by Christian Duque
So for the longest time I wasn’t going to write an article about this because quite frankly I believe that lending attention to a fluke fight like this only contributes to the problem at hand. What are we really talking about here? Are we talking about Jake Paul as a rising star in the world of boxing or are we talking about Mike Tyson as a desperate hasbeen that is trying to make one last buck at the expense of his body?
The reality of the matter is Iron Mike Tyson is a boxing legend that defined an era. Even after he was defeated by Buster Douglas and did his stint in prison the boxing legend was still able to put on some pretty impressive performances. He had rivalries with guys like Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. He was able to inspire countless generations to take up the sport.
Mike Tyson was the last great boxing champion before the advent of MMA and the internet. But to see him fight with a guy that is less than half his age at a time when he is nearly 60 years old is not only depressing but it’s dangerous. I didn’t want to write an article for a variety of reasons but now that I see that they are making all sorts of special allowances to ensure that this fight does not result in catastrophic injury I feel the time is right to maybe weigh in. We have never held back here at Iron Magazine and I don’t intend on doing so with this article either. So let’s jump into it.
Let me start out by saying that Jake Paul could very well be a great boxing champion if he truly wanted to take that road. Not only could he win one title he could possibly unify all of the belts just like Mike Tyson did in the 1980s. Unfortunately, him fighting against a nearly 60 year old man is not the course of action that someone who wants to become the champion does. This is a shameless attempt at cashing in big and everyone knows it. The boxing Community does not respect this fight and there’s a reason why it is not being judged by actual boxing referees. The only way to win in this type of joke match is by knockout. There is simply no other way.
Now I can understand that Paul is doing this for a variety of reasons beyond wanting to climb the rankings. He may be doing this to promote his brands, to promote his podcast, to promote his name as a celebrity but this is a joke when it comes to being taken seriously in a sport where integrity and legacy matter for so much. This is the sport of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frasier, George Foreman and yes Mike Tyson. Jake Paul is not going to join these ranks by doing this type of fight. And this is exactly a point that I have taken from Oscar De La Hoya directly. Oscar knows that Jake has tremendous potential but by signing on to a fight like this he is making himself a laughing stock in the boxing world. He may go viral and his products may trend but he is not going to be taken seriously by a sport that is all about fighters that strive to be the best.
The fight itself is going to make for certain allowances that are intended to keep the fighters safe. For example the rounds are not going to be 3 minutes they’re going to be 2 minutes. The fighters are going to use 16 oz gloves instead of 10 oz ones. These allowances are going to hopefully prevent Mike Tyson from sustaining substantial injury. Other people believe that the allowances are made to protect Jake Paul which I think is a little ridiculous. We are not talking about the Mike Tyson of the 1980s that was knocking out top contenders in 90 seconds. No matter how hard he hits we learned some lessons from George Foreman.
When George Foreman made his comeback he retained much of his stopping power but was at a substantial disadvantage when it came to speed in the ring. Additionally, even though Tyson seems to be in top shape for his age he is still going up against a guy that is at least 20 – if not 25 years his junior. It is not fair and quite frankly it is irresponsible to think that the younger Paul is the one at the disadvantage. But even still with lighter gloves and shorter rounds there may still be a very dangerous probability of injury here. Again boxing is a sport where we don’t know what really goes down until the fighter is out of the ring and gets either an MRI or a CT Scan done. And that is the part of the sport that the viewer never gets to see.
The one thing that is true about Hollywood movies like The Rocky series is the very real neurological damage that a lot of boxers sustain after prolonged careers of fighting. Now the rebuttal to that would be that Mike Tyson has not fought in many years and therefore may not be as injury prone as fighters who take a beating every month. On the flip side however he may not be getting a beating every month but the fact that he has not taken a beating in years may actually be just as dangerous if not more dangerous if all of a sudden he’s in the ring and he is taking a pummeling. It may spell disaster because even if Mike Tyson got his ass handed to him by virtue of his legacy he is not going to quit. His corner is not going to throw in the towel, either. He will likely hang in there for as long as he can and avoid getting knocked out.
