Distinguishing garbage from gold has apparently never been more difficult. It didn’t start with last week’s exhibition between former champions Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr., and there’s no indication that fuzzy thinking will end any time soon.

 

In the wake of Saturday’s “debacle,” to quote Teddy Atlas, over-the-hill fighters fighting other over-the-hill fighters hasn’t lost currency, in fact it’s picked up speed.

 

Fifty-eight-year-old Evander Holyfield, the former undisputed heavyweight champion who last fought a decade ago, wants in on the action. He was perturbed watching Tyson vs. Jones, not because it was a poor excuse as both boxing and entertainment, but because “My side tried to make the fight happen and we got nothing but excuses. Now I can see why he wanted a tune-up fight before thinking about fighting me.” 

Holyfield fought Tyson twice and beat him both times, so one might think there was no unfinished business left between the two men. But one might be mistaken.

“Roy Jones was a good local opponent for Mike,” said Holyfield. “But a fight with me would be a global event and the only fight that anyone wants to see is a fight between us. There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't make it happen.”

 

There are several reasons why they shouldn’t make it happen, and not a single one of them involves money. Insofar as Tyson-Holyfield 3 being “the only fight that anyone wants to see,” this Saturday’s pay-per-view fight between Errol Spence Jr. and Danny Garcia puts the lie to that assertion.

Holyfield whooped Tyson when they first met in 1996. The rematch in '97, the so-called “Bite of the Century,” ended Tyson’s reign, not as a global celebrity, it actually enhanced his notoriety, but as someone who still gave a damn about boxing.

But letting bygones be bygones, Holyfield wants to do it a third time.

 

“No more excuses,” he said. “This is the fight that must happen for both our legacies. Saturday night you said you were ready to fight me, so sign the contract and get in the ring, Tyson. The world is waiting and it's on you now. I'm ready.”

 

And credulous consumers are ready as well.