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Jake Paul‘s fight with Mike Tyson has drawn considerable criticism from the boxing world.

Despite 57-year-old Tyson not having fought professionally for almost twenty years, his eight two minute rounds with the YouTuber-turned-fighter will be sanctioned, albeit with 14 ounce gloves.

Tyson Fury VS Mike Tyson

JUST IN: Tyson Fury Has Watched Mike Tyson Train For Jake Paul And Now Delivers His Verdict On The Fight…

Many in the sport worry for the fighter’s health in against an admittedly novice fighter but with some activity, youth and power. Tyson Fury does not fall into that camp.

Speaking to The Stomping Ground, the former heavyweight champion who was named after ‘Iron’ Mike said the fight was ‘fantastic for boxing.’

“I think it’s fantastic for boxing. You’ve got a legend in Mike Tyson, you’ve got a YouTube boxer who’s come into the game and blew it up with millions of followers and millions of views. Good, bad or indifferent, some people love him, some people hate him.

SEE MORE: Prince Naseem Hamed reveals how Tyson Fury can beat Usyk…

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul

I think it’s a really good spectacle for boxing, it brings a lot of people to the game. Who am I to say Mike Tyson shouldn’t be boxing or Jake Paul shouldn’t be boxing? Good luck to them, they’re both gonna make what I call a s**t ton of money out of it.”

Speaking on the Furocity YouTube channel, Tyson’s half-brother Tommy took a completely different view. He called the fight ‘criminal’ due to Tyson’s advanced years.

“He’s my idol from growing up. But I want to challenge young men who can challenge me properly. [I don’t respect it] Why are you preparing to beat a guy who is 60 years of age, one of the best to ever do it? It’s criminal, to be honest, I don’t know why it’s being allowed to happen. I hope both men come out unscathed.”

The 25-year-old – who is the only man so far to have beaten Paul – has also said the fight is ‘ridiculous’ and ‘shouldn’t be allowed.’

RELATED: Oleksandr Usyk Finally Names Who Will Win Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua Fight After Facing Both…

 

Mike Tyson had such an impact on the sport of boxing that one of the current top heavyweights was named after him.

JUST IN: Oleksandr Usyk Finally Names Who Will Win Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua Fight After Facing Both…

Many would like to see that legacy left alone and are disappointed that he’s returning at 57-years-old to face YouTuber-turned-fighter Jake Paul.

Tyson Fury VS Mike Tyson

That doesn’t include Tyson Fury, ‘Iron’ Mike’s namesake and whose half-brother Tommy is the only man to beat Paul. He told The Stomping Ground that the controversial event was ‘fantastic for boxing.’

“I think it’s fantastic for boxing. You’ve got a legend in Mike Tyson, you’ve got a YouTube boxer who’s come into the game and blew it up with millions of followers and millions of views. Good, bad or indifferent, some people love him, some people hate him.

SEE MORE: “Carl Froch Punching Air rn”: Set to Break Tyson Fury’s Record, Anthony Joshua Receives Major Boost from HE Turki Alalshikh and Fans Are All for It…

I think it’s a really good spectacle for boxing, it brings a lot of people to the game. Who am I to say Mike Tyson shouldn’t be boxing or Jake Paul shouldn’t be boxing? Good luck to them, they’re both gonna make what I call a s**t ton of money out of it.”

As for his verdict on the fight, Fury believes that, based on ‘Iron’ Mike’s short training clips posted online, it’s evenly matched.

Jake Paul AND Mike Tyson VS Tyson Fury

“Okay the guy’s 57-years-old, but he’s former undisputed world heavyweight king and one guy who plays computers for a living who’s come into boxing about a year ago – so pretty even match … You’ve got to admire them both and I wish them both the best of luck. I seen Mike’s training hard on his videos, and Jake Paul’s always in shape. People say it’s s**t but I bet they still watch it.”

Many have pointed out that Tyson’s gym work, which does look impressive, is in short bursts designed for social media and doesn’t show what comes next – the recovery.

Whether he has what it takes to deliver that on the big stage over eight two-minute rounds remains to be seen. Of course, he himself may believe it will be over much quicker than that.

RELATED: Prince Naseem Hamed reveals how Tyson Fury can beat Usyk…

Tyson Fury has given his official prediction for Mike Tyson’s upcoming showdown with Jake Paul. The new date for the controversial boxing showdown was recently revealed.

JUST IN: Mike Tyson Tells Tyson Fury Exactly How To Beat Oleksandr Usyk In Rematch…

The pair were due to meet on the 20th of July at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas before medical issues on the part of ‘Iron Mike’ caused the bout to be postponed.

