Can Mike Tyson roll back the clock? Dennis Hobson's verdict

I’ve never been as disinterested in watching a Mike Tyson fight!

It’s not my cup of tea. Would I have put it on? Maybe, in a business sense and maybe to create some interest for actual, real boxing, if that makes sense.

What has Mike Tyson got to prove? Nothing, he’s already shown he was one of the best in history.

He was devastating in his heyday, but he’s not going to reproduce any of that. So, it doesn’t really excite me but I hope he wins.

You can’t really fault Jake Paul, in a way, because he loves the game, he loves to box but let’s be serious he’s fighting a nearly 60-year-old fella - in my Dad’s era, when he was a street fighter, if somebody was fighting someone in their 50s, they’d have been called a bully!

If Tyson can put a couple of punches together, I think he’s capable of doing it.

He’s got a chance for the first minute of the first few rounds, because you don’t lose your punching power.

But I can still look alright on the pads for 30 seconds at a time but you can’t beat age.

How did your recent show in the Cayman Islands go - was it a success?

I think we’ve formed a new frontier over there you know. It’s a British territory and there are a lot of people from the Philippines, lots of Jamaicans.

There are people from all over the world but it’s mainly still a British territory, and they loved the show. We’re bringing something different, doing something different, and getting kids opportunities to win titles.

It’s a beautiful location and they love how we conduct ourselves and how we put on competitive and meaningful fights. The Sports Minister is coming over to visit us and me in England in the next couple of months to do more shows out there.

We’re all working really well together and the people over there love what we’re trying to achieve.

Your show featured two World Boxing Foundation title fights. How do you rate WBF World Titles? Is this a road that some of your British boxers can have a pop at?

I think the British Boxing Board are arguably the best commission in the world as regards safety and rules, their job is to make sure that there are fair matches, nobody’s overmatched and everybody’s medicals are sufficient and up-to-date, that’s them doing their job.

But they should allow other title fights on shows, whether that’s WBF, IBO or WBU like Frank Warren used to do, all those years ago.

That’s where the careers of great fighters like Ricky Hatton, Michael Gomez and Anthony Farnell were built on, WBU World Titles.

So, why can’t we do it with the WBF, for example?

They might say it’s saturating the game but if you win a WBF World Title, then you can possibly have unifications as well.

As long as the Board makes sure that everyone is safe then the WBF gives kids who aren’t in the top 20, the chance to fight for a world title, who might not get an opportunity because of things like politics or because they aren’t with the ‘right’ promoter or broadcaster.

What did you make of the ending to Liam Cameron’s recent fight with Ben Whittaker?

Liam’s not my favourite kid, to be honest, and he’s good at playing the victim but he actually is partly the victim in this case.

Look, he got banned for a reason; he should have taken his ban and if he’d stayed loyal, his ban wouldn’t have been as long.

But I always rated Liam and thought he had so much to give.

He was lazy when he first came with us but it looks like the lay-off has done him the world of good.

I don’t mind a bit of theatrics but I thought Ben Whittaker was disrespectful and I get some of the stuff that Liam was saying about him. I actually backed Liam to beat him and I thought if anybody’s going to test Whittaker it would be Liam.

Whittaker isn’t proven yet and Liam’s got a fantastic chin and he’s heavy handed.

I think Whittaker took Liam lightly and I think he’ll struggle mentally to cope with Liam now because Liam’s got the upper hand.

I did think that Whittaker swallowed it, and Liam was just starting to get into his groove.

I think Liam would have been capable of maybe stopping him or at least winning clearly on points.

What’s the plan for the end of this year and 2025 in terms of future promotions and shows?

Next year we’ll be collaborating with two or three different promoters and will be doing around 25 events.

I think we’ll end up doing about eight or nine shows up north, probably five in Sheffield, and then down south we’ll be doing about 15 to 18. So, we’ll be doing two shows a month which means it’s going to be a busy year for Fightzone.

As you know, Fightzone is like a smaller version of DAZN but our app is completely free to watch, which is amazing when you think of all the different competitive title fights and shows we’re putting on. We’ve got a blueprint for getting kids to world titles, so if anybody’s interested in sponsoring some of these events, getting their name involved with Fightzone and supporting the journey these kids are on, then please do just get in touch.