Floyd Mayweather’s fight with Mike Tyson is now in serious doubt following a bombshell tax revelation.
Mayweather, 49, is due to fight kickboxer Mike Zambidis in Athens, Greece, on June 27, before a clash with Tyson, with a deadline set for the end of May and DR Congo touted as a possible venue. However, according to Ring magazine, neither contest may actually take place, with the IRS notifying Mayweather of its intention to revoke his U.S. passport owing to an unresolved, seriously delinquent tax debt of upward of $7.25million (£5million). Such a move would stop Mayweather from travelling abroad and staging the bouts overseas.
Mayweather is also lined up to face old foe Manny Pacquiao in a professional fight. The Sphere in Las Vegas is expected to host their rematch on September 19. Netflix confirmed the contest would be an official professional bout, counting towards both fighters’ records — a long-awaited rematch more than 11 years after their historic meeting in May 2015.
Last month, Mayweather claimed the fight would be an exhibition and stated that no venue had been confirmed. Nevertheless, The Ring reported that it had examined signed documents suggesting the contest was intended to be an official professional fight at Sphere.
Making an appearance earlier this month on Inside The Ring, Pacquiao rejected the notion of an exhibition, insisting he would only participate in a legitimate professional contest. Both camps say talks are continuing to finalise the bout as a sanctioned contest, with the probable venue now switching to either the MGM Grand Garden Arena or the T-Mobile Arena.
In a setback to fight fans, one of boxing’s most powerful promoters, Eddie Hearn, has expressed serious doubts over whether the fight will actually go ahead. Instead, speaking to FightHype, Hearn suggested that he reckons Netflix could turn its attention to a potential WBC welterweight title clash between Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn.
“The whole thing is a mess. I’m surprised that Netflix got involved in the whole circus of it… Netflix are new into boxing but they have got to be a bit more solid in a routine, because you can’t really announce a fight and it just falls by the wayside, it just doesn’t look great,” Hearn said.
“No [I don’t believe it will happen], not now. Netflix are only going to do so many fights, and the word is that they’re doing Benn-Garcia now on September 12 or whenever that is going to be, so that’s obviously the fight that is replacing Mayweather-Pacquiao. If Mayweather-Pacquiao happened, they’re committed to that fight, but if it doesn’t happen, they’re going to want another fight to slot in there, and by the sounds of that it’s Garcia against Benn.”
Related video