The fight has officially been moved to the 15th of November, when the highly-anticipated rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano will also take place.

TYSON FURY

Tyson hasn’t fought a professional fight since 2005 but did fight Roy Jones Jr in an exhibition match in 2020, which went down as a draw. Since the confirmation of the bout, many in the boxing community have slammed the decision to sanction the contest as a professional fight.

Tyson Fury Predicts a Mike Tyson Knockout

‘Iron Mike’s’ last knockout win came in 2003

The former heavyweight champion, Fury, believes Tyson will shock the world and teach ‘The Problem Child’ a lesson when they eventually go head-to-head. In a clip re-shared by MMA READ, ‘The Gypsy King said:

SEE MORE: Former Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Who Beat Mike Tyson Wants Jake Paul Fight

“Listen, if Mike Tyson hits anybody, I don’t care if he’s 90, he’s gonna knock them out cold, in’t he? Obviously I have to back Mike Tyson. I’m named after the legend and I’ll back him. As he always backs me I’m backing Mike for the knockout. Come on, Mike!”

While Tyson hasn’t stepped in the ring since his clash with Jones Jr, Paul has been very much active in the sport. His last outing took place in July, when he defeated former UFC fighter, Mike Perry.

MIKE TYSON AND Roy Jones Jr

Mike Tyson’s Health Status Ahead of Jake Paul Fight

The boxing legend is suffering from a debilitating health condition

‘Iron Mike’ is suffering from a debilitating health condition that can impact his mobility and speech. The condition first sparked concerns among fans in 2022 when he was spotted using a wheelchair at the Miami International Airport. Tyson was also seen using a walking stick in New York, a condition later explained as sciatica.

According to the NHS, sciatica is a condition where the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back through the hips and down to the feet, becomes irritated or compressed, causing debilitating pain. Symptoms include tingling, numbness, and weakness, particularly in the bottom, back of the leg, foot, and toes. If left untreated, the pain and discomfort can become debilitating, severely affecting a person’s quality of life. Symptoms can often worsen at night or with slight movements.

Jake Paul VS Tyson Fury

Iron Mike confirmed the news about his condition back in a 2022 interview with Newsmax, saying: “I have sciatica every now and then, it flares up. When it flares up, I can’t even talk!

Thank God it’s the only health problem I have. I’m splendid now. Everybody in my house is truly blessed, and we’re all very grateful for whatever we have.”

Tyson recently suffered a medical emergency on an American Airlines flight from Miami to Los Angeles in May. He reportedly felt nauseous and dizzy on the flight, and when they arrived at LAX, paramedics were on hand to assess him. The official statement said: “Thankfully Mr. Tyson is doing great. He became nauseous and dizzy due to an ulcer flare up 30 minutes before landing. He is appreciative to the medical staff that were there to help him.”

RELATED: David Price Predicts Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua: “I Always Thought It Would Be A Whitewash”…

 

There are two huge fights on the horizon for boxing once winter rolls around.

The first is the much talked about inter-generational coming together of a former heavyweight legend and a new school disrupter.

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson

JUST IN: Jake Paul-Mike Tyson is next, and I’m worried the old guy can’t win in November

Mike Tyson hasn’t fought in anger for some 20 years but will be lacing up the gloves aged almost 60 for a professional bout against YouTuber turned 11-0 boxer Jake Paul in November.

Opinion is divided as to whether the younger man should be concerned for this safety up against a once notoriously savage puncher in Tyson, or whether it is the veteran who has often been seen walking with a stick due to sciatica who should be worried.

The other headline-grabbing bout is Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch with Tyson Fury seven months after the Ukrainian defeated the Brit in the first undisputed heavyweight showdown in almost 25 years back in May.

SEE MORE: Former Heavyweight Champion ‘Knows’ Tyson Fury Is Scared To Face Him: “They Lied About Me”

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk

After the fight which Fury narrowly lost on points after taking a 10 count in round nine, he claimed that the contest was ‘too easy’ and that he was having too much fun ring in the ring and that he therefore took his eye off the ball.

Ahead of that much-anticipated rematch out in Saudi Arabia and speaking to Boxing King Media, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ said ‘The Gypsy King’ can avenge his only career defeat and had one clear instruction on what he must do to be victorious next time.

“Take it serious.”

After some controversy surrounding the corner work from Fury’s team in the first fight, Teddy Atlas has insisted things should remain unchanged in the rematch.

