The 34-year-old Williams had a brief professional boxing career between 2009 and 2015, earning the New Zealand heavyweight title before returning to rugby. He plays for Canadian rugby league side Toronto Wolfpack in the Betfred Super League.

“[Tyson] might be 53 years old but he’s still a huge name and any of those blokes, Hall, Gallen or [Williams] would jump at the chance to get into the ring with him,” Amatruda said.

“I’d hold it at Melbourne Arena where we’d get over 10,000 [in attendance] or even Princes Park where they [have] 30,000 for Jeff Fenech versus Azumah Nelson.

“I’d make it part of a card with a world title fight. It would be enormous. Not just a fight. it would be an event.”

While it would be logistically complicated to transport Tyson to that side of the world, Amatruda added: “We’d have to wait until the coronavirus shutdowns are over of course, so the fight probably wouldn’t be until early next year – as long as we can get the visa.”

Australian boxing great Fenech – a friend of Tyson – said a bout with former rugby or football professionals would be extremely unlikely for many reasons.

“Great publicity but it’s not going to happen,” Fenech said to The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday. “They’re offering him ... a million dollars – he could get more than US$20 million to do it in Saudi Arabia. Why would he come here?

“Let me tell you something. If he punched Paul Gallen, he could kill him. These guys have never been punched by somebody like Mike. You see what he’s doing to the pads. Imagine Mike hitting one of those guys with one of those uppercuts. More than likely they will be in the morgue the next day.

“Fighting Sonny Bill? Who has Sonny Bill fought? [He] won’t even fight Paul Gallen because I don’t believe he can beat him,” Fenech added.

“He will do it – probably for charity – it will happen. One million per cent. It’s an exhibition. Mike doesn’t want to hurt anybody and nobody wants to hurt Mike. Mike is 53 years of age. he doesn’t want to get punched in the head.

Gallen, who turned professional in boxing 2014 and fought Hall in a majority draw in 2019, expressed interest in a potential Tyson fight.

“He was a beast for so long and they say 50 is the new 40, so that might be in his favour,” he said to Wide World of Sports. “How could you not want to get in the ring with Mike Tyson, to be honest?

“Mike Tyson was my hero growing up. Not only mine. I’m sure a lot of people’s. He was just this phenomenal beast that was [180cm], looked like half the size of the blokes he was going up against and he’d knock them out with one punch.

“I’d be happy for a charity to be involved, but I’d be getting paid for it. You’ve got to remember, Mike Tyson is Mike Tyson. He hasn’t got an off switch. He hasn’t got an exhibition fight switch. If he gets in the ring with someone, we’ve all seen what he’s done to people in the past and that mentality is not going to change.”