At 58 years old, Mike Tyson will enter the ring on the night of this Friday to Saturday to challenge Jake Paul (27 years old). An immense challenge which inevitably raises some questions given the advanced age of the former heavyweight world champion.
He had already been world champion for 11 years when Jake Paul was born. While he has not returned to the ring since 2020 and an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr, and his last professional fight dates back to 2005, Mike Tyson decided to put on the gloves again to face the famous YouTuber-boxer in a highly publicized fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington (Texas), on the night of this Friday to this Saturday. At 58 brooms… and with some questions about the risks to his health.
Even if the fight is more entertainment and a marketing stunt, with $20 million in Tyson's pocket, it raises fears of a risk for the physical integrity of the multiple heavyweight world champion. The rules of the fight were somewhat adapted, with the requirement to wear more padded gloves and eight two-minute rounds (instead of the 12 three-minute rounds in force for the world championships). However, knockouts will be permitted and both boxers will not wear head protection. Which could cause serious neurological damage.
At his age, “longer and more random” healing of brain lesions
“When there is a concussion, there is a healing phase. And at his age, it is much longer,” explains Doctor Alain Ducardonnet, health consultant for BFMTV. “The continuation of a blow that we receive is the brain which is crushed towards the front or the back of the bone box. This locally creates a certain number of small lesions which cause cells – neurons – will die. When people are young, the arteries and neurons heal much more quickly. With age, the arteries are much more fragile and healing takes longer and is more unpredictable.
Added to this data are the chronic injuries resulting from his very long career. “Boxers who have taken a lot of blows, like him in the past, all have chronic neurological disorders. We can therefore think that this will accelerate the phenomenon. It is undoubtedly risky for his cerebral state,” adds Alain Ducardonnet.
Faced with such an observation, should Tyson have been prevented from fighting? “There is always a risk in boxing, you have to know that, whether at 54 or even before,” replied Amine Mokhtar Benounnane, doctor at the French Boxing Federation, in 2020 before Tyson's last fight. “Obviously, the older we get, the more the risk will be increased. But you should know that some people aged 54 are sometimes in better physical condition and in better shape than others who are much younger. We had to set an age limit at the French Boxing Federation but we were never able to decide. Giving an age limit is very arbitrary and ultimately means nothing. the physical condition of boxers and their history Some have. taken more hits than others, had fights or even harder training and who could 'age' more quickly too.”
A body damaged by excess and a tormented life
In boxing, resistance is therefore not just a question of age. Whether he is 60 years old, 40 years old or 30 years old, the athlete's past also comes into play. Except that from this point of view, Tyson's experience does not work in his favor either.
Long addicted to alcohol and drugs, “Iron Mike” had a tormented existence. “I'm about to die because I'm a vicious alcoholic,” he confided in 2013. “I'm a vicious addict but I'm treating myself. I'm going to die if I'm not careful. If I don't do this what the books tell me to do, I'm going to die and that's all that's going to happen.”
Long plagued by addictions, he underwent several rehab treatments and weighed up to 172 kilos on the scale. With inevitably after-effects left on a body as damaged as his mind.
“It’s crazy to fight at 58,” summarizes 'Baba', presenter of the podcast Au bord du Call and kickboxing teacher, in the RMC Fighter Club podcast.
“The older you get, the more difficult it is to make efforts like that. A boxing fight requires effort in terms of explosiveness, cardio, muscular resistance. His opponent, him, will hit hard, he will have the cardio and muscular resistance to do two minutes at full speed.” Which will not necessarily be the case for Tyson. “No matter how well prepared he is, his recovery capacity will inevitably be less good,” adds Doctor Alain Ducardonnet. “Levels of oxygen consumption, and therefore energy recovery, decrease significantly with age.”
Episode 294: Mike Tyson-Jake Paul, bad or good for boxing?
Wheelchair overview at the airport in 2022
Four years ago, during his fight against Roy Jones Jr, he appeared sharp and calm, a transformation linked largely to cannabis and a psychedelic substance based on toad venom which changed his vision of life. Except that in 2020, his opponent, aged 51 at the time, was also a veteran, unlike Jake Paul. And that Tyson's physique, which has undergone intensive preparation since March 7 and the official announcement of the fight, has experienced other traumas in recent years.
In 2022, he was seen in a wheelchair in an airport, the fault of nasty chronic sciatica. “I had such humiliating sciatica. Your wife has to help you go to the bathroom, you can't move. It's hard, really hard. As soon as I come out, boom, I falls directly”, he detailed in his podcast Hotboxin.
At the start of this year 2024, this time it was an ulcer which forced him to postpone his fight against Jake Paul, initially scheduled for this summer. “I was on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles when I started coughing up blood. We discovered that I had a large ulcer measuring 5 and a half centimeters,” he assured in the Netflix documentary Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson. A few months later, here he is back on his feet to try to push the limits of his body once again.
Felix Gabory Journalist RMC Sport
