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Internal media speculation on Tyson
By Zach Arnold | September 6, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Kakutolog (in Japanese) has a very interesting post about a Gendai Net report on PRIDE & Mike Tyson working together. More specifically, the supposed motives on PRIDE’s behalf for booking Tyson.
The Gendai Net article claims that PRIDE’s real motive behind signing Mike Tyson (to an exhibition boxing match) is to try to market a Tyson vs. Bob Sapp or Tyson vs. Emelianenko Fedor exhibition match to either Nippon TV or TV-Asahi, two large Japanese free TV networks who have reportedly shown interest in working with PRIDE. Despite the fact that Tyson cannot work in Japan due to his felony rapsheet, it’s certainly possible that PRIDE could market a foreign show to be aired on tape-delay on New Year’s Eve for a Japanese TV network. The end game for PRIDE seems to become much clearer now.
DSE is likely putting their future in the hands of a man who doesn’t know what the future holds in store for him.
Topics: All Topics, Boxing, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I don’t wanna see Mike Tyson in K-1 and much less in Pride. He’s not the same fighter anymore, not sure about his personality but i’d say he chnaged since his mentor died and since he got involved with Don King. Mike Tyson is too old now so there’s no point fighting him now. Any decent fighter would refuse fighting him.
[…] Align with Mike Tyson (or mainly, his name value). As reported on this site in the past, there has been heavy discussion that PRIDE looks at Tyson’s name value as something that can get them back on Japanese television. Tyson’s name value in South Africa, Russia, Japan, and in countries outside of America remains strong. More importantly, it remains strong in the Japanese media, which gladly pushes any story involving his name as a top headline. With Tyson not being able to go to Japan due to his felony rapsheet, PRIDE has to figure out where they can best make use of his name value. While Tyson is attracting spectators at the Aladdin in Las Vegas to watch him essentially shadow box and spar, Tyson’s name value isn’t maximized in America. One country that Tyson does have good name value in still is China. Tyson remains a curiousity because of his affinity for Mao Zedung. […]