Floyd Mayweather is stepping back into the ring to face Mike Tyson, but one former world champion thinks it will be more professional wrestling than boxing.
The world was shocked when a clash between the two boxing legends was revealed.
Despite being vastly different weight classes, Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson will face off sometime in 2026, in what is expected to be one of the biggest fights of the year.
The bout comes off the heels of Tyson’s bout with Jake Paul and Mayweather’s many money-making exhibition matches, although one former champion is skeptical about the fight.
Shawn Porter warns against Floyd Mayweather vs. Mike Tyson being like his fake WWE bout from 2008
Shawn Porter is one person who thinks the fight will be more professional wrestling than boxing, if it even takes place at all.
The former world champion told TMZ Sports that he doesn’t want the fight to devolve into a fake, WWE-style match, as that wouldn’t be acceptable in boxing as it is in professional wrestling.
He referenced Mayweather’s own wrestling match with Big Show at WrestleMania 24 as the kind of thing he worries will happen, before guessing that the bout won’t take place at all in the end.
Porter explained: “I don’t know what that fight looks like, and you know that that kind of was my biggest apprehension with coming on with you guys today, was like how do you analyze what a fight between Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather could look like? Right.
“So then you think about when Floyd got in the ring with Big Show, we already know, like we know now more than we’ve ever known before, that the WWE is fake.
“It’s kind of like acceptable, but it wouldn’t be acceptable in a boxing ring, you know? It wouldn’t be acceptable if there were some sort of weird antics and things like that.
“I mean, I guess I’ll have to do what I did once before with Mike and Jake, and I’m gonna go on record for saying this doesn’t happen.”
Mayweather vs Tyson will be an exhibition fight, so it won’t have the same competitive element as some of the bigger fights of their career.
Floyd Mayweather was paid a reported $12 million fee for his WrestleMania match
If this fight does devolve into a WWE-style scripted fight, Mayweather will have the edge in experience owing to his performance at WrestleMania in 2008.
The undefeated boxing legend challenged 500 lb wrestling star The Big Show to a match at WrestleMania 24, although it was much different from most of Mayweather’s bout.
He used weapons like steel chairs and brass knuckles to beat his much bigger opponent in the scripted bout in 2008.
Mayweather was reportedly paid $12 million to compete on the show, while the bout with Tyson is expected to earn him a lot more than that.
Tyson was also involved in the WWE going back decades, but has never had a wrestling match of his own.