Now one thing that we don’t know is what the fight is actually worth. We don’t have a shady character like Don King in the mix secretly putting money into his pockets and distributing proceeds to the fighters. I’m not saying that Don is dishonest but I’m also not saying that I would trust him with five of my dollars. The reality of the matter is that this fight is one that stands to enrich both contenders but in reality will probably benefit Jake Paul more than Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson is a rich man and an influencer. He doesn’t really need this fight as much as Paul does. I would say Jake Paul is doing it to promote his brands and I would say Mike Tyson is doing it as some sort of attempt at staying relevant. He has done the podcasts, he has done the cameo appearances in movies, but I think that he may still miss fighting. I don’t think that it’s a smart idea but it’s certainly one that has gone viral and one that we are all talking about. I have received countless requests from my readers both through Iron Magazine and StrengthAddicts that have asked me why it’s taken me so long to talk about this particular subject. It’s not that it’s taken me long, it’s that I quite frankly had not wanted to write an article about this fight because I think that doing so is going to lend even more attention to something that I don’t think should even happen.
Let me be honest here I’m 45 years of age and without dating myself I will tell you that if I was to bet money and you can bet your bottom dollar people will be betting on this fight from Vegas to Dubai and all around the world, I would have put my money on Mike Tyson in the 1980s, the 1990s, and maybe even the early 2000s, but not now.
I think betting on Tyson today would only fulfill a nostalgia effect but I don’t think that the real money should be behind him. If Tyson can get Jake Paul in a corner and pummel him then I think that he would be successful but in the ring I don’t think that speed-wise he can stay up with the younger fighter. We also don’t know how hard Jake Paul hits either. We know that he is a young gun and we know that he has a lot of training but we don’t know how that’s going to come into play in a fight against a legend that has a tremendous amount of skill. Mike Tyson never fought MMA and he never fought in other styles. All he knows is boxing and this is a boxing match.
One last factor that I think is important to mention is pain threshold. I would have to say that between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, Iron Mike can probably sustain a heck of a lot more pain than the younger fighter. And this is because of years upon years of boxing experience. Tyson knows how much he can take because he’s been there before. He has gone the full 10 rounds. He has fought the biggest and the baddest champions and he knows what he is capable of and what he is not.
Boxing today like any other sport is a shadow of what it once was. There are so many more rules and so much more oversight to protect the fighters today because everyone is scared of lawsuits and the potential of liability. The boxing of the late 1980s is way more intense than boxing of today. Moreover in the 1980s and the 1990s boxing was the standalone most aggressive sport. Today it competes with MMA, face slapping, and other more niche sports that stand to gain more viewership. The bottom line, however, is that both of these guys have tremendous name value and even though this is a circus match it is still going to draw a considerable amount of viewership. That viewership also equates to more money through pay-per-view packages. These guys are going to dip their feet in all of those proceeds. They are both going to walk away with a substantial amount of money regardless of who wins and who loses.
At the end of the day because of that last point I don’t think either guy is necessarily trying to hurt the other. It would be nice to knock out the other but it’s not going to amount to a hill of beans. The incentive factor isn’t really there. Both men are rich and both men will be richer after this fight. At the end of the day I think the goal for both Jake Paul and Mike Tyson will be to put on the best possible fight for the fans. And if that’s the goal then great. However, I’m very concerned about the health and well-being of Mike tyson. I think this fight is a mistake just like I thought it was a mistake when George Foreman came back to the ring. Who knows how Mike Tyson will do? Who knows if he will fare better than George did. In the end though I think that this might be the very last time we see Iron Mike fight and I think that would be for the best. I don’t want to see this guy on any card in his 60s or much less beyond.
Who do you think will win? Do you think this fight will even happen? Do you think they will make more allowances? What say you?
