After falling to Barack Obama in the last presidential election, Mitt Romney has found a new opponent. And he'll need real boxing gloves this time.
The 68-year-old former Massachusetts governor is stepping into the ring to box Evander Holyfield.
No, really. Really.
The Salt Lake Tribune first broke news of the fight on Monday, the main event in a multiple-fight card in Salt Lake City on May 15. Romney resides in Utah and came to international prominence when he headed Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
To Romney's credit, he knows his limitations on this one.
"It will either be a very short fight, or I will be knocked unconscious," Romney told the Tribune. "It won't be much of a fight. We'll both suit up and get in the ring and spar around a little bit."
When Romney released his medical records during his 2012 presidential bid, he measured in at 6-foot-1½ inches and tipped the scales at 184 pounds. Holyfield is 16 years younger, two inches taller and weighed somewhere between 205 and 225 pounds in his professional days.
And he is a four-time world heavyweight champion, too.
The event is being sponsored by Charity Vision, founded by Salt Lake doctor Bill Jackson with the purpose of donating state-of-the-art medical equipment to poor areas of the world. It was through Charity Vision that Holyfield agreed to take part.
According to Romney, the entire black-tie event will include other "bouts between real, active professional prize fighters." His son Josh added the evening would be "patterned after a 1920s-style event."
"We just thought it would be a lot better to provide this kind of entertainment rather than just have dinner and listen to speakers," Mitt Romney told the Tribune.
