UFC: Mike Tyson Calls Israel Adesanya Young Anderson Silva, Talks Fedor Emelianenko, GGG

Mike Tyson thinks UFC’s Israel Adesanya is like a young Anderson Silva, recalls watching Fedor Emelianenko and comments on Gennady Golovkin’s fights.

Despite being officially retired from fighting, Tyson has always imposed a strong influence in combat sports. Evan in MMA, Tyson is still recognized as a world champion. In fact, UFC even included his character in one of its video games and quite evidently, what Tyson says still matters to the combat sports world.

Nowadays, Tyson has been busy with his “Tyson Ranch.” He has been quite successful with his business ventures and last October, the 53-year-old legend took part in an MMA press conference which was held at the Tyson Ranch headquarters.

During the event, Tyson talked to several reporters and shared some interesting thoughts about MMA. “Iron Mike” revealed that his favorite UFC fighter is former UFC bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt and he also commented on current UFC middleweight champ Adesanya’s dismantling of Robert Whittaker.

According to Tyson, he has always told everybody in MMA that Adesanya always wins because he fights like a young Silva.

“I was telling everybody this guy is going to win. He’s magnificent, He’s like a young, what’s that guy’s (name)? (Anderson) Silva!,” Tyson told Mixed Combat Radio.

Tyson noted that he is impressed by an array of MMA fighters including UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones. But the most MMA championship fights he has watched were from Pride and Strikeforce superstar Emelianenko’s.

“I remember when Fedor (Emelianenko) was champion. I have to watch him defend his championship all the time and that was pretty interesting too,” Tyson recalled.

Some may not know but, Tyson and Emelianenko almost fought each other in boxing nearly 15 years ago. Based on recently unearthed documents, Tyson, arguably the most brutal heavyweight boxer in history came within a suspended license of stepping in against Emelianenko, arguably the most captivating heavyweight MMA fighter in history. According to Bleacher Report, "secret" Pride documents made available through MMA site MiddleEasy.com, show that Pride nearly sealed a deal for boxing rules fights between Tyson, Emelianenko and Mirko Cro Cop back in 2006.

When asked to comment about boxing, Golovkin’s close decision fights in particular. Tyson acknowledged that some of GGG’s fights were really close but the Kazakh fighter always manages to get the win in the end.

“GGG (Golovkin) got a couple of close calls but he’s always the game fighter he always gets this back,” Tyson said.