Representatives of Evander Holyfield expressed frustration after-- according to them-- Mike Tyson’s representatives refused to accept a $25,000,000 guarantee to participate in Holyfield-Tyson III at the Hard Rock Stadium in Southern Florida to kick off Memorial Day weekend. The parties have been negotiating for several months and Team Holyfield sincerely believed a deal was imminent, especially after the Hard Rock threw its support behind the project, and there were multiple other offers conveyed to Team Tyson. However, Team Tyson’s demands recently became untenable, and not what --according to Holyfield-- Tyson originally agreed on in direct conversations with Holyfield. 

 

The event was to occur at the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins NFL franchise, Super Bowl games, and many other world class sporting events and entertainment, and would have been the ideal setting for the trilogy finale of this great rivalry between two of the greatest legends in the history of boxing. While neither side has announced publicly that the fight is not going to happen, with negotiations at a standstill and the date rapidly approaching, it seems unlikely that this fight will occur as planned. “We thought this was a done deal but it quickly fell apart when Tyson’s people declined all offers,” said Kris Lawrence, Evander Holyfield’s manager. “We were negotiating in good faith all along and it appears we just ended up wasting our time.”