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There is always some crossover between pro wrestling and other combat sports, with boxers prepared to play their part in promoting major matches.
More or less right from the very start of pay-per-view wrestling, this link appears. One of the greatest boxers of all time, Muhammad Ali, served as a special guest enforcer for the headline match of WrestleMania I as Hulk Hogan and Mr. T defeated Rowdy Roddy Piper and “Mr Wonderful” Paul Orndorff in tag team action.
This coup for Vince McMahon among so much celebrity endorsement helped to launch The Showcase of the Immortals. Mr. T and Piper would then meet in a boxing match at WrestleMania 2 with “Smokin'” Joe Frazier in the former’s corner.
Tyson takes it to another level
From those beginnings in the mid-1980s, another heavyweight great was thrust center stage into the major storyline for WrestleMania XIV. One of the Attitude Era highlights of WWE, “Iron” Mike Tyson served as the guest enforcer for the main event like Ali before him.
With Shawn Michaels struggling with a back injury picked up earlier in the year, “The Baddest Man on the Planet” teased physicality with then-WWF title challenger “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Tyson even joined the D-Generation X stable of Chyna, Triple H and “The Heartbreak Kid” only to turn on the group post-match.
Iron Mike’s presence in and around this mega match of 1998 only added legitimacy to an edgy wrestling product during the height of the Monday Night Wars. Tyson had been involved in his infamous rematch with Evander Holyfield the previous summer.
That controversy was part of a broader narrative in combat sports and wrestling, which also saw the Montreal Screwjob happen in the fall of 1997. Tyson’s involvement in this venture outside of boxing only sought to raise his profile. He counted the fall as Austin became world champion in WWE for the first time, and it wouldn’t be his last involvement in pro wrestling either.
A decade later, Floyd Mayweather had a program with The Big Show which culminated in a No Disqualification match between the pair at WrestleMania XXIV. “Money” went over against the man known in WCW as The Giant with the aid of some brass knuckles, showing that it’s not just heavyweight boxers who have engaged with wrestling in a big way at major shows.
Fury keeps tradition going
This trend continued into the 2010s with Tyson Fury feuding with Braun Strowman during the fall of 2019. “The Gypsy King” and “The Monster Among Men” squared off at WWE’s Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia which, although not without controversy due to its location, followed a broad trend of major sports events coming to the Middle East including boxing and premier MMA promotion UFC.
Fury won the Strowman bout by countout and then went on to capture the WBC heavyweight title from Deontay Wilder the following February. Speculation continues to this day about a championship unification bout between him and fellow British boxer Anthony Joshua.
As the current boxing betting on a super-fight between the pair shows, Fury is a hot -225 favorite as of February to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion. This would be the final chapter of a remarkable story for the Manchester native that has seen him overcome his demons.
Strowman, meanwhile, won the WWE Universal title at WrestleMania 36, so the Fury match was the first time in history that future globally recognized world heavyweight champions from boxing and wrestling met.
The most recent chapter of boxers involving themselves in sports entertainment was written by Tyson. He returned to a boxing ring for an exhibition bout with Roy Jones Jr. in 2020 and, to help promote this, Iron Mike made appearances for All Elite Wrestling.
Tyson helped Cody Rhodes defeat Lance Archer and become the inaugural AEW TNT champion at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view. He also had an altercation with Chris Jericho and his Inner Circle stable on the following week’s Dynamite.
Time and again, the history of the last 40 years shows that when the money is right, boxers are prepared to crossover into wrestling when there’s mutual benefit to it. Someone in each boxing generation just finds the bright lights and the green too tempting.