When the former heavyweight champion returns on November 15, Mike Tyson will be fourth on the all-time oldest boxers list.
‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ will join Albert Hughes Jr., Steven Ward, and Jack Johnson as the oldest boxers who have ever laced up gloves professionally. Tyson will be above Dewey Bozella, who turned pro with Golden Boy upon his release from prison in 2011. Bozella had served 26 years for a crime he didn’t commit, and Golden Boy bosses Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins made his lifelong ambition come true as he won on a high-profile card.
Cruiserweight Bozella was 52 at the time, six years younger than fellow New Yorker Tyson will be when he makes a comeback against Jake Paul on November 15.
Former Tyson opponent Larry Holmes was also 52 the last time he fought on July 27, 2002. Holmes beat Butterbean ‘Eric Esch’ in a match-up that the former heavyweight champion took when fans wanted Tyson himself to take it.
Tyson will sit above Bozella and Holmes and before the legendary Jack Johnson, who fought in 1938 at the age of 60, two years older than ‘Iron’ Mike will be against Paul.
Second place goes to England’s Steve Ward, who was active until 2017 at 61. The cruiserweight came out of retirement to beat his own record, but he was blown out of the water in a contested fight two years later. Ward was 60 years and 337 days old when he broke the record first in Nottinghamshire on July 15, 2017.
Albert Hughes Jr., a 71-year-old who had made a comeback at the age of 70, was fighting for his son’s memory. Hughes had a timid 10-7-4 record from a tenure in the sport between 1975 and 1983. He wanted to enter the record books for his offspring, Albert III, who had taken his own life at 32.
Hughes participated in what seemed on the outside to be a staged bout against the much younger Tramane Towns [0-6] at Tyndall Armory in Indianapolis in December 2019. In what proved to be the last fight of Towns’ career, the wrinkled Hughes stopped him in two. The debate surrounding the stoppage rages to this day.
However, the ratification never ended well for Hughes, who submitted his attempt to the Guinness Book of World Records. Hughes dies days before the clarification as his daughter Amanda Moles outlined the ending to the Indy Star.
“Dad was really deteriorating. He grieved himself to death. His dying breath was he didn’t know if he was going to get that record. He tried to hold on. He tried. But he couldn’t. He died thinking he wasn’t going to win this. Dad was really excited about winning. I hate it he didn’t get to see it,” she concluded.
Tyson will join an elite ‘Golden Oldies’ band when he trades blows with the YouTuber. Win or lose, he will be up there with fellow elderlies Hughes and Ward.
Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
