The individual who made the biggest impression at UFC 160 didn’t fight on the card. In fact, he has never fought in mixed martial arts.
Mike Tyson, once the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world, sat cageside after making a guest appearance on stage at the weigh-ins the day before. He entered the Octagon to raise one of the arms of light heavyweight Glover Teixeira after his win over James Te-Huna, and then cast a veto on who should receive the $50,000 bonus for the Knockout of the Night, overruling the UFC brass.
All this in the span of a day and a half, and all the while garnering tons of publicity for himself and the UFC.
Tyson’s popularity is still great. Many stars of the sports and entertainment world attended the event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas – a place Tyson knows all too well from his many bouts there – but in the fight capital of the world Tyson is still the king.
Tyson is a fan of the UFC and a friend of its president Dana White, so it wasn’t like he was out of place as a cheap prop for promotion. He is a student of boxing and knows his UFC history, too. It is his desire to do commentary for boxing and/or MMA, so adding him in any role on a telecast is good for business, eye candy if you will.
"He’s the Justin Bieber for grown men that like fighting," White told MMAjunkie.com. "He makes everybody go crazy. He’s fun to watch fights with. He’s fun to hang around with. I like having him around."
And you know that White is clever and savvy enough to make use of Tyson’s presence, notably in Vegas and particularly if the UFC decides to annually do heavyweight cards on Memorial Day weekend.
WWE owner Vince McMahon employed Tyson in 1998 as part of a storyline to prop up Wrestlemania 14. McMahon came to Tyson’s emotional and financial rescue when the controversial boxer was suspended from boxing for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear in an infamous match. Tyson became inducted into the WWE’s Hall of Fame Class of 2012.
Donald Trump is also a WWE Hall of Famer, so judge that how you will in the world of sports/entertainment. But the bottom line is both figures draw attention, and if you’re looking to broaden your reach as a business there are far worse ways to do it than incorporating Iron Mike and The Donald.
Tyson was once the baddest man on the planet, vicious in the ring and a thug outside of it, but his life has changed dramatically through time in jail spent for rape and the tragic loss of a child. He has reinvented himself more than any other individual in sports who went scaled the heights of success and then plummeted profoundly. He became the object of ridicule from talk-show hosts and comics, and yet Tyson has risen above it all, first with his hilarious appearance in The Hangover movies, in which he proved he could act, and then through his own one-man Broadway play about himself, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth.
He is reclaiming the respect he once had as a fighter and his marketability is strong. Putting Tyson into the picture for UFC 160 worked well. He didn’t monopolize the event, nor was he thrust in people’s faces like a pitchman. It was all good.
Tyson sat cageside beside UFC legend Chuck Liddell, who is a friend and training partner of Teixeira, pairing two legendary icons of different sports. When asked by announcer Joe Rogan whether it was a bigger thrill to win the bout or meet Tyson, Teixeira gushed. "I can’t believe Mike Tyson was here for me."
Teixeira said the day before at the weigh-ins, Tyson told him he’d someday be a world champion. Teixeira still had the afterglow in the post-fight media conference when questioned about meeting Tyson. He said he watches Tyson’s title fights before he comes to the arena for his bouts and thanked White for including Tyson in the weigh-ins.
"It was a dream come true, it’s priceless," he said. "I’m a big fan of Tyson. I couldn’t be happier."
Teixeira has won his last 19 fights, including four in a row in the UFC, and is considered a prospect for a title shot in his division. He could probably benefit having Tyson as part of his camp to give him some finer points about punching, which Teixeira does quite well, and mental toughness. You have to figure the relationship has been cemented and whenever Teixeria fights, Tyson will be there. In his prime, no one was better than Tyson in psyching out his opponents before they entered the ring.
One has to wonder how Tyson would have done if he had fought in MMA. He gravitated towards boxing because of his trainer at the time, the individual who provided him with the tools to become great. Once his trainer died, Tyson slowly came undone. He was still a beast in the cage, but he transformed into one outside of it, too, leading down a road of ruin.
MMA and, in particular, the UFC, was not an option at the time of his pro career because boxing ruled the world of combat sports. He retired almost seven years ago, and at the age of 46 has moved beyond the competitive sports world. Whether he could have been effective in MMA is a subject that can be discussed with no definitive answer. It has always been the argument that if a boxer and a wrestler fought one another, the edge would go to the grappler if the action went to the ground. But Tyson had lethal hand skills and toughness, so if you’re going to try to evaluate him it would have to be in an era when he was younger, not when his career started to sag.
James Toney, the IBA heavyweight champion in 2010, battled Randy Couture in a UFC bout and was meekly submitted midway into the opening round. Toney looked out of shape and appeared winded early, particularly when Couture took him to the ground and negated his boxing efficiency. Some would say it was an obvious mismatch because even though Couture was nearing the end of his career, he still had the overall skills that made him a champion in two weight classes and the pride and desire to not embarrass himself. This was a fight he didn’t want to lose.
Even with his face tattoo, Tyson appears to have become grounded in life. Perhaps maturity came later in life to him through a combination of circumstances and ultimately finding happiness with his third wife and putting behind all the baggage that made him such a complex, bitter and unsociable figure.
The individual who graced the stage and the cage of the UFC these past two days is a throwback to a different era in sports, one in which boxing had no equal in the fight game. Much has changed. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the king of the ring, so to speak, but the legacy and popularity of Mike Tyson remains.
Whether or not Tyson really did veto the UFC hierarchy in choosing who should win the $50,000 bonus for knockout of the night – White said it was going to be dos Santos for his wheel kick stoppage of Mark Hunt, but Iron Mike wanted it to go to Canadian T.J. Grant for dismantling Gray Maynard in the first round of their lightweight bout – might have been a way to underline his importance. Moreover, if you want to position Tyson as a future UFC commentator, he just made first entry into that with an interesting choice that surely had people discussing it.
Tyson didn’t win a belt Saturday night, but he is still a heavyweight champion of the world in popularity and presence and, perhaps, as a future analyst.