rugby legend Sonny Bill Williams in an exhibition bout.
The 53-year-old heavyweight icon recently revealed he wants to make a ring return to compete in charity fights, and has been training for the last three weeks under MMA mastermind Rafael Cordeiro.
Cordeiro, head coach at Kings MMA in California, believes Tyson would only need another five months to be ready for a genuine pay-per-view comeback fight.
And the reformed Baddest Man on The Planet has received his first offer to do so with promoter Brian Amatruda lining up either ex-rugby league players Barry Hall and Paul Gallen or All Blacks legend Williams as opponents.
Amatruda told the Daily Mail: “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.
“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.
“The first thing I did was contact (celebrity agent) Max Markson and ask him to offer Tyson $1million.
“Max brought him to Australia in 2012. He gets on well with him and his wife but the main thing is that he got him a visa to get into the country back then and that’s the key.”
Tyson spent three years in prison after being convicted of rape in 1992, a sentence that has seen him face travel restrictions in the past.
But he has since turned his life around, recently spending time in lockdown preparing himself for a comeback, but if he is to accept the challenge down under he may not fight until next year.
Amatruda said: “We’d have to wait until the coronavirus shutdowns are over of course so the fight probably wouldn’t be until early next year – as long as we can get the visa.
“They gave him one in 2012 and he was fine, he’s a quiet family man now. He didn’t cause any trouble then, so why shouldn’t they let him back in?”
Tyson boxed Corey Sanders in a 2006 exhibition as part of his world tour, which was organised to help relieve some of his well-documented money troubles.
But the two-time champion insists his planned comeback is only to raise money for charity and will now decide which rugby star to take on.
Hall drew against Gallen on his one and only boxing bout, with the latter winning his other nine fights.
Retired rugby star Williams, who now plays league, has won all seven of his pro fights but has not boxed since 2015.
His biggest win came against former world champion Francois Botha, who he outpointed in 2013.