RELATED: “I’m Crushed Right Now”: Mike Tyson’s Son Mourns the Death of His Aunt Who Died Due to ‘Evil’ Disease

 

Eleven fights into his professional boxing career, a reasonable consensus seems to have formed around what Jake Paul is.

He is a dedicated, serious athlete who has come impressively far in less than five years. He has real punching power — he isn’t Earnie Shavers, but he tends to hurt guys when he lands cleanly. He is not a serious contender, and should not be given a realistic chance of winning if he were to share the ring with one of the cruiserweight beltholders. But he is a decidedly competent professional boxer now, one who can hold his own a notch or two below the serious contender level.

On Saturday night against Mike Perry — importantly, not a professional boxer, like all but three of Paul’s 10 sanctioned opponents — “The Problem Child” looked as competent and heavy-handed as ever. He has bulked up, gained strength, and continued to grow confident and comfortable in the ring. The opposition level was what it was, but it would still be fair to say Paul looked like a dangerous fighter in Tampa.

Especially if you pictured him in the ring throwing those same punches at a 58-year-old opponent.

When it was first announced, I was curious and intrigued by the idea of Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson. As I thought about it more, I remained intrigued but found myself increasingly feeling that Paul should be a clear favorite. When Tyson pushed the date back from July 20 to November 15 to recover from an ulcer, I began wondering if this fight was really worth proceeding with — even as it continues to make all sorts of financial sense.

And now, with Paul stopping Perry in six rounds in probably the most complete performance of his pugilistic career so far, I find myself worrying for Tyson.

I’m worried for his health. I’m worried that he may suffer embarrassment. And I’m worried that the old guy can’t win in November.

As a supporter of the Democratic party, this is not the first time this summer I’d had that feeling.

In fairness, it’s not that the old guy can’t or couldn’t win, in either instance. More accurately, it’s that both old guys only have/had a puncher’s chance.

And that’s not a place you’d want to be in if you’re either a fan of Mike Tyson or a supporter of American democracy.

This column will not decline into a partisan political op-ed. I’ve made my party preference known, and I’m not about to change the minds of any readers who support the opposite side or believe what their news sources of choice tell them. I can leave it at that.

But I may anger some who reside on the same side of the aisle as I do when I say that the current president, Joe Biden, did not appear to present the Democrats’ best chance of prevailing in November, and may in fact have presented its worst chance prior to withdrawing from the race on Sunday.

Age matters, whether you’re a 58-year-old trying to win an athletic contest or an 81-year-old trying to win what is effectively a popularity contest.

Could that have changed for Biden over the next few months leading up to the election? Maybe, but clearly someone convinced him that was not a longshot bet worth making.

For Tyson, there’s nothing that’s going to change appreciably in the next three-plus months in his favor. He will be 58 years, four months, and 15 days old on the scheduled fight night, whereas Paul will be 27 years, 9 months, and 29 days old.

“Iron Mike,” one of the greatest pure punchers in boxing history, has the very literal puncher’s chance.

The Texas Commission has approved the fight with two-minute rounds, and the question is how many good minutes does a 58-year-old formerly elite athlete have in him?

Twenty-two years ago, he had about three good minutes in him against Lennox Lewis, and when he failed to land a damaging punch in the opening round, it became just a matter of time until Lewis knocked him out.

Four years ago, in an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr., a 54-year-old Tyson had more good minutes in him than that, although importantly his opponent was also over 50 years old and was not capable of putting pressure on Tyson.

Tyson has never fought an opponent 31 years his junior before. The youngest foe he’s fought, relative to him, was Danny Williams, who was born seven years after Tyson — and who, ohbytheway, knocked Tyson out when they fought in 2004.

None of us know how many good minutes Tyson will have him in on November 15, but logic dictates his best chance of beating Paul will come early in the fight. Maybe for an abbreviated round or two, Tyson will be dangerous. Once he starts to gas, once the iron starts to visibly oxidize, Paul figures to play the role Lennox played from the second round on in 2002.

The sad truth is that when you’re 58 and exchanging punches for pay, Jake Paul can become an approximation of Lennox Lewis.

There is a huge X-factor in this bizarre matchup, however. Yes, it’s officially sanctioned as a fight, but that doesn’t mean that the boxers can’t possibly have a gentlemen’s agreement of some sort or that Paul won’t decide at some point to carry the living legend rather than load up with knockout punches.

But if Jake Paul is fully motivated to win, then for Tyson, it’s boom (for a round or two) or bust (from that point forward).

Against Perry, Paul — despite claiming he was hampered by a badly injured knuckle and an illness leading up to the fight — was utterly dominant. He did damage with a variety of punches: the cuffing right hand that produced the first knockdown, the textbook 1-2 that delivered the second, the left hook that set up the third. His jab landed throughout with accuracy and authority.

