Supported by streaming giant Netflix and Jake Paul’s promotion company, Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), the event scheduled for 7 p.m. local time (2 a.m. in Europe) brings Mike Tyson back into the ring, at an advanced age, facing a 27-year-old YouTuber turned boxer, who was therefore not born during the time of his opponent’s splendor.
Many observers, including former American boxing world champion Deontay Wilder, have expressed concern about seeing a nearly sixty-year-old lined up in a professional fight, saying they fear a serious injury.
Tyson had to postpone the fight initially scheduled for July 20, after receiving medical treatment on May 26 aboard a plane in which he complained of nausea and dizziness.
The organizers insist on the professional nature of the fight, contested with the approval of the Texan commission responsible for licensing for boxing fights, for eight 2-minute rounds, instead of the twelve 3-minute rounds often practiced by professionals. Tyson has not boxed professionally since June 2005 and a defeat against Irishman Kevin McBride.
During his tumultuous career that began in 1985, “Iron Mike”, world heavyweight champion, had won 50 victories including 44 by knockout, but had also suffered six defeats, his first in 1990 against James “Buster” Douglas in Tokyo , and two other famous ones against Evander Holyfield in 1996 and 1997.
His last world championship dates back to 2002, in Memphis, where the Briton Lennox Lewis sent him to the mat in the eighth round.
Jake Paul, YouTuber with 20.8 million subscribers, has already fought ten professional fights, winning nine. He had already faced an old ring glory, the American Floyd Mayweather Jr., during an exhibition in June 2021.
Formerly a very popular sport, boxing is struggling to stay in the spotlight, and in recent years there has been an increase in unconventional posters, such as those of Jake Paul, or the clashes between the king of MMA Francis Ngannou and the heavyweights Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
