Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul is a bizarre spectacle that we would like to ignore, but we can’t

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YouTube sensation Jake Paul vows to knock out Mike Tyson. Such bravado is typical at media events to hype up a boxing match, often followed by fighters standing inches apart and observing one another before one shoves or throws a punch. Tyson and Paul jokingly shoved and jabbed at one another Sunday after promoting their November fight, previously scheduled for July but postponed when Tyson suffered a flare-up of ulcers. The former heavyweight champion says he has fully recovered and resumed training a few weeks ago. “It’s happening,” he said on press conference in New York. “I’m ready.”

Paul promised Tyson to “end his boxing career” and “punish him like a son,” calling him an “old son of a bitch.”

Which brings us to the guts of the issue: This officially sanctioned match could find yourself tantamount to elder abuse before it’s even over.

Tyson is 58 years old, and his last official fight got here in 2005, when he missed the bell within the seventh round and lost by TKO to an unheralded boxer. “Iron Mike” has been rusty since then, having fun with retirement, apart from an exhibition in 2020. fought to a draw against the legendary Roy Jones Jr. – then 51 years old – in a somewhat exciting match that was not serious but nevertheless attracted attention.

Tyson vs. Paul is begging to be called an “exhibition fight.”

It has the terrifying feel of a carnival spectacle where extraordinary people do extraordinary things. But it’s going to be real, not for show, with a rating on each fighter’s profession record. We’ll be watching 27-year-old Paul, with brutal knockout power, fight a man twice his age, yet the previous baddest man on the planet. The fighters will exert maximum effort and damage, throwing “blows with bad intentions“, as Tyson would say when he was the undisputed heavyweight champion (1987-1990).

Whether his body is up to the duty, Tyson’s attitude stays the identical. He has at all times been direct at his best, intent on punching his opponents in the pinnacle. “I’m going to blow you away,” he told Paul on Sunday, suggesting his night would be “very painful.”

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This risk is a part of the sport of combat, graphically illustrated in mixed martial arts and well understood in boxing. We’ve seen Tyson on the receiving end of an attack – notably crawling with a swollen eye while feeling his mouthpiece against Buster Douglas 34 years ago. Paul wasn’t born yet, but he’s grown into a man who can knock his opponents to the bottom as soon as his punches land. If he hits Tyson in the pinnacle excellent, or often enough, it won’t matter if Mike is 48, 38 or 28. If he were 58, the scene would be even uglier.

Paul has gained fame and fortune — 20 million YouTube subscribers and a reported $40 million for the fight — by winging favoritism on social media, mostly against former MMA fighters and other influencers. With a 10-1 record, he’s trying to outdo the paying boxers for a title shot. It’s a big-game hunt for Paul, who wants Tyson’s head on the wall. Rooting against a YouTuber is easy, but not something to take evenly.

Fans and media might imagine Paul is a joke, but Tyson sees him as a fighter, by definition, a threat. “That’s what I’ve learned in 58 years of experience,” he said Tuesday. on ImPaulsive podcast. “Anyone can kill you. In my life and the way I’ve lived… you should be afraid of everyone.”

I hope nobody dies. Seriously.

The gloves will probably be 14 ounces, larger than usual, and the rounds will probably be shortened from three to two minutes. The special rules could help Tyson, who can worry less about endurance and conserving energy within the scheduled eight rounds. Instead, he can try to recapture the fast-paced series of punches and furious mixtures that made him the youngest heavyweight champion in 1986. Judging by training clipsjust like his performance in “Hangover“Mike still has it.

But looking good against a heavily padded coach is not the identical as facing a 200-pound slugger. I’ll be pleased if Paul’s face hits the canvas, but what ought to be a spectacle can turn for the more serious within the blink of a watch.

‘I don’t desire the last item I remember about Tyson to be him getting knocked out by a YouTuber,’ former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder said told Sportsbook Review“People can get hit in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are a lot of examples of guys getting hit in a coma. He’s too old for that. At the end of the day, nobody cares about Mike.”

Especially not the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, which has sanctioned the fight as a fully skilled bout. This will probably be a bizarre spectacle that is hard to ignore.