Some of his punches came in wide and served as a reminder that he began boxing at the relatively advanced age of 22 (an age by which Tyson had, incredibly, already peaked). But all of those reminders were drowned out by the sight of Paul, bulked up and just barely able to make the cruiserweight limit on the scales Friday, aggressively sitting down on his punches.

The 2024 version of Jake Paul wouldn’t last 30 seconds with the 1987 version of Mike Tyson. But he doesn’t have to worry about what that version of Tyson would do to him. He’ll be facing the 2024 Tyson. And if he’s able to land with the same authority as he did against Perry, there isn’t a 58-year-old on the planet who could take that for long.

Again, Perry is not a real boxer, and would have been hard-pressed to last 15 seconds with the Mike Tyson of 1987. One hesitates to overreact to the way Paul has looked against Perry, or Ryan Bourland, or Andre August, etc.

But if you don’t categorize Paul as a real boxer by this point, you’re just being stubborn. He’s a real boxer who is less than half Tyson’s age.

For whatever parallels there are between the situation Tyson faces and the one Biden was facing, the real-life connection that exists among these four names is between Tyson and Trump. They have a shared history — Trump brought several Tyson fights to Atlantic City, and though the then-businessman claimed not to have a direct financial interest in Tyson, he was ringside in Tokyo for Tyson’s historic loss to Buster Douglas, hoping to play host to a Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight soon after.

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul

Holyfield lost the opponent he wanted that night at the Tokyo Dome. And conventional wisdom says Trump lost the opponent he wanted this past weekend.

(And if you’re looking for one more connection tying these various boxers and politicians together, Holyfield and Trump were on the receiving end of the two most famous ear injuries in history — or at least since Vincent Van Gogh.)

Here’s the main lesson I take from what’s happened in recent weeks in politics that may apply to what awaits the boxing world:

Biden had, by any objective measure, a poor performance in the presidential debate in June, which caused those around him to reassess the situation. After a few weeks passed, the decision was made that, in his diminished state, the best course of action was to pull out.

It’s widely believed the Biden camp pushed for such an early debate specifically to allow time for something like this if the debate proved disastrous.

Tyson will have a training camp coming up. Maybe it will go smoothly. Maybe he’ll feel as good as he did four years ago when he was preparing to box Jones and there will be no reason to view the idea of fighting against Paul any differently than he did when he first signed for the fight.

But the training camp also allows everyone around Iron Mike a chance to assess and reassess. If his body is betraying him, if he can’t see the punches coming as well as he thought he could, if he isn’t responding to getting hit the way he hoped to, well, there’s still time to change course.

If Tyson gets through camp in fine shape and the fight comes off in November, it will be a massive spectacle and I have no doubt that I will be watching. Maybe through the spaces between my fingers, but still, I will be watching.

But there’s no shame in coming to the realization that you aren’t what you used to be, that the risk-reward ratio isn’t on your side, and that the prudent move is to withdraw. The stakes are much lower on November 15 than they will be on November 5 — but not for Mike Tyson. For him, these are as high as stakes can get.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, Ringside Seat, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory and currently co-hosts The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.

Few boxers manage to walk away from the sport without being lured back at least once on the promise of big money.

No matter how successful a boxer’s career has been, calling it a day can be the hardest decision of all. Many boxers believe they still have what it takes to win or forget the losses which led them to hang up their gloves in the first place.

Only a select few men from the modern era have ever gone unbeaten in their whole careers, and they include Floyd Mayweather, Joe Calzaghe. Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis only suffered two defeats as a professional – against Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman, but avenged both of those losses in rematches, making him one of the few boxers to retire having beat every man he ever faced.

Until Oleksandr Usyk repeated the feat in May, Lewis was the last undisputed heavyweight champion some 25 years ago.

He retired after a stoppage win over Vitali Klitschko in 2003 and has never before been tempted back.

However, in light of his former victim Mike Tyson taking on YouTuber turned professional boxer Jake Paul in November in a fully sanctioned fight that will appear on both men’s records, Lewis has hinted that could change despite him being 58 years old.

Speaking to FOX 29 Philadelphia, he was confident his former foe would take the victory and was then asked if he would like to take on the winner.

“That’s a good question. I hope that Tyson saves a little bit of Jake Paul for me.”

This fight was first scheduled for July but an ulcer flare-up for Tyson delayed things. Since then, Paul has got back in the ring and secured another knockout win, this time over former bare-knuckle boxer and former UFC fighter Mike Perry.

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